Basketball Tournament is Set

Photo Credit: NCAA

 By Francisco Romero

Fill out your brackets; the field of 68 teams is set and so millions of college basketball fans around the country.  The Arizona Wildcats were placed as the No. 1 Seed in the West Region.

The other No. 1 seeds belong to the Florida, Wichita State and Virginia.  Florida was the top team in the field.

The last time Arizona was given a No. 1 seed was back in 2003; that year the Wildcats lot to Kansas in in the Elite Eight.

Overall the Pac – 12 Conference is taking six teams to the Big Dance: UCLA, Colorado, Stanford, Oregon and ASU along with Arizona. 

The Wildcats will face Weber St. in its first match-up. UCLA, the Pac – 12 Tournament Champions, as a No. 4 seed will face Tulsa a 13 seed; Colorado a No. 8 seed will face Pittsburgh a No. 9 seed; Oregon a No. 7 seed will face BYU as a No.  10 seed and Arizona State as a 10 seed will meet up against No. 7 seed Texas.

UCLA beat Arizona in the conference’s championship game Saturday 75-71.

“Having the number one seed doesn’t guarantee us anything, but we have to take advantage of the seed given and really perform well,” mentioned Arizona’s Head Coach Sean Miller right after the Wildcats were announced as the No. 1 seed in the West Region.

“There’s no feeling like it… it’s hard to describe… You have a pretty good sense of where things stand because it’s now so covered… Every body scrutinizes every detail but until your name actually appears up there, you wait in anticipation. When it finally goes up it’s an incredibly good feeling,” said Arizona State’s Head Coach Herb Sendek during a press conference late Sunday afternoon. 

Louisville, last year’s champion were given a No. 4 seed in the tournament.