The 2011 Pac-10 Tournament bracket has been finalized, and the men's games begin on Wednesday evening with a matchup between Oregon State and Stanford.
The Arizona Wildcats (25-6, 14-4) won the regular season title in the Pac-10 and have earned the #1 seed in the tournament. ASU (12-18, 4-14) is slated to play the Oregon Ducks on Wednesday after the conclusion of the OSU/Stanford game.
Both teams enter the conference tournament after sweeping the Oregon schools at home over the past weekend, and confidence is at a high for both squads. After defeating Oregon 90-82 on Saturday afternoon, the Wildcats claimed their first Pac-10 regular season title since 2004-05 and placed an exclamation mark on a very solid season.
SB Nation's ASU and UA blogs are both buzzing about the tournament. First, lets look at House Of Sparky:
Arizona State is playing well, despite their poor record. The seniors refused to hang their heads and let this season continue to spiral downward; rather, they took care of business against teams that shouldn't win road games in conference play. Despite this effort, the Devils are still the 10th seed in the Pac-10 Tournament, and have drawn the Oregon Ducks, who occupy the 7th seed. What should we expect on Wednesday evening? In a word, victory.
Over at AZ Desert Swarm, the Pac-10 champs are riding high with head coach Sean Miller:
Miller has the respect of his team and Arizona has become exactly that -- a team. Williams (14 points) didn't attempt a shot until there was 13:22 left in the first half, and it came off of an offensive rebound.
Instead, the sure lottery pick sat back and watched Kyle Fogg (20 points) drill his first three triples. He paved the way for Horne to get off a few early shots in his last game in McKale. Five players finished in double figures, and even Kyryl Natyazhko scored six points and grabbed four boards.
This win was about more than just sending off Horne with a victory, cutting down the nets or giving the Wildcats their 12th Pac-10 title. It's about Arizona basketball returning to prominence for years and years to come.
After the game Miller addressed the crowd by saying, "This isn't our first Pac-10 championship, and it isn't going to be the last either."
We'll be covering the Pac-10 Tournament in depth, so keep checking back for updates and news.