BOISE, Idaho – The Pac-12's regular season and tournament champions will begin their march towards madness in Boise, Idaho. Arizona will open the 2018 NCAA Tournament with the Buffalo Bulls in the first round on Thursday night.

(No. 4 Seed) Arizona vs. (No. 13 Seed) Buffalo
Thursday, March 15 at 6:40 p.m. (MST)
TV: CBS (Brian Anderson, Chris Webber & Lisa Byington)
Radio: Arizona IMG Radio Network (Brian Jeffries & Ryan Hansen) (Affiliates Only)
Internet Radio: NCAA March Madness on Westwood One Sports
Twitter: @APlayersProgram
#BearDown
 
The Arizona Wildcats enter the 2018 NCAA Tournament after winning both the Pac-12 regular season title and the Pac-12 Tournament. UA also won both Pac-12 titles during the 2016-17 season, marking just the second time in conference history a program has won back-to-back regular season and tournament championships. Arizona achieved the same impressive feat during the 1987-88 and 1988-89 seasons.

Freshman Deandre Ayton continued to build his legacy by being named the Most Outstanding Player of the Pac-12 Tournament after averaging 24.7 points, 12.7 rebounds and 2.0 blocks per game while shooting 62.0 percent from the floor. Ayton's dominance in Las Vegas included 32 points and 14 rebounds in a semifinal win over UCLA followed by 32 points and 18 rebounds a day later in a victory against USC in the championship game. The Nassau, Bahamas native became the first player in conference history to earn Player of the Year, Freshman of the Year and Most Outstanding Player in the same season.

7-foot-1-inch Deandre Ayton enters NCAA play averaging 20.3 points and 11.5 rebounds per game. He is one of only three players in the nation entering postseason play averaging 20 or more points and 10 or more rebounds per game, joining Marvin Bagley III of Duke and Jock Landale of Saint Mary's. Ayton and Bagley III are the only players averaging 20 and 11 in the country.
The Wildcat defense has held opposing teams to just 63.2 points per game in its last five games. By comparison, the UA defense was surrendering 72.6 points per game for the season leading up to the last five games. The defensive improvement has come in opposing three-point field goal percentage as opponents are shooting just 26.9 percent from deep in the last five games versus their 36.6 percent prior.

Senior Dusan Ristic continues the best play of his career since the turn for the second half of Pac-12 play. In his last 13 games, Ristic is averaging 14.2 points and 7.7 rebounds per game while shooting 55.7 percent from the field and 79.3 percent at the foul line. The 7-footer has even hit six of his nine three-point field goal attempts during that stretch as well. His strong play during this stretch helped propel him to a spot on the Pac-12 All-Tournament team.

Arizona faced seven different teams from this year's NCAA field in 2017-18, including five in non-conference play in UMBC, NC State, Purdue, Texas A&M and Alabama. Those five programs plus UA's two games against USC and UCLA this season, give the Wildcats a record of 6-3 versus NCAA Tournament teams this season.

The fourth-year senior duo of Dusan Ristic and Parker Jackson-Cartwright are looking to solidify their place as the winningest players in program history. Ristic has already secured the top spot in the UA career wins list at 115 following the Pac-12 Tournament while Jackson-Cartwright's trio of wins puts him in a tie for second place.

Arizona's All-American big man, Deandre Ayton, statistics continue rewrite Arizona Basketball history. At 690 points, 392 rebounds, 65 blocks and a 61.6 field goal percentage, Ayton ranks in the top ten in UA single-season history in all four categories.

Arizona has never faced Buffalo in program history and has a 5-4 record against the MAC with only one meeting coming in the NCAA Tournament in the form of Arizona's 62-71 loss to Miami (Ohio) in the first round of the 1995 NCAA Tournament.

Arizona won all three games in Las Vegas by ten or more points en route to the tournament crown. It marked the first time Arizona had won by double-digits in all three games in the conference tournament since the 2001-02 season.

Senior point guard Parker Jackson-Cartwright picked up 13 assists during the Pac-12 Tournament to crack the Arizona career top ten. PJC's 459 career assists rank eighth in program history.

Deandre Ayton has already destroyed the Arizona freshman record book and has begun rewriting many other records. Ayton already holds the UA freshman record in points, rebounds, blocks, double-doubles and field goal percentage. His 23 double-doubles surpassed Al Fleming's 22 for the Wildcats in 1974-75 as the program's all-time mark while tying Kevin Love's Pac-12 freshman record from 2007-08.