Jay Bilas explains why he's picking Arizona to win the NCAA Tournament
Jay Bilas is a top college basketball analyst and commentator at ESPN, and he thinks this year’s NCAA Tournament national champion will come from the Pac-12.
Bilas picked his entire bracket here, and he has Arizona beating Duke in the Final Four and UConn in the title game.
Bilas explained why he thinks Arizona will snap the Pac-12’s long title drought:
No No. 5 seed has ever won the national championship, or so Rece Davis told me on the Dirty Dog in between spine-rattling screams on the Screaming Baby Express from Greensboro to Bristol. I am going with Davis’ wisdom … or maybe it was the guitar-playing cowboy that told me that?! No matter, Arizona will win the Pac-12’s first national championship since 1997, when Arizona won it under Lute Olson. Winner: Arizona.
Arizona plays Princeton on Thursday in its Round 1 matchup. Then the Wildcats will play the winner of the Mizzou-Utah State game on Saturday in Sacramento.
We’ll see if Arizona can navigate those first 2 games first. Then it would be on to the Sweet 16!