He's finally done it. Sean Miller has finally won his first PAC-12 Tournament Championship since he took over the program as his squad demolished the Oregon Ducks by a score of 80-52 at the MGM Grand Arena.
Joseph Young scored Oregon's first five points of the night but then went extremely cold from the field. Luckily, Oregon was still able to score early on as they raced out to a 10-4 lead over Arizona. But the Wildcats would catch fire and go on a big 15-0 run capped off by a Stanley Johnson jumper that gave Arizona a five point lead with 10:17 left to go in the half. They would continue to extend their lead little by little and when Rondae Hollis-Jefferson made a three pointer with a little over five minutes left in the half, the pro-Arizona crowd was electric. Arizona never let up and Kaleb Tarczewski made to emphatic dunks at the end of the half to put the Wildcats up by 15.
The second half was more of the same. Now matter how many shots Oregon made in the latter 20 minutes, the Wildcats were able to answer every shot. In fact, Oregon shot remarkably well, but Arizona shot just a little bit better which in turn extended their lead. Brandon Ashley took the second half over and was the catalyst in the dismantelling of the Ducks. With a couple of minutes left to go in the championship game, Sean Miller was able to take out his starters and let his walkons get a few seconds of playing time. This victory should be a wakeup call for the rest of the country as the Arizona Wildcats are playing their best basketball at exactly the right time.
Odds are that Arizona will most likely end up as a two-seed in the NCAA Tournament while the Oregon Ducks will be somewhere around the 8 or 9 line. It will be interesting to see where these two schools wind up but Arizona will certainly have the easier route to make a deep run.