Arizona was assigned a tentative No. 3 NCAA Tournament seed Saturday and placed into the East region during the tournament committee's early reveal of the top 16 overall seeds.
The Wildcats would be tentatively joined in the East by No. 1 seed Duke, No. 2 Tennessee and No. 4 St. John's. Arizona presumably would lead a first-weekend pod in Denver and, if it advanced to the East Regionals, would play a Sweet 16 game in Newark, N.J.
North Carolina AD Bubba Cunningham, the chairman of this season's men's basketball committee, announced the seeds on a CBS show Saturday morning.
The Wildcats were rated the 12th overall seed, after appearing difficult to assess heading into the reveal, considering that they went 6-5 in nonconference play but are 11-2 so far in the Big 12.
CBS' latest bracket projection had UA as a No. 5 seed but ESPN and On3 projected UA with a No. 3 seed.
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In the committee's official early seeding, Auburn was given the No. 1 overall spot, with Alabama, Duke and Florida receiving the other No. 1 seeds.
Houston, which is playing at Arizona today at noon, was assigned a No. 2 seed and put into the West region.
Seeds can vary considerably between Saturday and the Selection Sunday on March 16 but Arizona's seeds have been consistent. Under UA coach Tommy Lloyd, the Wildcats received exactly the seed they were given in the early reveal for 2022 (1) and 2023 (2) while they dropped from a projected No. 1 to a No. 2 last season.
The full list of early seeds in order of overall seed, with assigned region in parentheses:
No. 1 seeds
1. Auburn (South)
2. Alabama (Midwest)
3. Duke (East)
4. Florida (West)
No. 2 seeds
5. Tennessee (East)
6. Texas A&M (South)
7. Purdue (Midwest)
8. Houston (West)
No. 3 seeds
9. Iowa State (Midwest)
10. Kentucky (West)
11. Wisconsin (South)
12. Arizona (East)
No. 4 seeds
13. Texas Tech (South)
14. Michigan (West)
15. Kansas (Midwest)
16. St. John's (East)
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