In winning the Pac-12 tournament, Arizona shows it's peaking at the right time
LAS VEGAS — Thirty-five days after suffering a humbling 27-point loss at Oregon, Arizona drove home an unmistakable message in Saturday’s high-stakes rematch.
This isn’t the same Wildcats team as the one that got run off the floor in Eugene.
No longer is Allonzo Trier shaking off the rust after serving a 19-game suspension. No longer is Lauri Markkanen mired in a frustrating shooting slump. No longer are injuries and absences hampering Arizona’s defensive continuity.
For the first time all season, the Wildcats are full-strength, healthy and clicking, and the results are a sight to behold.
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In front of a roaring, chanting, red-clad crowd at the T-Mobile Center, the Wildcats avenged their worst loss of the season, holding off a spirited Oregon rally to win Saturday night’s Pac-12 title game. The top-seeded Ducks sliced a 14-point second-half deficit to two in the final minute behind the indomitable will of conference player of the year Dillon Brooks, but Arizona made enough critical defensive stops down the stretch to hold on for an 83-80 victory.
“Great teams get better as the season goes, and we’ve definitely turned the corner,” Arizona point guard Parker Jackson-Cartwright said. “We’ve turned the corner in a big way. We’ve been resilient through adversity. Guys have stepped up, our leaders have led and everything is coming together. It’s exciting to see.”
The biggest reason Arizona was able to build a double-digit second-half lead was the scoring ability of Trier, who exceeded 19 points for the seventh consecutive game. The sophomore guard finished with 23 points on only 12 shots because of his ability to knock down jump shots, attack the rim and get to the foul line.
Five other Arizona players scored at least eight points, but it was the Wildcats’ defense that came through with the game on the line.
When Tyler Dorsey careened up court in transition with Oregon within four and one minute to go, Kadeem Allen stepped in front of him and held his ground for a crucial charge. The deficit was still four when the Wildcats harassed Brooks into missing a heavily contested, off-balance 3-pointer and forced Dorsey into another errant attempt from behind the arc.
Arizona’s victory might have come a bit easier had Markkanen and Jackson-Cartwright not both missed two free throws apiece in the final two minutes. But the Wildcats persevered to capture their second Pac-12 tournament title in three years.
“We’ve dealt with adversity and obstacles as much as almost any group I’ve been part of, and yet we’ve been able to continue to climb and grow,” Arizona coach Sean Miller said. “You always hope that it comes together for you in March. Right now, that’s really what happened.”
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Brushing aside fellow Pac-12 heavyweights UCLA and Oregon on back-to-back nights could boost Arizona (30-4, 16-2) into the No. 1 seed discussion, but it’s a long shot the Wildcats land on the top seed line.
Villanova and Kansas are etched in stone as No. 1s, Duke and North Carolina both have twice as many RPI top 50 wins and Gonzaga also has the stronger resume. The Zags have the same number of top 50 wins as the Wildcats, three fewer losses and a head-to-head victory on a neutral floor back in December.
But if winning the Pac-12 tournament merely nets Arizona the No. 2 seed in the geographically friendly West region, that’s still a significant reward. That would mean a potentially favorable path to the Final Four that would go from either Sacramento or Salt Lake City to San Jose to Phoenix.
Arizona’s star-crossed history in Elite Eight games in Anaheim is proof that staying out West certainly doesn’t guarantee a Final Four trip, but recent history suggests it’s certainly a better option than being jettisoned to another region.
Since 2006, Pac-12 teams are 10-6 in the West Regional semifinals and finals and 1-11 in other regional semifinals or finals. Oregon provided the lone win back in 2007 when it beat fellow Western power UNLV in the Midwest Regional semifinals in Saint Louis.
“At the end of the day, whatever seed we get, it’s about us being the most ready,” Miller said. “We as a team have to play great and build on what we did here.”
Arizona has Final Four potential if it can perform at the level it did in Las Vegas the next couple weeks. The Wildcats survived a 31-point onslaught from Colorado’s Derrick White in the quarterfinals, stifled UCLA’s prolific offense in the semifinals and survived Oregon’s ferocious comeback bid in the title game.
The last time Oregon and Arizona met, the Ducks did everything right and the Wildcats did everything wrong.
In the rematch between the Pac-12’s regular season co-champs, it was Arizona that avenged its previous loss, proved it’s a different team now and left with conference bragging rights.
“We have a lot of momentum going into the NCAA tournament, but we also know no game is going to be easy,” Allen said. “We just have to get ready to fight in March.”
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Jeff Eisenberg is the editor of The Dagger on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at daggerblog@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
