SEATTLE—By the time Arizona made the decision to leave the Pac-12 for the Big 12 just over 18 months ago, the league was already on its death bed. Oregon helped inflict a mortal wound by joining UCLA, USC and Washington in moving to the Big Ten, basically leaving the Wildcats no choice but to find a new home.
The UA and Oregon played three more times after all the realignment pieces had fallen into place, with Arizona sweeping the regular season series only to see Oregon get revenge in the Pac-12 Tournament. And with no immediate plans to keep that rivalry alive, that meeting in Las Vegas was likely to be their last in a while.
Turns out it wasn’t that long a hiatus.
Fourth-seeded Arizona and 5th-seeded will face off Sunday at 6:40 p.m. PT at Climate Pledge Arena in the second round of the NCAA Tournament. The winner moves on to the Sweet 16 and a (likely) date with No. 1 seed Duke in the East Regional on Thursday in Newark, N.J.
“It is a little weird playing them in the second round of the tournament because it’s a team that you’re used to being a conference rival, and usually you wouldn’t see that until later in the NCAA Tournament,” UA coach Tommy Lloyd said Saturday. “For it to happen earlier, it’s interesting, but it’s a great thing. Anytime you’re in the tournament and whoever you’re playing the next game, you’re excited.”
This will be the 94th meeting between the schools, with Arizona holding a 55-38 lead. Only six have occurred outside of Tucson or Eugene, all in the Pac-10 or Pac-12 tourneys, including the 2017 title game won by Arizona. Last season the Ducks beat the Wildcats 67-59 in the semifinals en route to claiming the tourney and then reached the second round of the NCAA tourney as a No. 11 seed.
“I looked it up; in the last 14 years, we played 27 times,” Oregon coach Dana Altman said. “So it was always a game that we looked forward to. A lot of years we were battling for position in the league for the NCAA Tournament and so forth.”
Arizona and Oregon are two of three former Pac-12 schools to make this year’s NCAA tourney, along with UCLA. That old league is guaranteed to get one team to the Sweet 16 for the sixth straight tournament, but getting further than that has been tough, as while three made it to the Elite Eight in 2021 (with UCLA getting to the Final Four) those are the only appearances past the Sweet 16 for any Pac-12 school since 2017.
“I think us on the west are going to have to fight hard for our place at the table and for our identity because we don’t have a league that’s basically committed to a region of the country,” Lloyd said.
Arizona is a 3.5-point favorite over Oregon, according to FanDuel Sportsbook, while KenPom.com predicts a 78-75 win for the Wildcats, giving them a 62 percent chance at victory.