TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) — Arizona fans were spoiled during the Lute Olson era, a time when the Wildcats became one of the nation's elite programs with four trips to the Final Four and a national championship.
Then came a long wait, one talented team after another coming up just short of the Final Four or, at times, falling flat with unexpected early March Madness exits.
Last year's team, the fifth under coach Tommy Lloyd, had a different vibe, one season ticket holder Mike Myers could see long before March rolled around.
“I was fortunate to go to a practice early in the season,” said Myers, whose family has been Arizona basketball season ticket holders since before McKale Center opened in 1973. "My buddies knew I had gone and they said, ‘What do you think?’ I said, ‘I’m not going to jinx this, but this team looks different.’"
He was right.
Constructed with a blend of talent, size and grit, the Wildcats rolled through a 36-3 season all the way to the Final Four in Indianapolis.
A 25-year wait, finally over.
“In many ways, it generated flashbacks of when we went to four Final Fours in 13 years,” said Myers, who traveled to watch all of Arizona's Final Four appearances in person. “It was just awesome. It was great to see the team succeed.”
The Wildcats were blown out by eventual champion Michigan, but it did little to dampen the excitement from their big breakthrough.
The Wildcats enter this season among the favorites to get back to the Final Four next April in Detroit.
Big man Motiejus Krivas, a preseason AP All-American, and feisty forward Ivan Kharchenkov return from the Final Four team. Lloyd has filled in the rest of the roster with talented transfers and added potential star-in-the-making freshman Caleb Holt.
Always among the hunted, the fifth-ranked Wildcats now have an even bigger target on their backs following last year's Final Four run.
“The first thing with expectations is they’re a privilege — I don’t think you should look at it any other way,” Lloyd said. “The next thing is the sooner you can dissociate from what happened last year and understand this year is its own journey and kind of build from square one I think is the important thing.”
Lloyd is understandably looking forward, but last season's Final Four erased, at least in part, some bad memories for Arizona fans.
Previous coach Sean Miller, now at Texas, was a superb recruiter and routinely had talent-filled teams that fell short.
The 2010-11 team reached the Elite Eight in Miller's second season, but lost to UConn by two. Arizona reached at least the Sweet 16 three straight seasons from 2013-15, yet couldn't break through. The biggest disappointment came in 2014, when the Wildcats lost by two in overtime to Wisconsin, extending their Final Four-less streak.
Arizona went the NCAA Tournament the next three years, but two ended with first-round exits. The second, in 2018, came against Buffalo with a team that included Deandre Ayton, who would become the NBA's No. 1 overall pick a few months later.
“I still have nightmares about Wisconsin,” Myers said. “But the one that really shocked me was the team with Ayton on it. That team was definitely disappointing, especially with the Final Four being in Phoenix. It was kind of like the table was being set. We end up getting the first pick in the NBA and we don’t even get out of the first round.”
The trend continued after Lloyd took over.
Arizona went to the Sweet 16 three times in its first four seasons under the former Gonzaga assistant — wrapped around a 2023 loss to Princeton in the first round — yet couldn't seem to get past the NCAA Tournament's second weekend.
The Wildcats finally pulled it off last year, ending their fans' long Final Four wait.
With a loaded team, they're hoping to make it two straight this season, something not even Olson could pull off.
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FILE - Arizona center Motiejus Krivas (13) shoots over Utah State forward Karson Templin (22) during the first half of a game in the second round of the NCAA college basketball tournament, March 22, 2026, in San Diego. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill, File)
FILE - Arizona head coach Tommy Lloyd gestures during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game against Iowa State, March 2, 2026, in Tucson, Ariz. (AP Photo/Rick Scuteri)
Russia must be allowed to return to ice hockey's international tournaments, the Court of Arbitration for Sport ruled on Friday, overturning an exclusion in place since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
The ruling is a major win for Russia against efforts to bar it from international sports due to the war in Ukraine. Russian President Vladimir Putin is a noted hockey fan who has previously played exhibition games with former stars.
CAS overturned IIHF decisions which excluded Russia from events in the 2026-27 season, including the men’s and women’s world championships and world juniors. Russia also missed the Olympic tournaments this year.
Russia's return throws into uncertainty how the men's world championship will work next year in Germany, given that Ukraine has also qualified.
In a brief statement, CAS cited a lack of sufficient evidence to support the IIHF’s security concerns.
CAS said its ruling did not address issues such as whether Russia should be required to play without national symbols as a team of neutral athletes, as in some other Olympic sports, or other “organizational consequences.”
The IIHF expressed disappointment with the ruling and said it “maintains that its decisions were necessary to protect the safety and security of all participants and safeguard the integrity of its competitions."
“While the IIHF respects the authority of CAS and will act in accordance with its ruling, the outcome does not remove the concerns that informed its assessments.”
