The NCAA Tournament bracket has been announced, and the Arizona Wildcats basketball team has been selected as a No. 5 seed. They have been slotted to play the Memphis Tigers, the No. 12 seed out of Conference USA, on Friday in the West region.
Arizona got to the NCAA Tournament by winning the regular season Pac-10 conference title and going 27-7 during the season. UA lost a very tough game to the Washington Huskies in the Pac-10 championship game 77-75 on an Isaiah Thomas buzzer beater.
Memphis earned its way into March Madness by defeating the UTEP Miners in the Conference USA championship game. At 25-9, the Tigers are a balanced team that finished in fourth place in conference play during the regular season.
Arizona will need to continue to play hard in this contest to come out victorious. 5/12 games are notorious trap games, but Memphis is a good matchup for the Wildcats. Of course, Derrick Williams, Arizona's star forward, will need to play at the highest level for this team to pull out a victory against this tough squad.
Should the Wildcats defeat Memphis and advance to the Round of 32, they will face the winner of Texas Longhorns and the Oakland Grizzlies on Sunday.
In the Sweet 16, the Wildcats would likely face No. 1 seed Duke, who is coming off a big win in the ACC Championship today. The elite eight would likely bring either UConn or San Diego State, two very good teams that would be extremely difficult tests for Arizona.
You can get a printable NCAA bracket right here, featuring all of the team blogs that make their home on the SB Nation network. It's perfect for office pools and for playing along with the NCAA Tournament at home.