Fins up, folks! The Arizona Wildcats landed a one seed in the South Region of the bracket, and they’ll face off against the sixteen-seed sensation LIU Sharks.
Arizona vs. LIU opening odds
LIU arrives as the NEC winner, back in the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2018, carrying a 24-10 record and the kind of underdog energy March always knows how to amplify. The Sharks have their own viral accessory now, too: the “Fins Up” crowd ritual that helped turn their title run into a small national curiosity and gave the program a jolt of visibility well beyond its usual footprint.
Arizona, meanwhile, enters from an entirely different tier of tournament memory. The Wildcats are 32-2, just cmpleted a Big 12 regular-season and tournament sweep, and have the résumé of a true No. 1 seed heading into the field. This is a program with 39 NCAA tournament appearances, four Final Fours, and the 1997 national championship still sitting in the center of its March mythology. Tommy Lloyd’s current group has added another imposing chapter: a nine-game winning streak, a 79-74 Big 12 title-game win over Houston, and a statistical profile that looks every bit like a team expecting to play into the second weekend and beyond.
The numbers tell the rest of the mood. LIU has won with order—74.1 points per game, 48.1% shooting, 36.1% from three, and enough perimeter size to keep possessions from dissolving on contact. Arizona has operated with the force of a top seed: 86.1 points per game, 50.2% shooting, 39.2 rebounds a night, 19.1 free throws made per game, and opponents held to 39.2% from the floor. So the atmosphere here writes itself. LIU brings the viral “Fins Up” joy, the conference-champion pulse, and the freedom of a program playing with house money. Arizona brings the weight of history, the scale of expectation, and the blunt reality of what a national title contender looks like when the bracket opens.
