Arizona Wildcats Best Play Elite Eight: Mark Lyons’ winning shot vs. Florida advances

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This bracket takes an overall look at the best play in Arizona Wildcats history. The best play will be determined through a vote of readers. In case of a tie-breaker, yours truly will make a determination:

Mark Lyons

In a mild upset of our Arizona Wildcats Best Play bracket, Mark Lyons’ winning shot against No. 5 Florida in 2012 narrowly defeated Sean Elliott’s free throw in 1989 that broke Lew Alcindor’s Pac-10 scoring mark.

Lyons’ shot, one of the most significant in the Sean Miller era, received 54.5 percent of the vote against 45.5 percent for Elliott’s free throw.

One way to interpret Lyons’ shot advancing: His play was one that gave Arizona a victory over a Top 10 team when the Wildcats were searching for themselves after losing in the NIT the year before. Elliott’s free throw may have not been considered “a play” by the voters who participated, although it was significant because it broke the conference scoring mark.

Lyons’ winning shot advances to play the winner of the matchup between Elliott’s clutch three-pointer downing Duke in 1989 and Nick Johnson’s game-saving blocked shot against San Diego State in the same season of Lyons’ shot.

In fact, the plays by Lyons and Johnson in 2012-13 are matched against Elliott’s feats in the same season (1988-89).

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POLLS STILL OPEN:

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CLICK ON BRACKET TO ACCESS BLOG TO VOTE:

GAME FIFTEEN — SWEET 16

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GAME SIXTEEN — SWEET 16

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GAME EIGHTEEN — SWEET 16

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GAME NINETEEN — ELITE EIGHT

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GAME TWENTY — ELITE EIGHT

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ALLSPORTSTUCSON.com publisher, writer and editor Javier Morales is a former Arizona Press Club award winner. He also writes articles for Bleacher Report and Lindy’s College Sports.