NCAA Tournament: By advancing to Sweet 16, Arizona men’s basketball also climbing school record book

SAN DIEGO—The Arizona Wildcats are heading to their 20^th Sweet 16 after outlasting TCU in overtime on Sunday, making them the 10^th program in Division I history to get to the regional semifinals on 20 occasions.

That’s one of many milestones the UA has achieved, or is on its away to accomplishing, during this NCAA Tournament run.

Arizona (33-3) is tied for the third-most wins in school history, two behind the record of 35 by the 1988 Final Four squad. Coach Tommy Lloyd needs one more victory to tie North Carolina’s Bill Guthridge for the most by a first-year coach, this after he joined Guthridge and Indiana State’s Bill Hodges as the only first-year coaches to earn a No. 1 seed, in case you were still on the fence about who should be national coach of the year.

Bennedict Mathurin’s 30 points against were tied for 5th-most by a UA player in an NCAA game, the most since Derrick Williams had a school-record 32 against Duke in the 2011 Sweet 16. That gives Mathurin 640 points for the season, two behind Michael Dickerson (1996-97) for 10^th in the single-season school list.

Mathurin has also jumped to eighth on the single-season 3-pointers list with 81, while Kerr Kriisa is ninth at 79. And Christian Koloko’s three blocks (to go with 28 points on 12-of-13 shooting) and 12 rebounds give him 100 for the season, two off Loren Woods’ school record from 1999-2000.

From a team standpoint, Arizona has already established school single-season marks for blocks (207) and assists (714), and with two more against Houston in the Sweet 16 it will move into the Top 25 in Division I history. The NCAA record is 926, by UNLV in 1989-90, but another 20-assist game—Arizona has done that 22 times this season—it would crack the Top 20.

The Wildcats are also in striking distance of the school single-season record for 3s, though another 5-of-27 performance won’t help in many ways. The UA has hit 280 3s this season, second-most in school history, with the record of 296 set in 2010-11.

It has attempted a school-record 793 triples, six more than the previous mark from 1993-94.

The UA has also pulled down the third-most rebounds (1,496), scored the fourth-most points (3,047), made the fourth-most field goals (1,099) and attempted the seventh-most shots (2,215) in school history.