Bracketology: Arizona heads into Pac-12 tournament as a 5-seed

The Arizona Wildcats finished their regular season on a high note, defeating Cal and Stanford, sending the McKale fans home happy for the year. Arizona will be a 4-seed in this week's Pac-12 tournament, which lines Arizona up with some opportunities to avenge past losses and improve their standing in the NCAA tournament.

This week, we've got Arizona at a 5-seed, just mere days away from Selection Sunday. But the Wildcats are staring at an opportunity of playing a projected tournament team that they lost to just a week and a half ago, the Colorado Buffaloes. That matchup could happen in the Pac-12 quarterfinals on Thursday. A couple of wins could work wonders for Arizona's seeding in the NCAA tournament, especially with the tournament lining up for Arizona to take on Colorado on Thursday and Pac-12 regular-season champion, the Oregon Ducks, on Friday.

Until then, Arizona is projected in the vaunted 5-12 matchup in our latest bracketology:

We've got six Pac-12 teams in the field, as of today. Arizona, Oregon, the Utah Utes, and the California Golden Bears are all safely in, looking to make some noise in the Pac-12 tournament. Colorado should be in but probably shouldn't chance losing to the Pac-12's last-place Washington State Cougars on Wednesday. The USC Trojans are also currently in but are far from safe.

The Oregon State Beavers sport fantastic RPI numbers but they're only 18-11 on the year. The Beavers need a good performance in the Pac-12 tournament, and all other conference tournaments going as they're expected to. The Beavers lead our "first four out" right now.

Last Four In: Butler, St. Bonaventure, Syracuse, Gonzaga

First Four Out: Oregon State, Michigan, Tulsa, Florida

Bracket Matrix, averaging out 86 bracket projections, also currently shows Arizona as a 5-seed.

With this being the final week before Selection Sunday, we'll be churning out bracket projections every day, starting Wednesday.