(Photo credit: William Purnell-Imagn Images)

SAN DIEGO -- West Region No. 1 seed Arizona will begin its pursuit of the program's first Final Four appearance since 2001 on Friday when the Wildcats face 16th-seeded Long Island in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.

Arizona (32-2) heads into its fifth consecutive NCAA field on a nine-game winning streak after capturing the Big 12 Conference tournament championship.

The Wildcats required nail-biting wins over Iowa State and Houston -- both No. 2 seeds in the NCAA Tournament -- to run through a rugged conference bracket and complement their Big 12 regular-season crown.

Arizona's 32 wins are the most a Wildcats team has ever taken into the postseason, surpassing the 31 that squads in the 2021-22 and 1987-88 seasons reached. The 1988 Wildcats advanced to the program's first-ever Final Four, while the 2022 tournament ended Tommy Lloyd's first season as head coach with a Sweet 16 loss to Houston.

While the 2025-2026 Wildcats are among the favorites to reach Indianapolis for this year's Final Four, Lloyd said the only bracket he is focused on features 'LIU, Utah State and Villanova.'

Villanova and Utah State will meet in the West Region's No. 8 vs. No. 9 matchup in Round 1, with the winner facing either Arizona or Long Island (24-10).

The Wildcats lean on a size advantage for their 86.1-points-per-game offense, attacking the rim with slashing wings Koa Peat and Brayden Burries as well as point guard Jaden Bradley, while 7-foot-2 Motiejus Krivas patrols the interior.

All four average between Burries' team-high 15.9 ppg and Krivas' 10.5, with Arizona scoring 57.1% of its points on 2-point field-goal attempts -- the 10th-highest output nationally, per KenPom.com metrics.

Just ahead of Arizona in that category, however, is Long Island. The Sharks notched 58% of their points from inside the arc, good for ninth nationally despite playing smaller lineups than the Wildcats.

'They've got a good coach, and he was a heckuva basketball player,' Lloyd said of Long Island's Rod Strickland, a former DePaul standout who played in the NBA from 1988 through 2005. 'He's been around college basketball and good players for a long time now. ... It's a really cool story to see him have success.'

Long Island will begin its first NCAA Tournament since 2018 after winning the Northeast Conference tournament with a 79-70 defeat of Mercyhurst on March 10.

The Sharks entered the NEC finale having secured the league's automatic bid by virtue of Mercyhurst being ineligible for the NCAA Tournament while it completes transition to full Division I membership from Division II. Long Island's clinching victory came in a 64-56 victory over Wagner in the NEC semifinals on March 7.

The Sharks head into the NCAA Tournament on a five-game winning streak, contributing to them winning the NEC regular-season championship. Long Island's 24 wins are the program's most since 2011-12 when, still billed as the LIU-Brooklyn Blackbirds, they finished 25-9. The 2025-26 Sharks are three wins shy of matching Long Island's win total from each of Strickland's previous three campaigns at the helm combined.

'When I had three wins and seven wins (in 2022-23 and 2023-24, respectively), I don't know if I had great players,' Strickland said. 'Last year, I had 17 wins, and this year, this was 24. I got a great group of guys.'

Among that 'great group' is Jamal Fuller, a 6-5 guard who is Long Island's leading scorer at an average of 16.4 points per game. Fuller's 5.5 rebounds per game also match Greg Gordon for the team's high.

Gordon, also 6-5 guard, is averaging 14.1 points and Malachi Davis averages 14.4 points per game.

--Kyle Kensing, Field Level Media