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Arizona will make its 25th consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance and will open play in the Midwest region.

By Richard Paige, Arizona Athletics
March 18, 2009

No. 12 seed Arizona (19-13, 9-9 Pac-10) makes its 25th consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance and will open play in the Midwest region.

The Wildcats face No. 5 seed Utah (24-9, 12-4 MWC) Friday in the first round at the American Airlines Arena. The UA has a 41-26 (.612) record in its 27 previous NCAA Tournament appearances

The Utes enter the game with a 24-9 record (12-4 MWC) following Saturday's 52-50 win over San Diego State in the Mountain West Conference Tournament title game. As a team, Utah shoots 47.6 percent from the field, including 37.6 percent from three-point range, while averaging 71.2 points per game. 

Opponents shoot at a 40.1 percent clip and are averaging 64.0 points per game. Four Ute players average in double figures, led by Luke Nevill's 16.9 ppg figure. Nevill leads the team with a 9.1 rebounds per game average.

Friday's game is the 49th meeting of the two schools with Utah holding a 28-20 series advantage. Arizona captured the last two meetings in the series, which dates back to Dec. 21, 1953. 

All-time, Arizona is 13-8 in series games played in Tucson, 6-19 in Salt Lake City, Utah, and 1-1 in neutral-site games. 

This will be Arizona's first NCAA Tournament appearance as a No. 12 seed. It is the lowest seed for the program since seeding was introduced to the tournament in 1985. On the flip side, the Wildcats are 5-0 when playing a No. 5 seed with the last win coming in 2003.

This is Arizona's 25th consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance, which is the longest active streak and second longest tournament appearance streak in NCAA history. The streak trails only North Carolina, which made 27 straight appearances from 1975-2001. 

While it's true that Arizona heads into its 25th consecutive NCAA Tournament, but even more impressive is the fact that the Cats have accomplished the feat with three different coaches in the last three seasons. 

In NCAA Division I tournament history, Arizona becomes the third program to make three consecutive appearances with three different head coaches. 

Arizona enters play looking for its 20th win of the season. If the squad is able to do that, it would be the 31st 20-win season in school history and the 21st in the last 22 seasons.

Since the start of the 1984-85 season, Arizona has averaged 24.8 wins per season. The program has also won 39 NCAA Tournament games in that span.

Look no further than Arizona's "Big Three" of Chase Budinger, Jordan Hill and Nic Wise for offensive productivity, as the trio has tallied 1,631 of the Wildcats' 2,310 points scored in 2008-09. That's 70.6 percent of the offense. The UA is 6-0 this season when each of the Big Three score 15 or more points.

Should Nic Wise score 16 points before Arizona's tournament run comes to an end, that would vault the 2008-09 club into elite company. Wise enters Friday's game just 16 points shy of 500 for the season, which would give the Cats three 500-point scorers this season. 

That's a feat that hasn't been reached since 1997-98, when Michael Dickerson (630), Mike Bibby (603) and Miles Simon (601) each scored more than 500 points in a single season. 

Forward Jordan Hill enters the NCAA Tournament with per-game averages of 18.5 points and 11.0 rebounds, figures that rank second in the Pac-10 Conference.  Should Hill end the season with double-figure averages in both categories, he would become the first Wildcat to do so since Larry Demic averaged 19.3 points and 10.3 rebounds per game in 1978-79. 

Although Arizona was 2-9 while on the road this season, the Wildcats did post a record of 3-1 record neutral-site games this season. In addition to last week's brief stay at the Pacific Life Pac-10 Tournament, Arizona won two N.I.T. Season Tip-Off consolation games in Athens, Ga., in November and knocked off then-No. 4 Gonzaga in Phoenix. 

A win over Utah moves Arizona into Saturday's second round against the Wake Forest/Cleveland State winner. Game time is TBA.