TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) — Arizona fans were spoiled during the Lute Olson era, a time when the Wildcats became one of the nation's elite programs with four trips to the Final Four and a national championship.
Then came a long wait, one talented team after another coming up just short of the Final Four or, at times, falling flat with unexpected early March Madness exits.
Last year's team, the fifth under coach Tommy Lloyd, had a different vibe, one season ticket holder Mike Myers could see long before March rolled around.
“I was fortunate to go to a practice early in the season,” said Myers, whose family has been Arizona basketball season ticket holders since before McKale Center opened in 1973. "My buddies knew I had gone and they said, ‘What do you think?’ I said, ‘I’m not going to jinx this, but this team looks different.’"
He was right.
Constructed with a blend of talent, size and grit, the Wildcats rolled through a 36-3 season all the way to the Final Four in Indianapolis.
A 25-year wait, finally over.
“In many ways, it generated flashbacks of when we went to four Final Fours in 13 years,” said Myers, who traveled to watch all of Arizona's Final Four appearances in person. “It was just awesome. It was great to see the team succeed.”
The Wildcats were blown out by eventual champion Michigan, but it did little to dampen the excitement from their big breakthrough.
The Wildcats enter this season among the favorites to get back to the Final Four next April in Detroit.
Big man Motiejus Krivas, a preseason AP All-American, and feisty forward Ivan Kharchenkov return from the Final Four team. Lloyd has filled in the rest of the roster with talented transfers and added potential star-in-the-making freshman Caleb Holt.
Always among the hunted, the fifth-ranked Wildcats now have an even bigger target on their backs following last year's Final Four run.
“The first thing with expectations is they’re a privilege — I don’t think you should look at it any other way,” Lloyd said. “The next thing is the sooner you can dissociate from what happened last year and understand this year is its own journey and kind of build from square one I think is the important thing.”
Lloyd is understandably looking forward, but last season's Final Four erased, at least in part, some bad memories for Arizona fans.
Previous coach Sean Miller, now at Texas, was a superb recruiter and routinely had talent-filled teams that fell short.
The 2010-11 team reached the Elite Eight in Miller's second season, but lost to UConn by two. Arizona reached at least the Sweet 16 three straight seasons from 2013-15, yet couldn't break through. The biggest disappointment came in 2014, when the Wildcats lost by two in overtime to Wisconsin, extending their Final Four-less streak.
Arizona went the NCAA Tournament the next three years, but two ended with first-round exits. The second, in 2018, came against Buffalo with a team that included Deandre Ayton, who would become the NBA's No. 1 overall pick a few months later.
“I still have nightmares about Wisconsin,” Myers said. “But the one that really shocked me was the team with Ayton on it. That team was definitely disappointing, especially with the Final Four being in Phoenix. It was kind of like the table was being set. We end up getting the first pick in the NBA and we don’t even get out of the first round.”
The trend continued after Lloyd took over.
Arizona went to the Sweet 16 three times in its first four seasons under the former Gonzaga assistant — wrapped around a 2023 loss to Princeton in the first round — yet couldn't seem to get past the NCAA Tournament's second weekend.
The Wildcats finally pulled it off last year, ending their fans' long Final Four wait.
With a loaded team, they're hoping to make it two straight this season, something not even Olson could pull off.
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