Josh Pastner played at Arizona before focus was invented.
Photo by Brian Bahr, Getty Images Sport

The 12-month nightmare is over.

I love Selection Sunday. I love each team being revealed like an answer on Family Feud. “Survey says… 5 seed!”

I love the discussions about easy draws and loaded regions. I enjoy the debates about which teams got robbed and which teams did the robbing.

Last year wasn’t much fun without the Arizona Wildcats. The fun is back in a big way.

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Now's the time when players bend over backwards for wins.
Photo by Rob Schumacher/The Arizona Republic

If the NCAA tournament is the main course, the conference tourneys are the appetizers. Every time you turn on the TV somebody is trying to beat a buzzer.

TWIT-Pac welcomes the good stuff before the great stuff.

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ASU had no trouble running
through its regional.
Photo by David Kadlubowski/
The Arizona Republic

The Arizona Wildcats weren’t alone in losing during the opening weekend of the NCAA baseball tournament.

When the dust settled on regional play only two of the Pac-10’s record-setting eight teams were left standing. Here’s how each of the Pac teams fared:

3-0 ASU
3-0 UCLA
3-2 WSU
2-2 Oregon
1-2 ARIZONA
1-2 OSU
0-2 Cal
0-2 Stanford

The bottom line is if you lost twice you went home. The bottom line for the Pac-10 is a disappointing showing.

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The Cats had to hang up their high-fives for the year.
Photo by David Kadlubowski/The Arizona Republic

The Arizona Wildcats baseball team saw its season end with two losses in three games at the Fort Worth Regional in the 2010 NCAA tournament.

The weekend got off to a good – albeit uncomfortable – start. The Wildcats built a 10-4 lead against Baylor in Friday’s game before the Bears stormed back with five runs in the bottom of the 9th to put a real scare into the guys from Tucson.

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There’s something strange about this year’s college baseball tournament bracket.

West Coast fans will see a lot of familiar fonts this weekend.
Photo by Matt Pavelek/The Arizona Republic

Half of the 16 regionals feature a Pac-10 team.

It is very possible we will never see this again. But at the same time, with the exception of Oregon, each of this year’s Pac-10 participants has been in the tournament within the past two years. Even the odd men out, USC (2005) and Washington (2004), have made recent appearances.

Maybe this is just the result of a good baseball league becoming great.

Here is what each Pac-10 team is up against as it tries to survive and advance:

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