Monday, March 2, 2020

Arizona is No. 14 overall seed, per NCAA Tournament selection committee

COLLEGE BASKETBALL: FEB 28 Women’s Stanford at Arizona Photo by Jacob Snow/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

The Wildcats would be hosting if the tournament started today

The Arizona Wildcats are right on the fringe of hosting the first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament as they head to Las Vegas for the Pac-12 Tournament.

The NCAA selection committee released its top 16 overall seeds on Monday for the last time until Selection Monday, and Arizona made the cut at No. 14. The top 16 teams host.

Barely squeaking in to the Top 16, Arizona can do itself a big favor by winning a game or two in the Pac-12 Tournament this week. The fourth-seeded Wildcats will face either No. 5-seed ASU or No. 12 seed Cal on Friday at 1:30 p.m. MST.

Arizona swept ASU during the regular season, but shockingly split with Cal, who upset the Wildcats on Sunday on the final day of the regular season. Had Arizona won that game, it’d probably be a lock to host at this point.

The Wildcats enter the postseason 23-6 overall and 12-6 in conference play. Four of their six losses were to ranked teams, the losses to Cal and Colorado, both of which happened in the last two weeks, being the exception, raising some concern that they letting their guard down at the wrong time.

One reason the selection committee might give Arizona the benefit of the doubt when it comes to hosting is its attendance figures.

The Wildcats averaged 5,944 fans per home game, and last season drew over 14,000 for the WNIT championship game, becoming one of the best draws in the sport.

More butts in seats means more revenue for the NCAA.



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