BOISE, Idaho -- And just like that, the Arizona Wildcats are no longer in the Big Dance.
After a tumultuous season in Tuscon, Arizona, the Wildcats' season came to a crushing end with an 89-68 loss at the hands of No. 13 seed Buffalo Bulls.
To most of the country, the Bulls -- the MAC champs who were barely talked about despite their 26 wins -- weren’t expected to do much of anything.
Just look at your bracket.
But they didn’t feel that way. Despite the immense talent difference and the fact that the Bulls were vastly undersized against the Deandre Ayton-led Wildcats, Buffalo looked like the higher seed, totally beating the Wildcats on just about every part of the floor.
“Obviously, we knew we were supposed to win this game,” said Buffalo forward Nick Perkins, who finished with 13 points and four rebounds Thursday.
Well, Perkins has to clarify that statement. He was confident that the Bulls would break the bracket on Thursday night, but he didn’t officially think the game was theirs until there were five minutes left and Arizona called a timeout while down 77-60.
As Perkins peaked over at Arizona’s bench, he saw players arguing with each other, composure vanishing during the biggest game of the season.
“Once you get a team down and they’re arguing and stuff, that’s how you know you got them,” Perkins said.
He was right, and the Bulls finished the final five minutes outscoring Arizona 12-8, capping a half in which they outscored the Pac-12 champions by 19.
No giants had yet fallen in the first day of the NCAA tournament, and in one of the final games of the night, the team picked as the preseason No. 2 team was the first major casualty. Unlike the three prior games in Boise -- where all the higher seeds won by fewer than 10 points -- the double-digit-seeded Bulls put on a clinic inside Taco Bell Arena.
Buffalo, which was a 9.5-point underdog to Arizona, will face No. 5 seed Kentucky on Saturday.
Playing in front of an overwhelmingly pro-Buffalo crowd, the smaller Bulls dismantled Arizona's defense with a smattering of 3-pointers and outscored the Wildcats 45-6 from beyond the arc (15-of-30). They were quicker, faster and more aggressive. The Bulls looked like the Final Four team, while Arizona looked overwhelmed by the guard-heavy Bulls lineup.
The last No. 4 seed to lose by 15 or more points in the round of 64 was Wake Forest in 2009 (to Cleveland State). With 1:11 remaining, Buffalo's band and cheerleaders were chanting "I believe that we will win!" and, frankly, they could have started that chant with their Bulls up 15 with less than six minutes left.