It’s that time of year again, where every Arizona men’s basketball supporter anxiously awaits the start of the NCAA Tournament with a mixture of hope and dread. It’s what being a Wildcat fan is all about.
The UA (22-12) has earned the No. 4 seed in the East Region and will open tourney play Friday at 4:35 p.m. PT in Seattle against No. 13 Akron. The Wildcats are big favorites, but that has been the case in the past and still resulted in losses to lower-seeded opponents.
In fact, the last six times Arizona has been knocked out of the NCAA tourney, dating back to 2016, it’s been to a team seeded at least four spots lower. That kind of history is what has kept the Wildcats from advancing past the Sweet 16 since those back-to-back Elite Eight appearances a decade ago.
But maybe this year will be different?
We asked our readers how far the UA would go in the 2025 NCAA Tournament, and the results indicate most fans are expecting the team to get out of the first weekend but not much further.
A very small percentage of voters—you all know someone in this group—think the Wildcats will get bounced by Akron in the first round, and if that happens you know they’ll point out they predicted that back in December when Arizona was 4-5 and looked nothing like a team that would finish third in the Big 12 and then reach the conference tournament finals.
A poll of all SB Nation readers expects the UA to be the team that makes it out of its pod in Seattle and to the East Regional in New Jersey. That aligns with the odds from FanDuel Sportsbook, which has Arizona at -205 to reach the Sweet 16.
SB Nation
Our readers have spoken. Now all that’s left to do is see which ones know ball and which are just haters or dreamers.