Zona Prove Their Worth

Chase Budinger and the Arizona Wildcats prove they deserved to be in the NCAA Tourney.

One of the big stories before the NCAA Tournament kicked off was the Arizona Wildcats sneaking in as one of the last "Bubble Teams" selected by the committee.

Making it ahead of such teams as West Coast Conference's St Mary's, the Wildcats answered their critics with two solid wins over Utah and Cleveland St to advance to next weekend's Sweet Sixteen round.

Their next opponent is Rick Pitino's Louisville Cardinals.

With non conference wins over Gonzaga and Kansas, while suffering a one point loss to Texas A&M at College Station, their resume looked solid without being eye catching.

On the other hand, St Mary's went 2-2 against top 50 opponents and a question mark hung over Pat Mills and his health leading into the tourney. (Trust me, playing Eastern Washington days before Selection Sunday did not help.)

There is no doubt I would have loved to see the Gaels make the tourney because I'm a WCC guy, and I want to see the conference prosper as much as possible.

But this time round the Selection Committee has got it right. You must reward teams that have played a tougher schedule throughout the year. That is what the Wildcats did.

Hopefully we can see St Mary's play a tougher non conference schedule in the future and there will be no question they deserve their spot in the NCAA Tourney and not have to settle for the N(ot) I(nvited) T(ournement).

- Here is a interesting piece on former Adelaide 36ers Head Coach Mike Dunlap.