Too bad it's not 1950-51 all over again for the Arizona men's basketball team.
Back then, the Wildcats played in both the NCAA tournament and National Invitational Tournament. This week, it'll just be the NIT, as top-seeded Arizona plays host to Bucknell in the first round of the second-tier postseason tournament after being left out of the NCAA field.
Bucknell won the Patriot League regular season, finishing 24-9. Game time is 6 p.m.
Arizona's omission from the NCAA tournament was expected -- not that it hurt any less. The Wildcats knew they likely had to win the Pac-12 tournament to get into the NCAA tournament, but they came up just short in a 53-51 loss to Colorado on Saturday at the Staples Center in Los Angeles.
Colorado, the Pac-12's tournament champ, was given a No. 11 seed in the tournament and faces UNLV.
Three other Pac-12 teams will be featured in the NIT, as only Colorado and California made it to the NCAA tourney in a down year for the conference. Regular-season conference champion Washington is also a No. 1 seed, while Oregon and Stanford are No. 3 seeds.
It's the second year in Arizona coach Sean Miller's three years at Arizona that the Wildcats have failed to make the NCAA tournament, although last season they went on an improbable run to the Elite Eight before falling to national champion Connecticut.
All season, Arizona talked about hoping to go on a similar run at some point. It looked like it was heading in that direction at the beginning of February, when Arizona won five consecutive games and seven of eight.
But then came last week's stunning 87-80 loss to Arizona State in Tempe, which prompted Miller to say that if his team didn't real off three consecutive wins in as many days, it would likely be left out of the NCAA tournament.
He was right. Arizona was one basket short – a contested 3-point attempt by senior guard Kyle Fogg at the buzzer Saturday night – of making it to its second consecutive NCAA tournament.
"We are excited to be a No. 1 seed in the NIT and play in front of our great fans. We look forward to the challenge of playing Bucknell, a team that has won a conference championship this season," Miller said through the school's sports information office.
Clearly, it hasn't been the easiest and smoothest of seasons for Miller, who most recently suspended freshman guard Josiah Turner indefinitely for violating team rules. It's the second time Turner has been suspended in his brief career.
Junior Kevin Parrom sat out the first few weeks of practice and the season's first couple of games after being shot in the knee while visiting his then-ill mother in September, and he returned only to suffer a season-ending foot injury in late January. Then came the suspension of freshman center Sidiki Johnson, who was eventually dismissed in the season's first month. A week later, Turner was suspended for the first time for unspecified reasons. He returned a game later.
Arizona then reeled off five wins in six games and appeared to have things headed in the right direction only to fall in heartbreaking last-second losses to Oregon, Colorado and Washington.
Depth continued to be a problem. It didn't help that sophomore guard Jordin Mayes suffered a stress reaction in his left foot, which sidelined him for six of eight games to finish the season.
Ironically, some of Arizona's would-be depth will be participating in the NCAA tournament. Junior guard MoMo Jones (averaging 16 points and 3.0 assists) will lead Iona in the NCAA play-in game on Tuesday against Brigham Young, senior Jeff Withey (9.2 points, 6.2 rebounds) will play for Kansas against Detroit, and Daniel Bejerano is part of Colorado State's team. Jones and Bejerano transferred after last season, while Withey transferred in the fall of 2009.
By the way, Arizona lost 74-68 to Dayton in the 1951 NIT and then to Kansas State 61-59 in the NCAA tournament.
