LAS VEGAS — Four minutes remained in Arizona's latest dominant victory when Rondae Hollis-Jefferson provided a glimpse into the mindset of the Wildcats.
The sophomore forward punctuated a soaring one-handed dunk by shimmying back down the floor with a huge smile plastered on his face.
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Swagger comes easily these days for an Arizona team playing as well as anyone in America not named Kentucky. The Wildcats won their 11th game in a row on Saturday night, demolishing previously surging Oregon 80-52 in the Pac-12 title game to end a 13-year conference tournament championship drought.
Arizona (31-3) has an outside shot at a No. 1 seed and will otherwise be a No. 2 seed in the West Region when the brackets are unveiled on Sunday, not that the Wildcats care much one way or the other. They're confident no matter who they draw that they can be the breakthrough team that takes Sean Miller to his first Final Four after three previous deep NCAA tournament runs ended in Elite Eight heartache.
"I think everyone has realized this is it, this is the year for us," Arizona center Kaleb Tarczewski said. "I think a lot of people in the locker room are playing their best basketball of the season. Everyone is playing comfortably and confident out there."
The confidence Arizona displayed in Las Vegas is a product of how much the Wildcats have improved since three surprising midseason losses to UNLV, Oregon State and Arizona State. They've adjusted to increased responsibilities caused by the departure of stars Nick Johnson and Aaron Gordon from last year's team, remaining a defense- and rebounding-oriented team yet also improving on offense.
Point guard T.J. McConnell has emerged as the team's emotional leader and has learned to pick his spots for when to be aggressive on offense. Forward Brandon Ashley has fully recovered from the injury that cost him the second half of last season and scored 59 points in three Pac-12 tournament games. Freshman wing Stanley Johnson has learned how to defend to Miller's standards and how to best unleash his immense talents on the offensive end. And Gabe York is shooting with confidence, providing Arizona with a much-needed deep threat.
"Right now, offensively we're playing better than we did last year going into the NCAA tournament," Miller said. "We were a man short last year with Brandon going down. If you can imagine Brandon playing like this on last year's team what we could have done, nobody knows that more than him. But that's last year. We're healthy this year, and we're playing well."
Occasional scoring droughts against top defenses are one of the few concerns about Arizona entering the NCAA tournament, but the Wildcats gave a glimpse Saturday of what it looks like when they play well at both ends. They shot 54.5 percent from the field, sank seven threes and gobbled up 12 offensive rebounds against an overmatched, undersized Ducks frontline.
Ashley led the way with 20 points, while Johnson had 14 and McConnell 12. Back-to-back threes by Hollis-Jefferson and York extended the Arizona lead to 32-17 late in the first half and Oregon never seriously challenged thereafter.
"Anytime we make a lot of shots, we're tough to beat," Johnson said. "Especially with a defense like ours, it's tough to beat us. We keep teams in the 40s and 50s a lot of games, so if we score in the 70s and 80s, it's a benefit to us."
Miller has come excruciatingly close to the Final Four three times in his coaching career.
In 2008, his best Xavier team advanced to the Elite Eight as a No. 3 seed before falling by 19 points to a UCLA team featuring Kevin Love, Russell Westbrook and Darren Collison. In 2011, Derrick Williams led Miller's first formidable Arizona team to the Elite Eight, routing Duke in the Sweet 16 before falling to eventual national champion UConn by two points. Last year, the Wildcats appeared poised to reach the Final Four again, but they lost a back-and-forth regional final to Wisconsin. When asked about being one of college basketball's best coaches never to make a Final Four,
Miller's go-to response is that Arizona will get there as long as they keep knocking on the door.
The Wildcats are certainly good enough to knock again this year. In a few weeks, they may yet bust that door down.
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Jeff Eisenberg is the editor of The Dagger on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at daggerblog@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
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