Bear Down Wildcats

Arizona vs. Oregon, 11 p.m. ET

Arizona finally beat a recent conference tournament nemesis, UCLA, and is (amazingly) seeking its first tournament title since 2002.

It's looking like some of that Lute Olson dominance is returning. Brandon Ashley (24 points) had his best game as a Wildcat, and it'll be intriguing to see if Oregon can handle another defensive slog, or another highly emotional game. The Ducks' Joseph Young broke a tie score with Utah with a second left for a 67-64 win late Friday night.

This will be the most hotly contested championship game as far as winning streaks. Oregon has won seven in a row, while UA hasn't lost in more than a month—a span of 10 games.

Ashley and Young will be fun to watch. They have been on recent net-burning tears but were pretty quiet against each other's teams (Arizona won both easily).

Prediction:

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2395 ... mes/page/9

Longhorned wrote:But I don't think there's a 1-seed out there that wants Arizona as a 2-seed.

Absolutely. Some fanbase is going to be super pissed they got shipped two time zones to potentially take on the best 2 seed in their own backyard.

6 teams fighting for 3 #1s.

All have legitimate arguments.... And frankly all are deserving

#1 concern..... Don't be in Kentucky region
# 2..... Be in west
#3.... Hope teams that play mainly a zone D aren't in our region
#4... Be a # 1 seed

A win tonight assures us of the 1st 2... The rest is out of our hands

I would like nothing more than to be a #2 in the West with Duke as our #1

AZ should want nothing to do with Duke or 'Tucky until the final 4.

Espns bpi right now shows us at four and the zags at five.

I'd take us as the west one, zags as west two and someone like Norte dame, unc, Kansas as the three.

Salty wrote:AZ should want nothing to do with Duke or 'Tucky until the final 4.

Of all the 1s and 2s Duke scares me the least as a matchup against Arizona

Duke is not making the Final Four. They just don't get enough stops.

baconus66 wrote:

Salty wrote:AZ should want nothing to do with Duke or 'Tucky until the final 4.

Of all the 1s and 2s Duke scares me the least as a matchup against Arizona

Same here. Okafor will have a hard time against Zeus, although he will still get his 18 or so. Just do what ND did, shut down the Duke guards.

Duke's entire defense is a white flag.

Longhorned wrote:Duke's entire defense is a white flag.

Or a red cape.

Alieberman wrote:6 teams fighting for 3 #1s.

All have legitimate arguments.... And frankly all are deserving

#1 concern..... Don't be in Kentucky region
# 2..... Be in west
#3.... Hope teams that play mainly a zone D aren't in our region
#4... Be a # 1 seed

A win tonight assures us of the 1st 2... The rest is out of our hands

Succinctly sums up my view.

i actually kind of like joe loon's most recent bracket:


kentucky - ku as the 1&2 in the midwest? with l'ville as the 4 seed?
'tah-byu 5-12 in the first round?

uva possibly taking on both miller brothers?
possible Arizona - xavier match in the second round?
Arizona playing at staples in the regionals?

wichita state and baylor in duke's quadrant?
sdsu-wisconsin second round?

i know this is all for naught, since the brackets will invariably shift between now and SS, but - YES, PLEASE! looks hella fun!

Please make that happen

Chicat wrote:

Longhorned wrote:Duke's entire defense is a white flag.

Or a red cape.

I like our matchups with Duke.

Okafor/Tarc. OK either gets timid or fouls out. Tarc is a perfect D-type for OK. Still, an advantage to Duke.

Cook/TJ. Cook has grown immensely this year, but Teej the better distributor and leader. TJ hopefully stops him, and gets D spells by York and if necessary, RHJ.

Jones(or Cook)/York, Pitts. Jones, but interesting possibilities. If Jones gets hot from the perimeter and/or in the lanes, watch out. RHJ to the rescue hopefully(how many responsibilities will RHJ have?

Jefferson/Jones. Terrific advantage to Stanley.

Winslow/RHJ,Brash. Whew. Winslow probably the best player on the court. RHJ clearly! the best defender. But RHJ may be needed with Cook or Jones, in which case I think Brash can almost hold his own and with an aggressive O game and put Winslow into foul trouble.

Intangibles. Coaching---K? Naw, I give it to CSM.

Fans? Is that a serious question?

I'm about as optimistic about UAs final4 chances as I was at the beginning of the year. As UCLA ASU and OrST illustrated, any crap RPI 100+ team can hold this offense scoreless for long stretches by employing a simple zone D.

What was the drought vs UCLA in the 1H? Seven minutes without a single point an 4 missed threes in a row at one point? Year after year the same problem with the offense.That's the real ceiling for CSM

Yea but defense will keep us in those kind of games until we figure it out, just like last night. I think SJ has a great run in the tourney and RHJ just locks down the top scorers from the other team on perimeter.

