It’s the eve of the 2010 NCAA Men’s basketball tournament and for the first time since I can remember my beloved Arizona Wildcats will not be playing. After 25 straight years of being invited to the Big Dance the Wildcats consecutive tourney appearances came to a crashing halt.
The future of the program looks to be in good hands with Coach Sean Miller but with the Wildcats season ending so soon it seems natural to reflect on the tremendous success of years past and how much the Wildcats were ingrained on a kid from Tucson.
The earliest I can recall being a Wildcat come from attending Arizona football games with family friends. We’d eat Eegees on the lawn before the game then during the game we’d have our own pickup football games on the field just North of the stadium. I remember the buzz of the people, the lights, the grass and ice cream headaches from drinking my Eegees too fast.
It wasn’t until 1988 my Freshman year of high school that I truly became an Arizona basketball fan. The team was experiencing its greatest success and the threesome of Steve Kerr, Kenny Lofton and local boy Sean Elliott could do no wrong. It’s that year when I realized what the Final Four was all about and I was torn up when they lost to Oklahoma.
Following years delivered huge highs as Arizona swept through the regular season but early round defeats to Alabama, UNLV and Santa Clara are what stick with me most.
I still remember the players from those teams and reveling in the 3-pointers from Steve Kerr, scrappiness of Jud Buechler, excitement of Khalid Reeves and pure speed of Damon Stoudamire. Lute could recruit from across the country and seeing Khalid Reeves first play really made me fall in love with the game. He and Jason Kidd (from Cal) showed me the beauty and excitement in basketball.
Of course 1997 was a banner year for the program and I had just graduated from Arizona the previous semester but nothing was going to stop me from joining the masses on West 4th. Thank you Mike Bibby and Miles Simon.
Much has been written about the trials and tribulations of the program since Lute Olson left but the program has never been the same since they lost in the Elite 8 to Illinois in overtime in 2005. That loss was crushing and I think Lute never recovered.
Moving on without the Wildcats in the tournament has been strange as I typically fill in a heart and head bracket but this year I really have no favorite. Maybe I just don’t like college basketball that much unless the Wildcats are playing? Maybe it’s just time for me to grow up.
Thanks Wildcats past and present for all the great memories. You mean more to the city and people of Tucson than you will ever know.
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