A few thoughts on tonight’s debacle by Arizona in March Sadness…
Zero Final Four appearances for the Arizona Wildcats during the Sean Miller era will remain intact for another year. Thursday night, the #4 seed Wildcats showed very little fight in the opening round of March Madness, laying down to #13 seed Buffalo 89-68. The game wasn’t as close as the final score would indicate. To say that this was a mismatch would be an understatement. Yes, the Selection Committee did screw up the seeding of this game…both ways…
The final result has nothing to do with the poor showing by the Pac-12 in postseason play(embarrassing actually), It has nothing to do with Arizona beating Arizona State during the regular season. This has EVERYTHING to do with Sean Miller building teams around 1 and done players, who don’t get the program into the place that Arizona fans have come to expect from the Lute Olson era. 0 Final Fours in 9 years, while landing DeAndre Ayton, Lauri Markannen, Stanley Johnson, etc, etc, for an eight to ten month stop-over before heading on to the NBA. Even the biggest Arizona apologists can’t sugar-coat away what is going in with the basketball program. They just got worked over by a#13 seed from Buffalo in the first round of the NCAA Tourney.
Kevin Sumlin starts spring workouts next Monday in Tucson. Who would’ve thought the basketball program, with perhaps the #1 overall player in the upcoming NBA Draft, would be a 1 and done on the court before St. Patricks Day.