It truly was a remarkable streak.
As a 26-year-old, I have never lived in a world where the University of Arizona Wildcats stayed home during the NCAA Tournament.
Until this week.
I don’t want to wax poetic too much about my alma mater (obviously I sort of am, but I'll try not to get to poetic or waxy) but staying consistently good enough to be in the premier post season tournament for your sport 25 years in a row is pretty impressive.
In college, I had the opportunity to cover the Arizona basketball team for the 2004-05 season for the Daily Wildcat (best newspaper job I ever had and it’s not even close). It was the last year the Wildcats made any sort of deep run in the tourney. It was the last season, before things started to fall apart for the program and Lute Olson.
It was the opportunity of a lifetime for me. I was fortunate enough to travel with the team all the way through to the Elite 8 in Chicago, and save for a ridiculous performance by Deron Williams and Illinois in the final minutes of regulation and overtime I would have gone to the Final Four (oh yeah, and save for an EPIC implosion by Arizona. Click here for my take on it. Please be nice. I was still in college). The team had Channing Frye and Hassan Adams, both eventually drafted by the NBA.
In covering the team for a season, I couldn’t help but think it was a good time for Lute to walk away (everyone in Tucson simply calls him Lute, so I will too). The rigors of coaching are tough on someone in their 40s, let alone their 70s.
If he had retired that season, it probably would have turned out differently. But you know what they say about hindsight. The next season he was dealing with marital problems, and then later, health problems that forced him to retire. There was even some NCAA violations reported this year that occurred under Lute.
What’s sad is, the program he single-handedly put on the map, he also was responsible for bringing about its demise.
In past seasons, I thought watching the team was frustrating, because it had a wealth of talent but was inconsistent with its effort. I never felt that way about this season or even embarrassed that the Wildcats were left out of not only the NCAA Tournament but the NIT too. I felt like they were the doing the best with the situation they were given, which makes for a much more enjoyable, likeable team.
The program will be fine, and I think Sean Miller is building something good in Tucson (thank goodness the program avoided that Tim Floyd mess).
So, here is my bracket. My Arizona-less bracket:
Tournament Challenge
But don’t worry. The Wildcats will be back. Very soon.
Happy March Madness everyone!
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