NCAA Basketball: Reevaluating preseason top 25 power rankings of 2022-23 season
By Joey Loose
17. Arizona (28-7, 2-seed, Round of 64)
Many didn’t know exactly what to expect from the Wildcats this season. After last year’s Pac-12 regular season and tournament titles in Tommy Lloyd’s first season in Tucson, the Wildcats were losing a significant amount of talent, namely Bennedict Mathurin and Christian Koloko. Regardless, there were still pieces in place for Arizona to be a great team and they added a few dynamic transfer guards into the mix along with talent in the recruiting class.
Whatever expectations existed for Arizona, they exceeded them early in the year when they won the Maui Invitational. The Wildcats had numerous impressive victories this season, beating Creighton in Maui before wins against Indiana, Tennessee, and UCLA. They had some head-scratching losses in conference play, but managed to win the Pac-12 Tournament again and grabbed a 2-seed in the NCAA Tournament as a result, though that’s where things went sideways.
These Wildcats proved they were still an elite team, but all their hopes went belly up in the Big Dance, dropping their opening game in a shocker against 15-seed Princeton. This performance certainly brings this season to a very disappointing ending, but can you call this season a disappointment? Arizona replaced numerous stars and had a team that was just as great, all until the game that mattered the most sunk their season.