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Hey, did you know the Arizona Wildcats beat the Saint Mary’s Gaels to advance to the Sweet 16 on Saturday? If you didn’t, then how did you find this post? The result is all over Arizona Desert Swarm! This must be very confusing to you.
On the plus side, you now get to experience the win through the miracle of after-the-fact social media! Below are some of the tweets that most accurately captured the spirit of the Wildcats’ win.
Before the game, the advanced statistics really liked St. Mary’s.
this St. Mary's-Arizona game is very interesting. KenPom has St. Mary's winning by 1, but the closing line is Zona -5. rarely that different
— Jared Hamby (@TWKftw) March 19, 2017
No wonder the computers love Saint Mary's...they have brackets on their pants!
— WildcatUniverse.com (@Scott_Terrell) March 19, 2017
...and the beginning of the game kind of validated the computers.
Arizona having a typical Arizona NCAA Tournament start here early.
— Boycott James Dolan (@TheEsquireof212) March 19, 2017
St Mary's won't beat themselves; Arizona in for an interesting challenge tonight.
— Jody Oehler (@radiojody) March 19, 2017
The St. Mary’s Twitter account’s got jokes.
wait what pic.twitter.com/WHkYL7LpkP
— Saint Mary's Gaels (@smcgaels) March 19, 2017
Jock Landale, meanwhile, punished the Wildcats down low.
Ristic on Landale is not ideal
— Ryan Kelapire (@RKelapire) March 19, 2017
Landale on pace for 40 and 20
— AZ Desert Swarm (@azdesertswarm) March 19, 2017
Jock Landale has 10 points (5/5 shooting) and 5 rebounds. On pace for 1,000 points and 400 rebounds.
— Zack Rosenblatt (@ZackBlatt) March 19, 2017
May be worth noting at this point that Jock Landale ranks No. 2 on KenPom's player of the year standings, behind only Josh Hart.
— Bruce Pascoe (@BrucePascoe) March 19, 2017
Things went very poorly for the first 15 minutes of the game.
Saint Mary’s is full-on outplaying Arizona right now. Up 6 12 minutes in.
— Sam Vecenie (@Sam_Vecenie) March 19, 2017
Can't let Saint Mary's control the tempo and definitely can't let them control the boards
— Brandon Ashley (@_Bash21) March 19, 2017
Really tough start for Arizona - struggling to guard PnR, defensive rebound & get anything going offensively. Have to get Markkanen involved
— Mike Schmitz (@Mike_Schmitz) March 19, 2017
Arizona losing to a lower seed well this is new
— Trill Withers (@TylerIAm) March 19, 2017
Rawle Alkins returned, though, and things began to change.
Whatever it is that Arizona needs, I'm quite certain that only Rawle and Kadeem possess it. So let's do this.
— Tyler Hansen (@Thans3) March 19, 2017
Alkins going to become a tourney legend if Arizona goes deep.
— Kevin Zimmerman (@KZimmermanAZ) March 19, 2017
Alkins doesn't need a damn finger to operate because he lives the #SavageLife
— Barstool Arizona (@UofABarstool) March 19, 2017
Rawle Alkins gives Arizona an element it really needs - another transition threat but mainly a guy who can playmake out of PnR.
— Mike Schmitz (@Mike_Schmitz) March 19, 2017
Though the Wildcats trailed by one at the half, things were looking up.
A UofA band member just hit a half court shot. Good omen?
— Ezra Amacher (@EzraAmacher) March 19, 2017
Kadeem Allen stepped up in a big way early in the first half.
Kadeem Allen with a ridiculous dunk off a forced turnover. Senior not trying to go down easy.
— Zack Rosenblatt (@ZackBlatt) March 19, 2017
GET DUNKED ON REC SPECS
— Sam McGrath (@NotSamMcG) March 19, 2017
My favorite player I love you keep working Deem https://t.co/phKcA5YSCC
— Will (@PhillyWill11) March 19, 2017
Kadeem Allen with three steals, a block, an on ball charge drawn, has been active off the ball. One of the nation's best perimeter defenders
— Mike Schmitz (@Mike_Schmitz) March 19, 2017
Kadeem Allen just flew out and contested a 3 about three feet in front of me. My whole life flashed before my eyes.
— Chantel Jennings (@ChantelJennings) March 19, 2017
And Lauri Markkanen did the same.
Lauri Markkanen, my large son is all growns up
— dylan (@clrkd) March 19, 2017
ilovemarkkanen
— martin rickman (@martinrickman) March 19, 2017
Some calls went the Wildcats’ way.
catching some breaks
— AZ Desert Swarm (@azdesertswarm) March 19, 2017
Yet another NCAA tournament game decided by a blown call pic.twitter.com/7lh7pfF9g8
— Timothy Burke (@bubbaprog) March 19, 2017
But no matter how we got there, Arizona secured the win.
— Marquis Flowers (@MrHitThat_53) March 19, 2017
Very ... nice win you have there, Arizona pic.twitter.com/oxpf5jXMFp
— SB Nation CBB (@SBNationCBB) March 19, 2017
And now, we move on to the Musketeers.
Does anyone know any good Arizona-Xavier storylines?
— Shane Dale (@ShaneDaleABC15) March 19, 2017