INDIANAPOLIS – Rodney Tention couldn’t help but notice the similarities.
The former Arizona assistant returned to Tucson in February to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the program’s last Final Four team, and during the trip, coach Tommy Lloyd invited the group to practice.
“It reminded us of the group that we had,” Tention told USA TODAY Sports.
That sentiment continued to resonate the more they were around the 2025-26 team. The alumni watched them play, talked to them and importantly, got to see how they interact in a locker room. Everything was so similar to the 2000-01 team, they couldn’t help but let Lloyd know.
“We all said it,” Tention said. “I think this is the group that can break through.”
How right they were. This year’s group was, in fact, the one to break through.
Arizona is back to the Final Four for the first time since that 2001 team. It ended decades of heartbreak for a program that had proven its relevancy, but couldn’t punctuate it with the most sought destination in the sport.
It felt like there was a hex over the Wildcats. Despite having loaded teams capable of reaching the Final Four, they just didn’t. NBA All-Stars and champions like Andre Iguodala, Aaron Gordon and Channing Frye. High draft picks like Deandre Ayton and Derrick Williams to name a few. They all contributed to Arizona having the sixth-most wins since 2003.
So, what was wrong? Those that have witnessed all those teams try to get back to the Final Four said they just got unlucky.
“It’s hard,” Tention said. “At some point you’ve got to have a little bit of luck on your way. That’s all to it. Balls just got to bounce your way on that one certain day.”
The Wildcats surely had some things go wrong. A 15-point blown lead against Illinois in 2005, running into scorching Kemba Walker in 2011 and tough battles against Wisconsin in 2014 and 2015 are just some of those moments.
All of those games are some March Madness classics, just on the wrong side of history.
“You have shots and moments that happened that you’re just a part of basketball history,” said 2001 starter Richard Jefferson. “There was never any, ‘Oh, there’s some sort of issue.’ It was just like, ‘Yo, we just had a stretch where certain things haven’t gone our way.’”
When asked how the 2001 team made the Final Four, members all had the same message: It was a deep rotation that didn’t try to play hero ball, but emphasized defense. A well-rounded, oiled machine.
It’s easy to forget how stacked that 2001 team was. Jefferson, Gilbert Arenas, Jason Gardner, Michael Wright and Loren Woods were starters while Luke Walton came off the bench. A loaded team that very much resembles the current iteration.
Both teams were in the top 15 in scoring, defensive field goal percentage and rebound margin. Being high percentage shooters helped each unit be in the top five in scoring margin.
The similarities don’t end there. That team had six players who averaged 20 minutes per game, this one has seven. Five guys who averaged double figure scoring, so does this season’s.
“I don’t really think they really care who gets the points in the game,” Tention said. “That’s what makes them so dangerous. You don’t know who you gameplan against.”
No one may know that better than Jason Gardner, a sophomore guard on the 2001 team and now director of player relations for the Wildcats. He said the mixture of upperclassman leadership and talented freshmen create the special sauce, and they brought the intensity that was needed.
“I definitely think we’re a little bit more physical than maybe we have been in the past and I think it’s kind of really helped us kind of carry over this year,” Gardner said.
Jefferson notices comparisons in some of the guys he played with, notably with Jaden Bradley, who reminds him of standout Jason Terry from the 1997 national title team.
He also loves Koa Peat, an Arizona kid that knows what the program means to the state and decided to stay home.
It’s not lost on this year’s team the road was paved by those successful squads in the late 20th century, built on the legacy of Lute Olson. Former players and coaches said Lloyd has made an effort to involve them in the program, allowing them to watch and interact with the team so they can truly understand what it means to “Bear Down.”
“It’s really important that we include those guys in everything and they feel like owners of our program because they are owners. They’re 100% owners and they’re great dudes,” Lloyd said. “It’s been one of the coolest things for me to experience: developing relationships with them and having them tell me their stories because their stories are Arizona basketball stories.”
That’s why after Arizona defeated Purdue in the Elite Eight to punch their ticket to Indianapolis, Lloyd shouted out Olson to the large fan presence in San Jose, and why he mentioned postgame how his job was set up to succeed because of those building blocks.
“It’s really pretty gratifying, to be honest,” said Jim Rosborough, Olson’s right-hand man who spent 27 seasons with him, including 18 at Arizona. “(Lloyd’s) been one to recognize what went on before him, that he’s not the inventor of the wheel, but he’s kind of kept the wheel turning.”
All of it makes for one of the most highly anticipated weekends in recent memory. For as large of a brand as Arizona is, Tucson prides itself on a small-town vibe that rallies around its program.
“People live and die with Wildcat sports,” Tention said. Look at how the reception when the team arrived back home in the wee hours after winning the West Region, taking over the local airport. It actually goes beyond Pima County, as Rosborough mentioned, “it’s hard to be in the state of Arizona and not know about this team,” and it doesn’t get much bigger than this.
“To bring this back to the city of something that we were so close numerous times, I think is awesome,” Gardner added.
However, Jefferson sees the 2026 Final Four as more than just for the community and state. Not only did Arizona break the 25-year drought and is going for its second national championship in program history, but it’s also trying to break a drought out West. The 1997 title team is the last from the West Coast to win it all.
“We are in a position where we’re carrying an entire Mid-West-West Coast,” Jefferson said. “They really have half of the country that wants to prove that UCLA, Arizona, Oregon, all of these schools that have been dominant over years, can still win a national championship.”
You’d be a fool to think Arizona is satisfied with just making the Final Four again. This team has its eyes set on cutting down those nets inside Lucas Oil Stadium.
“It’s not like where it feels like we’re back on the mountaintop. It just feels like we have performed up to our standard in the biggest moment,” Jefferson said. “Arizona is not one of those schools that’s like, ‘Hey, we made it to the Final Four. We’re lucky. We’re happy.’ No, we’re one of those schools that say, ‘Hey, we’re proud of you, we’re proud of ourselves, we’re proud of what you guys have done. Now go finish the job.’”
If that happens, you can bet all of Tucson will be shut down, all the way from Flowing Wells to Saguaro National Park, with fans crazed like the javelinas that roam the desert. If it doesn’t happen, it will still be a celebrated squad that will live in Wildcat lore as the ones that finally got Arizona back where it belongs.
Like the teams before them laid the blueprint, the Wildcats hope this one remodels for another reign in the Sonoran Desert.
“Arizona is one of the strongest brands in all of collegiate sports,” Jefferson said. “At the same point in time, they’re awake right now.”
