SALT LAKE CITY – The month of March is the most anticipated part of the basketball season for one reason; March Madness. The Arizona Wildcat opened the month by winning three games in three nights in Las Vegas to win the 2017 Pac-12 Tournament. Now UA starts "the big dance" with the first round of the NCAA Tournament on Thursday versus the North Dakota Fighting Hawks at 6:50 p.m. (MST) from Vivint Smart Home Arena in Salt Lake City, Utah.

No. 4/4 Arizona vs. North Dakota
Thursday, March 16 at 6:50 p.m. (MST)
TV: TBS (Andrew Catalon, Steve Lappas & Jamie Erdahl)
Radio: Arizona IMG Radio Network (Brian Jeffries & Ryan Hansen)
Twitter: @APlayersProgram
#BearDown
 

• Arizona enters the 2017 NCAA Tournament as the Pac-12 Conference's regular season and conference tournament champions. The Wildcats finished the regular season with a record of 27-4 and 16-2 in the Pac-12 to share the regular season crown with the Oregon Ducks. UA went on to win three games in three days in Las Vegas, including wins over No. 3 UCLA and No. 5 Oregon, to earn its sixth Pac-12 tournament title. It marked the fifth time Arizona has won at least a share of the regular season title and won the conference tournament in the same season since joining the Pac-12 Conference prior to the 1978-79 season.
• Allonzo Trier was named Most Outstanding Player of the Pac-12 Tournament after averaging 20.7 points, 5.0 rebounds and 3.3 assists per game while shooting 50.0 percent from beyond the arc and 82.1 percent at the foul line in the trio of wins. The sophomore was joined on the All-Tournament Team by Lauri Markkanen who averaged 20.0 points per game while connecting on 47.1 percent of his shots from three-point range. Trier's play in Las Vegas added to his strong play to close out the season. He is averaging 22.1 points per game while shooting 54.9 percent from the field, 51.4 percent from beyond the arc and 82.1 percent at the free throw line in his last seven games entering Thursday.
• UA is no stranger to NCAA tournament play in Salt Lake City. The Cats played in SLC in the 1991, 1993, 2000, 2003 and 2013 NCAA Tournaments with a record of 7-2 in those games. Arizona is 41-19 (.683) in NCAA postseason play when playing west of the Mississippi River. That record includes 11 wins in 15 games played out west with Sean Miller as head coach. The Wildcats' pair of wins in Salt Lake City in the 2013 NCAA Tournament came in the Vivint Smart Home Arena.
• The Wildcats enter the NCAA Tournament with a record of 30-4, giving the program its fourth 30-win season in the eight seasons under head coach Sean Miller. The team enters the opening week of the NCAA Tournament as winners of 24 of their last 26 games overall. UA is averaging 27.3 wins per season during the Miller era, which is the highest mark in Arizona history. Remove Miller's first season, 16-15 in 2009-10, and Arizona is averaging 28.9 wins per season in the last seven seasons.
• Parker Jackson-Cartwright has carried his elevated play over from the end of the regular season into postseason play. The junior has a 3.3 assist-to-turnover ratio and is shooting 68.0 percent (17 of 25) from beyond the arc in his last eight games. PJC's assist-to-turnover ratio gets even more astronomical in his last six games with 23 assists to just four turnovers (5.75 to 1).
• Arizona's toppling of two top-five ranked teams in as many days during the Pac-12 Tournament marked the first time UA has defeated back-to-back AP top five teams in back-to-back days since defeating No. 2 Maryland and No. 5 Florida in consecutive days during in the Coaches vs. Cancer Classic during the 2001-02 season.
• Thursday will mark the first-ever meeting between Arizona and North Dakota. UA is 63-2 in first head-to-head meetings with another program in the last 25 years with a mark 13-0 against first-ever opponents in the NCAA Tournament during that span.
• In addition to the trio of other Pac-12 programs in the NCAA Tournament in Oregon, UCLA and USC, four non-conference opponents also made qualified for NCAA postseason play. Gonzaga (WCC), Michigan State (Big Ten), Texas Southern (SWAC) and Butler (Big East) are the quartet of Arizona non-conference opponents participating in March Madness.