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Arizona basketball March Madness prediction: How far will Wildcats go in NCAA Tournament?

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Arizona basketball March Madness prediction: How far will Wildcats go in NCAA Tournament?


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The NCAA Tournament bracket is set. How hard is the Arizona Wildcats’ potential road to the Final Four?

Here’s a look at Arizona’s possible opponents in each round of March Madness and our prediction for how far Tommy Lloyd’s team will advance in the bracket.

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Last season, Arizona advanced to the Sweet 16 as a No. 2 seed, beating No. 15 Long Beach State 85-65 in the first round and No. 7 seed Dayton 78-68 in the second round before falling to No. 6 seed Clemson, 77-72.

The Wildcats haven’t made the Elite Eight since 2015. They haven’t made the Final Four since they lost to Duke in the 2001 National Championship game.

Could they end those skids in the 2025 NCAA Tournament?

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Arizona’s first-round NCAA Tournament opponent

Tommy Lloyd’s team is the No. 4 seed in the East Region of March Madness and will face No. 13 seed Akron in the first round of the NCAA Tournament in Seattle, looking to begin a long NCAA Tournament run.

Arizona’s first-round March Madness opponent, Akron, advanced to the NCAA Tournament by winning the MAC Conference Tournament.

It went 28-6 overall in the regular this season and 17-1 in conference play.

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Arizona’s potential second-round March Madness opponents

The winner of the Arizona vs Akron game will face the winner of the No. 5 Oregon vs No. 12 Liberty game in the second round on Sunday, with the winner of that game advancing to the Sweet 16.

Arizona’s potential Sweet 16 opponents

Arizona would likely face No. 1 seed Duke, No. 8 seed Mississippi State or No. 9 seed Baylor in the Sweet 16, if it were to win its first two games in March Madness.

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Arizona’s potential Elite 8 opponents

If Arizona were to win its first three games, the Wildcats would face the winner of the other half of the NCAA bracket for the East Region in the regional semifinal, with No. 2 Alabama, No. 3 Wisconsin, No. 6 BYU and No. 7 St. Mary’s being the highest seeds on that side of the bracket.

Arizona’s potential Final Four opponents

The winner of the East Region faces the winner of the Midwest Region in the Final Four. If Arizona were to somehow make it that far, the highest seeds in the Midwest Region include No. 1 seed Houston, No. 2 seed Tennessee, No. 3 seed Kentucky and No. 4 seed Purdue.

Arizona’s potential National Championship game opponents

The winner of the Midwest Region vs East Region national semifinal would face the winner of the South Region vs West Region national semifinal in the NCAA title game. Arizona’s possible opponents in that game, should it somehow make a run in the tournament and advance that far?

Auburn is the top seed in the South, with Michigan State the No. 2 seed, Iowa State the third seed and Texas A&M the fourth seed. The West Region’s Top 4 seeds are No. 1 Florida, No. 2 St. Johns, No. 3 Texas Tech and No. 4 Maryland.

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Arizona Wildcats NCAA Tournament March Madness prediction

We wrote about Arizona’s “potential” opponents in the March Madness bracket, but how far will the Wildcats actually advance in the NCAA Tournament?

We predicted an 85-78 win for Arizona over Akron in our first-round March Madness game prediction. As for the second round? We think the Wildcats can get past Oregon (or Liberty) to make their second straight Sweet 16 appearance under Tommy Lloyd.

But we don’t foresee Arizona getting to the Elite Eight for the first time since 2015 in this tournament. Duke will be too much for the Wildcats in that round, even if Cooper Flagg isn’t 100%.

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Prediction: Arizona Wildcats lose in Sweet 16 of NCAA Tournament

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Reach Jeremy Cluff at jeremy.cluff@arizonarepublic.com. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter @Jeremy_Cluff.

Support local journalism: Subscribe to azcentral.com today.

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Arizona

Arizona lawmakers demand answers over Phoenix immigration court arrests

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Arizona lawmakers demand answers over Phoenix immigration court arrests


PHOENIX (AZFamily) — Some Arizona lawmakers are demanding answers on what has been happening outside a Phoenix immigration court recently.

On Wednesday, four Arizona Democrats sent a letter to the Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and ICE Acting Director Todd Lyons. It came from Sens. Mark Kelly and Ruben Gallego, as well as Reps. Yassamin Ansari and Greg Stanton.

