Arizona Done-In by Lack of Faith in their Star

To borrow a line from a classmate, the Pac-12 is a scam.

Not since 2001 when earths surface was mostly cooling magma (citation needed) have we seen a team that hailed from the west coast even make it to the national championship game.

You can even make that qualifier a round more generous, and the Pac-12 STILL has not been represented in the Final Four since 2008, nine years.

So much for parity.

And yet, I keep wanting to pick Pac-12 teams. Because I am a garbage man lulled in by the siren song of late night basketball.

“Everyone else has gone to sleep, but Ivan Rabb has 20 and 20!” Watching Pac-12 basketball felt like being told a really good secret by a friend.

Everyone knew and adored UCLA and Oregon to a lesser extent but what about California? Utah? What about those almost-Cinderella USC Trojans? The Washington Huskies who had the best player in the nation in Markelle Fultz and couldn’t make the tournament (An omen the Pac-12 was capable of new ways to disappoint us that I foolishly ignored)? What about Arizona and their 7 foot sniper Lauri Markkanen?

What about Lauri Markkanen. When we find out, Arizona surely wants to know.

Lauri wasn’t just the best shooting big man, or even best shooter on his team. He had the best damn shooting season in the nation this year behind the 3-point line, and the best ever by a player 6'10 or taller.

In the biggest game of his life, Arizona’s best player put up the final shot attempt of his collegiate career with 11:09 left in the half.

That’s unacceptable. That’s devoid of all logic. That’s hard to believe.

It’s hard, especially for a big man, to go all that time without a shot, especially for somebody confident around the rim and able to shoot over the top of defenders if need be. Should Lauri have been more demanding of the ball and more confident when the ball did make it’s way into his hands? Sure. But at some point somebody needs to say something in the Arizona huddle.

In fact, I think someone did. The conversation probably went something like this.

“We gotta tighten up, y’all wanna go home!?”

“We play in the Pac-12.”

“Right, I always forget that, sorry that was cold of me.”

The Pac-12 is dumb. UCLA will break your heart. I am bitter. We are creeping ever more slowly towards the heat death of the universe.