The Pac-12 wrapped up its last men’s basketball tournament on Saturday at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas with No. 4 Oregon surging past No. 3 Colorado 75-68 in a surprising championship game, with nationally ranked teams in Arizona and Washington State losing their respective semifinals. The Ducks got the automatic bid to the NCAA postseason, giving the conference four representatives after a season where it looked for a long time like there would be just two.
Colorado advanced as part of the “last four in” and will be the first of the teams playing with Arizona and Washington State both in the field as expected.
There was a nostalgic atmosphere as the days of the conference wound to a close in one of the marquee sports.
Here is what some of the parties had to say:
Wayne Tinkle, Oregon State coach
“I purposely didn’t want to think about that a whole lot. I’m kind of over my disgust and frustration and I want to celebrate. When I did the pregame talk with the network off the bus, I finished with thanking everybody behind the scenes, behind the camera and in front of the camera, because it was a hell of a ride. And it’s a shame that we’re in the position that we’re in. I’ll probably lament on that stuff now that we’re done, but we wanted to keep our focus on the present. And it’s a damn shame. We say damn this, damn that, because of beaver dams. It’s a dam shame. But it is what it is. We’ve got to regroup. We’ve got to retool. And I love where we’re going to take our program and we’re excited about where we’re going. And that’s what our motivation is going to continue to be.”
Mark Madsen, Cal coach and former Stanford player (1996-2000)
“We went through all the emotion earlier in the year when we got word that the Pac-12 was going to dissolve and we all have feelings about it. I have great memories of the Pac-12. I grew up…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/final-thoughts-final-pac-12-211945497.html
Author : AZCentral | The Arizona Republic
Publish date : 2024-03-18 21:19:45
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