The letter comes after tense protests last week. For two days straight, ICE agents were at Phoenix immigration court, arresting people there for routine hearings and putting them into vans. That second day turned chaotic with protestors and officers getting physical.

“That pattern of dismissal and detainment kind of slowed down towards the end of the week, but unfortunately, today we did see more people detained at the immigration court,” said state Sen. Analise Ortiz, a Democrat from the West Valley.

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She has been showing up to immigration court to support migrants at their hearings, and says ICE was there again on Wednesday, but it was different this time. “People were actually being told they could leave the courthouse, so they were driving off of the property and then being stopped and detained down the street. Someone relayed to me that a toddler was detained. This is just horrible, and this is inhumane,” said Ortiz.

The letter poses three main questions, with the first being how many people has ICE arrested and detained at an immigration court during the week of May 19 and how many have been placed in expedited removal?

The second asks for copies of all guidance and written directives associated with this recent ICE action, and the third asks how ICE is complying with requirements for screening individuals for fear of persecution.

The letter also says the Democratic lawmakers believe tactics like this make the immigration process less fair and efficient and undermine the Trump administration’s goal of targeting criminals who are public safety threats.

“A lot of these individuals who are in deportation proceedings (or) immigration proceedings, they don’t have a criminal history,” said immigration attorney Sheree Wright with IBF Law Group.

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She has been volunteering to advise migrants at their hearings. “When it comes to safety, these are not criminals,” said Wright.

Arizona’s Family also spoke to a former Phoenix-based ICE agent who was in the field for 22 years. He wanted to remain anonymous.

The former agent said arrests like the ones at the immigration court are not new. He also said they are safer for the public, the officers, and the detainees because there is a screening process at places like court buildings. According to the former officer, when they detain someone, they often go through what is called “custody redetermination” to see if the migrant should continue with their immigration proceedings or be placed in expedited removal.

See a spelling or grammatical error in our story? Please click here to report it.

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Takeaways From Arizona State Baseball Tournament Draw

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Takeaways From Arizona State Baseball Tournament Draw


The Arizona State baseball program is officially tournament bound.

The Sun Devils – coached by fourth-year head coach and program alum Willie Bloomquist – were officially selected to be the three seed in the Los Angeles regional on Monday morning.

With that, the selection ended several days of nervous waiting after the program sputtered to end the season.

Ultimately, the rough finish is in the rearview mirror now and the Sun Devils are looking to make the most of this chance – here are three takeaways for the weekend ahead:

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This one is obvious – the Sun Devils are in a region with the host in 15th seeded UCLA, the second region seed in UC Irvine, and Mountain West champs Fresno State.

UCLA and UC Irvine are battle-tested over the entirety of the season, while Fresno State has picked up play as of late despite only putting together a 31-29 campaign to this point.

The region will be a challenge for the Sun Devils, but it isn’t insurmountable…

The Sun Devils have the talent to win the region – and UC Irvine’s recent run of opponents leaves reason to be concerned that the Anteaters aren’t currently conditioned to compete with power four competition despite having proven they can defeat high level programs this season.

UCLA also is one of the lower national seeds that received the opportunity to host a regional – it doesn’t seem insurmountable for the Sun Devils – who boasted the best offense across the entire Big 12 – to capture some magic once again and make a serious run.

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It feels as if a win in the opening matchup with UC Irvine is a must however, which brings the last takeaway into the fray.

This Arizona State baseball team truly has the ceiling of a College World Series squad – but also the floor of a squad that goes winless in the tournament.

While it would be unlikely for the Sun Devils to drop an elimination game to (presumably) Fresno State, a fifth loss in as many games could potentially prove to be too much for a team that entered the season with so much promise.

The opening game of the Sun Devils’ tournament experience is set for Friday night at 6 P.M. Arizona time – the game is set to be broadcast on ESPNU.

Read more about the best-case scenario for ASU in the upcoming tournament here, and listen to the recent podcast covering the ultimate selection the Sun Devils received here.

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Arizona Diamondbacks honoring first responders

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Arizona Diamondbacks honoring first responders


On May 27, Arizona’s MLB team took time to honor the men and women who help keep communities safe with a First Responders Appreciation Night at Chase Field. FOX 10’s Megan Plain has more, from Downtown Phoenix.

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