Arizona crushes Oregon for Pac-12 title
One of life’s lessons that college basketball coaches try to teach their players is worry about things you can control and don’t waste time and energy on things beyond your control.
However Sean Miller says it to his Arizona players, they get the message.
The Wildcats, who have been flirting with one of the four No. 1 seeds that will be handed out today for the NCAA Tournament, haven’t made a public issue over their validity as being top-seed worthy. Instead, they put all of their energy and concentration into beating Oregon 80-52 and winning the Pacific 12 Conference Tournament championship Saturday night before a sellout crowd of 12,916 at the MGM Grand Garden.
It was the first tournament title for Arizona since 2002 when Lute Olson was the coach and the conference was the Pac-10. And it had to feel rewarding for Miller and his players. They had been close to climbing the ladder to cut down the nets three times in the past four years.
On Saturday, it was Arizona’s turn. The Wildcats, who are ranked No. 5 in the nation and were the top seed in Las Vegas, had handled Oregon easily in their two regular-season meetings. On Jan. 8, the Wildcats won at Eugene, Ore., 80-62, then 90-56 in the return game in Tucson, Ariz., on Jan. 28.
It wasn’t much different the third time around. Oregon started well, leading 10-4. But Arizona quickly regrouped, and the Wildcats put together a 14-0 run in a 4:22 span to lead 18-10. Later in the half, Rondae Hollis-Jefferson and Gabe York hit back-to-back 3-point field goals as the Wildcats increased the lead to 32-17.
By halftime, Arizona (31-3) led 36-21, and the Wildcats were dominating in every facet.
Oregon (25-9), the No. 2 seed, made a belated second-half run, as senior guard Joseph Young scored 10 of his team-high 19 points to pull the Ducks within 55-42 with 11:26 to play.
But Young, the Pac-12’s Player of the Year, was unable to beat the Wildcats by himself, and Arizona not only withstood the charge from Oregon, it also extended its lead to 20 — 67-47 with 7:19 to go.
The Wildcats, who had a 37-20 rebounding edge and outscored the Ducks 36-18 in the paint, would lead by as many as 31, with 3:04 remaining.
Led by junior Brandon Ashley, freshman Stanley Johnson and senior T.J. McConnell, Arizona closed out a successful week at the Grand Garden. Ashley, who starred at Findlay Prep, had 20 points, Johnson scored 14, and McConnell had 12 points and six assists. Ashley was named the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player.
The Pac-12 figures to get three teams into the NCAA Tournament when the 68-team field is announced today, as Oregon and Utah expect to join Arizona.
The question is whether UCLA (20-13) did enough to convince the selection committee it belongs. The Bruins’ problem was that when Wyoming won the Mountain West tournament on Saturday at the Thomas &Mack Center, it took a spot that would have gone to an at-large team, as San Diego State went from an automatic qualifier had it won to an at-large.
So UCLA, along with Indiana, Boise State, Louisiana State, Mississippi and Old Dominion, are going to be doing a lot of praying before the field is announced.
Miller said after his team beat UCLA 70-64 in Friday’s semifinals that the Bruins were worthy of inclusion. That’s understandable that he would go to bat for his league.
But he can’t worry about that any more than he can worry about where his team will be seeded today, what region it will be placed in and whom it will face in its first game.
Contact reporter Steve Carp at scarp@reviewjournal.com or 702-528-2790. Follow him on Twitter: @stevecarprj.