Have to see the brackets like I have thought all year, we will once again play in a great 8 game

Every team has scoring droughts. Literally every one. It's how you recover from them that delineates winners from losers.

Irish27 wrote:http://www.cbssports.com/collegebasketb ... _jerrypalm

That was taped before the Kansas loss.

So we gonna get screwed again? wisky better win by 20

Which 1 seed wants Arizona as their 2 seed?

Arizona did what they needed too for a no 1 seed.

I doubt we get it though.

ASUHATER! wrote:I doubt we get it though.

You still wish we could trade a few of our starters for some of those Cal State Northridge players?

Longhorned wrote:

ASUHATER! wrote:I doubt we get it though.

You still wish we could trade a few of our starters for some of those Cal State Northridge players?

Won the championship with style points. Give us the 1 seed.

Calm down. Nothing to do with me, my statement was an indictment of the east coast bias

AZCatGirl wrote:Won the championship with style points. Give us the 1 seed.

I'm in agreement but I still want to see what Wisky does.

Don't care where we are placed

I fucking love this team

Bring it on

South: Kentucky/Virginia
East: Duke/Gonzaga
Midwest: Wisky/Kansas
West: Villanova/Arizona

Is my dream scenario

Alieberman wrote:Don't care where we are placed

I fucking love this team

Bring it on

Hell yeah Alieb.

CalStateTempe wrote:South: Kentucky/Virginia
East: Duke/Gonzaga
Midwest: Wisky/Kansas
West: Villanova/Arizona

Is my dream scenario

Kentucky is locked into the Midwest.

South: Duke/Gonzaga
East: Villanova/Virginia
Midwest: Kentucky/Iowa St.
West: Wisky/Arizona

ASUHATER! wrote:Calm down. Nothing to do with me, my statement was an indictment of the east coast bias

I know. I was asking a non-sequitur.

If Wisconsin wins they probably get it over us. Kentucky and Villanova are locks as 1s. Us, Wisconsin, Virginia and sort of duke(i think duke is almost locked as a 2 since they didn't win either conference title and we won tonight) fight it out for the last 1s. We are big msu fans tomorrow

CalStateTempe wrote:South: Kentucky/Virginia
East: Duke/Gonzaga
Midwest: Wisky/Kansas
West: Villanova/Arizona

Is my dream scenario

South:Duke/Kansas
East: Wisconsin/Virginia
Midwest: Kentucky/Gonzaga
West: Villanova/Arizona

Wisky travels well.

So many good teams this year. This could be one hell of a tournament.

CalStateTempe wrote:

CalStateTempe wrote:South: Kentucky/Virginia
East: Duke/Gonzaga
Midwest: Wisky/Kansas
West: Villanova/Arizona

Is my dream scenario

South:Duke/Kansas
East: Wisconsin/Virginia
Midwest: Kentucky/Gonzaga
West: Villanova/Arizona

Wisky travels well.

wtf does kansas get a 2 seed for? losing today?

Miller presser right now on Pac-12.xom

rgdeuce wrote:So we gonna get screwed again? wisky better win by 20

Again?

gumby wrote:

rgdeuce wrote:So we gonna get screwed again? wisky better win by 20

Again?

I'm trying to remember when Arizona was ever screwed on tourney seeding. I may be wrong, but I don't think it has ever happened.

We were screwed 2 years ago. Got a 6 seed when almost everyone thought we were a 3/4

ASUHATER! wrote:We were screwed 2 years ago. Got a 6 seed when almost everyone thought we were a 3/4

We also probably shouldn't have made the tournament at all in 2009

Wasnt referring to a previous seeding, again as in like the conference and national awards

I don't see how Duke or Virginia gets a no. 1 seed over Arizona.

Someone tell me the last time a team was a #1 seed that didn't win either conference regular season or tournament title, and I'll believe that it can happen.

If you can't win your conference, how can you be one of the four best teams in the country?

'ZONA97 wrote:Someone tell me the last time a team was a #1 seed that didn't win either conference regular season or tournament title, and I'll believe that it can happen.

If you can't win your conference, how can you be one of the four best teams in the country?

Exactly!

HiCat wrote:

'ZONA97 wrote:Someone tell me the last time a team was a #1 seed that didn't win either conference regular season or tournament title, and I'll believe that it can happen.

If you can't win your conference, how can you be one of the four best teams in the country?

Exactly!

I agree wholeheartedly, but there are certain teams that are regularly overseeded. Duke and Kansas come to mind, which make their inevitable tourney early exits all the more enjoyable.