Arizona came off its first win over a top 5 team in program history Friday beating No. 4 Stanford in overtime to losing yesterday at McKale Center to the Pac-12’s last-place team California.
Following that extreme split, Arizona (23-6, 12-6 Pac-12) remained ranked No. 13 in the AP Top 25 poll heading into this week’s Pac-12 Tournament at the Mandalay Bay Events Center at Las Vegas.
The Wildcats, seeded No. 4, play their first game Friday at 12:30 p.m., Tucson time, against either No. 5 seed ASU or No. 12 California. The Sun Devils and Golden Bears play in a first-round game at 12:30 p.m. Thursday.
The Pac-12 Tournament bracket:
The Wildcats have been ranked 15 consecutive weeks in the AP Top 25, matching the previous longest stretch that occurred in the 2002-03 season. The 1999-2000 team that finished 25-8 holds the record with 19 appearances.
The other ranked Pac-12 teams are No. 3 Oregon, No. 7 Stanford, No. 8 UCLA, No. 14 Oregon State and No. 24 ASU.
Arizona was seeded No. 13 in the NCAA tournament selection committee’s seeding ranking reveal last month. The second and final release will be during halftime of today’s South Florida-UConn game.
ESPN projects Arizona to be the 15th seed overall, which would mean the Wildcats would be a No. 4 seed and in position to host the first and second rounds of the NCAA tournament from March 20-23. A good performance in the Pac-12 tournament would strengthen that position with the Wildcats being only two spots out of the top 16.
Sunday’s loss to California dropped Arizona’s RPI rating to No. 27. The Wildcats were at No. 24. The Golden Bears (11-18) went to No. 130 from No. 136.
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ALLSPORTSTUCSON.com publisher, writer and editor Javier Morales is a former Arizona Press Club award winner. He is a former Arizona Daily Star beat reporter for the Arizona basketball team, including when the Wildcats won the 1996-97 NCAA title. He has also written articles for CollegeAD.com, Bleacher Report, Lindy’s Sports, TucsonCitizen.com, The Arizona Republic, Sporting News and Baseball America, among many other publications. He has also authored the book “The Highest Form of Living”, which is available at Amazon.
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