Arizona freshman and European Ivan Kharchenkov says he’s not privy to all the ins and outs of the NCAA Tournament, given this is his first and he’s from Europe. But he does know this: “I’ve been told that March Madness is like a holiday month here in America.”
So, he knows enough. In fact, that’s all he – and everyone else – needs to know. Let the craziness and haziness begin!
Arizona (32-2) starts its party on Friday at 10:30 am in San Diego against Long Island University. Arizona, the overall No. 2 seed, is the top seed in the West while Long Island is the No. 16 seed.
It’s the eighth time Arizona has been designated a No. 1 seed and the second time a Tommy Lloyd-led team has been given a No. 1 seed. Arizona has been in the tournament 36 times since 1985, missing just three in that time (an additional one because of the Covid year of 2020).
Lloyd knows all about the success – or at least the journey of the NCAAs – given he’s never, ever missed one as an assistant or head coach, going every year in his 28-year career.
“I don’t act like it’s my God-given right, but I’ve been fortunate that the programs I’ve associated with for 27-28 years (is) normal,” he said.
Normal but still a tight rope of win or go home. So, here Arizona is with a legitimate chance to get to the Final Four and maybe even win the entire thing. It’s been exactly 25 years when Arizona won its one and only title and in Indianapolis no less. The Final Four is in Indy this year.
But that party can’t start unless Arizona takes care of business each and every step of the way beginning on Friday at Viejas Arena, who UA has had success the last two trips there in the NCAAs.
In 2022, it swept past Wright State in the first round and was awakened and roughed up in a win against ninth-seed Texas Christian.
In 2013-14, UA beat Weber State and Gonzaga (Lloyd was an assistant there then).
This year – like most years when Lloyd has spoken to the media – he only talks about the game ahead, although he did admit he did see who was on the other side of the bracket if they win: Utah State and Villanova.
“That’s my bracket,” he said.
So at Friday morning – brunch more like it – Arizona will try to feast on the Sharks. No matter who the opponent is, Lloyd said “they will treat everything the same. We’re not going to do anything different … (we’re) going double down on a strong culture, and double down on respecting our opponents and in valuing preparation.”
So, would the previous four NCAAs – arguably where Arizona underachieved outside of maybe last year – help? In 2022, Arizona went in as a No. 1 seed and lost to No. 4 seed Houston. Three years ago, it lost to Princeton as a No. 2 seed. Two years ago, it lost to Clemson and last year to higher seed Duke.
“I hope so … I hope I’ve learned over the years (on) how to prepare the team the best way,” he said. “Nothing’s foolproof or guaranteed. But hopefully, we’ve gotten better at the process of preparing for the tournament.”
So, now Arizona has four full days to prepare before Friday morning. Lloyd said the team came out of the weekend healthy, including Jaden Bradley’s hand.
“We understand what the tournament is and that it’s an exciting thing for a lot of people,” he said, knowing UA should have a strong contingent of fans. “But, there’s spectators, and there’s participants, and we’re participants.
“We’ll let you guys (media) have all the fun with it. We just want to play games. The one thing I know is: the better story for you guys to write (correlates to) the longer we play and the more games we play. We’re going to approach it one game at a time and go from there. We’re not going to get out ahead of ourselves.”
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