NCAA basketball in Tucson has officially been revived by coach Sean Miller. The Arizona Wildcats (25-6, 14-4) locked up the Pac-10 regular season conference championship today after defeating the Oregon Ducks 90-82. This was their first conference title since 2004-05, and is a sweet moment for a school that had fallen so far in the past few seasons.
Kyle Fogg led the team with 20 points, and Derrick Williams added 14 in the winning effort. Arizona will return to the NCAA Tournament in 2011 after their 25-season streak ended in 2010. With the win, the Wildcats secured the No. 1 seed in the Pac-10 Tournament this week, and have greatly improved their profile for Selection Sunday.
Arizona has now won 12 Pac-10 titles, moving into third place on the all-time list (UCLA leads the league with 30 titles, and California has achieved the top mark 15 times). Both Stanford and Oregon State have won the conference 11 times.
In the end, it was consistency that won out for the Wildcats in 2010-11. While most of the Pac-10 conference failed to win on a regular basis, Arizona defeated the inferior teams and didn't let pesky squads like ASU, California or Stanford get in their way. That's how you win a conference, by executing against the teams that can't match up to your talent.
For more coverage on this exciting moment in Arizona basketball history, check out AZ Desert Swarm for all your Wildcat needs.