In the ESPN.com recap of the third round contest between Arizona and Ohio State, Wildcats coach Sean Miller is quoted: “We won our way.”
Really, there’s no better way to describe how the Pac-12 ‘cats pushed through to oust the Buckeyes–who booted them from tournament play a couple years back–and punched their ticket to the Sweet Sixteen.
In a tourney full of crazy calls and even crazier upsets, the No.2 seed displayed what has kept them in the conversation with other big teams in the country: Good defense, even better rebounding, and the ability to adjust and find holes in the opposition.
Sure, Arizona led their conference in points per game off turnovers, but outscoring OSU 20-7 in that manner on Saturday was something to marvel at.
Almost as much of a marvel at the off night freshman phenom D’Angelo Russell was having, shooting a measley 3-of-19 from the floor.
But, it was really the Wildcats ability to get better as the game went on. While their start wasn’t as aggressive, UA found ways to get through Ohio’s stout defense, cutting into a six point lead and never looking back.
The performance showed that Arizona has that lil’ somethin’ that could take them deeper into the tournament. Whispers are already floating around about a rematch with Big 10 juggernaut Wisconcin, who gave UA the boot in regionals last year.
First things first though: Thursday’s contest against Xavier. The Musketeers are coming off a 76-57 win over Ole Miss where they dominated the court from all fassets. It will be interesting–and I only use “interesting” because it’s a nice broad term that can cover many different storylines–to see how they prepare for a team in a dominant position such as Arizona.
For the Wildcats, it’s just about keeping to the formula that boosted them over Ohio State. That should be a good recipe to continue “winning their way” through tournament play.
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*Section Photo credit to Christian Petersen, Getty Images; Featured Photo (above) credit to Kyle Terada, USA Today Sports
