The University of Arizona Men’s Basketball team was ranked 16th in the NCAA Division 1 standings posted on March 7th.
The Wildcats will enter the NCAA Tournament with an overall record of 27-2 and a Pac-10 conference record of 14-4. After a surprising loss to the University of Washington, the Wildcats will enter the NCAA Tournament as the No. 5 seed.
The Wildcat’s Season
The Wildcats are making their first trip back to the NCAA Tournament since the 2009 season. They will face the No. 12 seed Memphis in an attempt to make it one step closer to the NCAA Championship.
With a loss to the University of Washington, Arizona was forced to wait for Selection Sunday to determine their fate. Arizona was up with seconds remaining on the clock when a Washington player scored a three-pointer to tie it up and send the game into overtime. The real excitement came with seconds left on the clock in overtime.
Arizona was up, but a last second fade-away from Washington put the Huskies up and Pac-10 Champions. The Wildcats are will take their lessons learned and hunger to win into their next game against Memphis. Sean Miller leads as Head Coach, but depends on Derrick Williams, Lamont Jones, and Kyle Fogg.
About The Team
Sean Miller is in his second year at Arizona as the Head Coach. When he first took over the program he only had six players. He was able to add another eight, including Player of the Year Derrick Williams. He is building a program worthy of making it to the NCAA Tournament. He went from a 16-15 record last year to 27-2 this year. He was also named Pac-10 Coach of the Year. Miller has guided Arizona to its 12th Pac-10 Championship and an eight-game win streak.
Sophomore Derrick Williams was named PAC-10 Player of the Year and Second Team All-America. Williams averages 18.8 points per game and 8.2 rebounds per game and has started every game of the season. He has scored in double figures 30 times, had 10 double-doubles and has the two highest single-game rebounding totals in the Pac-10 (19 at Washington State and 18 at California).
Sophomore Lamont Jones was also named to the All-Conference team. He averages 9.6 points, 1.5 rebounds, and 2.5 assists per game. Junior Kyle Fogg was named to the All-Defensive team and averaged 8.4 points, 1.8 rebounds, and 2.7 assists per game.
About The School
The University of Arizona is located in Tucson, AZ and is known as a public research university. The university strives to engage students in discovery through research and broad-based scholarship.
Arizona was recently ranked 16th by the National Science Foundation and faculty on campus range from Nobel and Pulitzer Prize winners to members of esteemed national academies to world-renown experts. There are over 38,000 students that attend the University of Arizona and can choose from over 300 undergraduate and graduate degrees through 20 colleges and 11 schools.
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