Wildcat Blues: Why Arizona Should Have Gone to the NIT

Springtime is here, which can mean only one thing: the Wildcats have been eliminated from the NCAA Tournament.

Lute Olson is one of the greatest coaches ever to grace the court—his 781 career wins puts him eighth on the all-time list.  He’s got 11 Pac-10 titles and the most wins in conference history. He built the Wildcats into a national powerhouse, and was rewarded for his effort with a national title in 1997.

But since that scrappy four-seed-knocked-off-three-No. 1s en route to their overtime championship-game upset, Arizona basketball has been marked less by grit and determination, and more by a sense of entitlement.

Over the last decade, Olson’s teams, while impressive on paper, routinely underperform on the court, and often highlight individual prowess at the expense of chemistry, solid teamwork, and most of all, motivation.

This year’s squad was no different than recent years’. Several talented youngsters (Bayless, Budinger, Wise), all came up big in various games throughout the season, but rarely on the same night.

That’s what happened Thursday night.  In the end, the Mountaineers simply wanted it more.  They outworked and outhustled Arizona underneath the basket.  Our players stopped fighting for rebounds—or even position—and over the last ten minutes, WVU closed the game out.

Did it look familiar, Wildcat fans? 

It should have, because seven days earlier, Stanford did the exact same thing to us in the Staples Center.  After about a half-hour of valiant effort, the Cats folded up and went home.

As Olson enters the twilight of his career, he leaves behind no uncertain legacy.  His claim to fame consists of two elements: Zona's success in sending players to the NBA (not an insignificant feat), and its streak of consecutive NCAA tournament appearances, which now stands at 24.

The streak is important to most Wildcat fans, because it’s the closest thing to success that most of us have seen in the new millennium.  As one of my fellow alumni said after our ignominious bow at the Staples Center, “I don’t care, I just wanna keep the streak alive.”

Well, so would we all. The problem is, just making the cut is not in itself a sign of accomplishment.

When a team like Davidson or Cornell manages to claw its way into the postseason, and maybe even wins a game or two, its fans are jubilant—and rightly so. 

But an allegedly top-tier team shouldn’t celebrate simply being competitive in the Top 65.

And when such celebration comes at the expense of tangible accomplishment, the panacea of a meaningless streak can quickly turn into an active exercise in self-denial.

As it stands in 2008—while other schools get the conference titles, the national titles, and respect across the country for their consistently top-notch play—Arizona fades further into memory...a team everyone knows is supposed to be good, but not one that strikes fear into any knowledgeable fan’s heart.

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