Arizona Humiliates Pac-10, Tournament, and Themselves

The Arizona Wildcats proved again why the NCAA selection process is flawed. Instead of quality, the NCAA went with a known commodity rather than going with a team more deserving to get into the tournament.

The NCAA never looked into the fact this is a team that was known for giving away big leads (twice against California, silly plays (two intentional fouls in the closing minutes and eventually ended up losing to UAB), and lastly very inconsistent.

Yes, Arizona had some quality wins over UCLA, Gonzaga, Kansas, and Pac-10 champions Washington. Let's put it this way, UCLA and Kansas were not the teams they were last year.

For UCLA players like Russell Westbrook, Kevin Love, and Luc Richard Mbah a Moute. Kansas lost Mario Chalmers and Brandon Rush.

So, it's obvious that even though those games were considered big wins these teams didn't have the talent they've had in previous seasons. The only win that could really be considered was Gonzaga.

This is also the team that was surprised they even made the tournament. A 19-13 record with a 9-9 conference record, and to show for the stretch run losing five of their last six games.

The only thing that got the Wildcats into the tournament, as I mentioned before, was the fact that they've known to be in the tournament for years. In fact, at the time it would have ended a streak of 24 straight appearances, but the NCAA wanted to put them into get it to 25 straight appearances in the tournament.

I can only imagine when Russ Pernell the coach of the Arizona Wildcats got the phone call from the selection committee stating the Wildcats were in. If he truly believed the Wildcats belonged in the tournament, he and his team wouldn't have been surprised about the pick.

What Pernell should have done instead was call back after mulling it over and the celebrations died down and could have stated this:

"We are not a team deserving to be in this tournament. We did not play well down the stretch losing five of six and I believe our team would benefit from playing in the NIT, than the NCAA tournament. The reason being is the team would gain more confidence for next year, rather than have the chance of losing big time in the tournament, and lastly there are more deserving teams than our team."

Of course, no coach is going to do that they would have to be out of their minds to say anything like that, yet the NIT is where the Wildcats belonged.

Now many will argue that they beat the number five seed Utah and beat Cleveland State in the next round. The Wildcats got a break when Cleveland State knocked off Wake Forest, otherwise they would have been knocked out by Wake Forest in a game similar to how Louisville knocked them out.

Yet, we know that Arizona made it through the first two rounds of the tournament. These Wildcats overachieved in the tournament they were a team that should have been knocked out in the first round of the tournament.

Now, onto what happened last night. The Arizona Wildcats had a date with destiny last night and when I mean destiny it was the team too not only knockout the Wildcats, but destroy the Wildcats and the Louisville Cardinals did just that.

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