Russian Sports Minister Mikhail Degtyaryov wrote on the Telegram social media app that CAS “recognized the demands of the Russian Hockey Federation on key points as justified.”
The ruling is an immediate challenge for new IIHF President Franz Reindl, whose home country of Germany hosts the men's world championship next year.
“Our task now is to implement this ruling responsibly,” Reindl said in a statement. "Several championships are only weeks away, and changes to participation affect many people; players, teams, organizing committees and host cities. We will work closely with all of them to find practical solutions.”
German hockey federation chairman Frank H. Lutz said on Friday that Germany remains opposed to letting Russia take part and that “allowing Russia in has significant security, political and financial consequences for us as hosts.”
It's not clear how Russia would fit back in, since the draw has already been determined. Adding an extra team would make for uneven groups and an even longer tournament to fit in more games.
Kicking out a qualified team to make way for Russia would risk a backlash, especially if that team is Ukraine. It was last to qualify for the men's worlds, ending a 20-year wait, and is ranked lowest among the 16 teams currently taking part.
The Ukrainian Hockey Federation said it disagreed with the ruling and argued that security concerns had only intensified since 2022. Ukraine didn't indicate how it would approach the world championship.
The IIHF signaled “practical arrangements” would be decided after it has assessed the ruling.
The national hockey federations in Canada, Sweden, Finland and the Czech Republic all said they were disappointed by the ruling, but Swedish Ice Hockey Association chairman Anders Larsson told Swedish news agency TT that “a boycott is not on the table.” Finland indicated individual players could opt out of tournaments which include Russia.
Hockey Canada in a statement said the implications of the ruling are not immediately clear and that the organization had briefed its federal government on the situation.
The first tournament where Russia could return is the men's world junior championship hosted by Canada in Edmonton and Red Deer, Alberta, starting on Dec. 26.
Other events covered by the ruling are the women's world championship in Canada in November 2027, the men's under-18 world championship starting in April in Minnesota, and women's under-18 world championship in the Czech Republic in January.
A Russian team playing under its national flag, rather than as neutrals, could have political repercussions in the Czech Republic.
“As the president has stated several times in the past, as long as Russian aggression continues he considers it appropriate to ban the participation of athletes under the Russian and Belarusian flags," a spokesperson for Czech President Petr Pavel said.
The women's worlds beginning next week in Denmark are not affected because it counts as part of the 2025-26 season and was moved to November.
Russia/the Soviet Union’s 27 titles are second only to Canada’s 28 at men's worlds. Russia last won gold in 2014. Russia's best result at women's worlds is bronze.
Since 2022, Russia has organized exhibition games with developmental rosters, mostly against neighbors Belarus and Kazakhstan. The IIHF has also excluded Belarus, citing the same concerns as it did for Russia. There was no mention of Belarus in Friday's CAS ruling.
While the CAS ruling has no effect on the NHL, league officials have said they would follow the lead of the international community when it comes to Russian participation.
The NHL and NHL Players’ Association are running the 2028 World Cup of Hockey without the IIHF and national federations.
Asked about Russia last month, Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly said: “I think we know what our thinking is on World Cup of Hockey. We don’t need to make that decision yet, and the more information you have to make any decision, the better the decision will be.”
The hockey win at CAS is part of a broader shift in the Olympic movement toward reintegrating Russia, which had only small squads of “neutral athletes” at the 2024 Paris Olympics and this year's Milan Cortina Winter Olympics.
Swimming and volleyball allowed Russia to compete under its national flag this year. The International Olympic Committee eased its approach too, with a Russian team at the Youth Olympics this week.
Russia's next focus could be soccer, where its national teams and clubs remain excluded from major competitions.
Russian soccer federation general secretary Maxim Mitrofanov said it should be “one rule for all” in comments reported by state news agency Tass.
FIFA and European governing body UEFA have barred Russian teams from World Cup qualifying and the Champions League since 2022, when FIFA told CAS that boycott threats by Russia's upcoming opponents risked making the World Cup “chaotic.”
FIFA allowed a Russia boys' team to play under its national flag in the inaugural Under-15 World Cup and Festival in Azerbaijan, which began last week and ends on Saturday.
The Russian track and field federation said on Friday the hockey decision gave it “confidence” in its own CAS case against World Athletics, the last big Olympic sport with a blanket ban on Russian athletes.
Stephen Whyno in New York and Karel Janicek in Brno, Czech Republic, contributed to this report.
See AP’s full sports coverage here
FILE - Russian Sports Minister Mikhail Degtyarev attends the plenary session of the 'Russia is The Country of Sports' forum in Samara, Russia, Thursday, Nov. 6, 2025. (Sergei Karpukhin, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP, File)
FILE - Russia players celebrate during the Ice Hockey World Championship group A match between the Russia and Sweden in Riga, Latvia, May 31, 2021. (AP Photo/Roman Koksarov, File)
