Arizona's All-Time Final Four team.

Breaking down the Cats most prolific players on the biggest stage.

4 Final Fours. 

Arizona fans wear this statement as a badge of honor, but those lovely banners in the rafters at McKale Center are getting lonely.

It has been 22 straight seasons since the Wildcats made it to the last weekend of the college basketball campaign.

During that time the west coast has been represented at the Final Four by UCLA four times, Gonzaga twice, Oregon in 2017, and now San Diego State.

The good news is Arizona is still the last team to win a national championship from the west.

Instead of crying into our Virgil’s Root Beer, let us celebrate what Arizona has accomplished on college basketball’s biggest stage by putting together the Cats All-Time Final Four team. 

Here’s my opinion of the five Wildcats who have had the biggest impact in Arizona’s Final Four appearances in 1988, 1994, 1997, and 2001.

Miles Simon

The most clutch player in Arizona NCAA Tournament history. Simon had no fear and wanted the ball when you want your star player to have the ball. In 1997 he dropped 24 points in the National Semifinal against North Carolina and on Championship Monday against Kentucky he had a career performance in the most important game of his life while scoring 30 points and shooting 14 for 17 from the free throw line. He would be named the Final Four’s Most Outstanding Player. Simon says championship.

Mike Bibby

In 1997 against North Carolina, Bibby scored 20 points. The Wildcats were in a rock fight in the second half when Bibby started knocking down big shots from behind the arc. His five 3-pointers in the second half helped get the Wildcats to their first National Championship game. On Monday night he added another 19 points and Arizona was on top of the college basketball world for the first time.

Sean Elliott

Elliott’s 31 points against Oklahoma in the 1988 National Semifinal is an Arizona single-game scoring record in the Final Four. He also collected 11 rebounds against the physical Sooners. In the second half, he calmly elevated and hammered home a gorgeous dunk that is still considered one of Arizona’s more memorable post-season slams.

Richard Jefferson

In Jefferson’s two games in the 2001 Final Four, he averaged 18 points and eight rebounds. He also shot an unlikely 54 percent from 3-point range. Gilbert Arenas has been known to jokingly blame Jefferson for not guarding Duke’s Mike Dunleavy Jr. during his infamous three-point barrage against the Wildcats in the 2001 Championship game, but if you watch the tape at least two of those bombs were over Agent Zero, who was playing with an injured shoulder.

Corey Williams

If you look at the history of bench players on Arizona teams at the Final Four, no one has been as productive with so little playing time. In the National Semifinal in 1994 against Arkansas, Williams only played 12 minutes and scored 14 points. He shot 71 percent from the field and drained 4 of 6 from 3-point land. He also grabbed six rebounds against the tough Razorbacks who would eventually win the National Championship two nights later.