Five days after winning the Maui Invitational, the Arizona Wildcats were celebrated again Monday.
The Wildcats jumped from No. 14 to No. 4 in the Associated Press Top 25 poll after beating Cincinnati and then ranked teams San Diego State and Creighton to win the prestigious early season event last week. Later Monday, Maui Invitational MVP Oumar Ballo was also named Pac-12 Player of the Week.
In the AP poll, Arizona was ranked behind only top-ranked Houston (6-0), No. 2 Texas (5-0) and No. 3 Virginia (5-0), while Purdue (6-0) jumped from No. 19 to No. 5 after beating Gonzaga and Duke last week. Houston defeated UA in the Sweet 16 last season.
Creighton rose three spots to No. 7, while future UA opponents Tennessee jumped nine spots to No. 13, UCLA fell two spots to No. 21 and San Diego State dropped from No. 17 to No. 24.
It was the Wildcatsβ first Top 5 appearance of the season. They finished at No. 2 last season β the final AP poll is taken before the NCAA Tournament β and opened this season at No. 17, then spent the last two weeks at No. 14.
Arizona's Oumar Ballo, center, holds the winning trophy after Arizona defeated Creighton 81-79 to win last week's Maui Invitational. Ballo, the Maui MVP, was named Pac-12 Player of the Week on Monday.
Pac-12 honors Ballo
After averaging 21.0 points and 10.7 rebounds in UA's wins over Cincinnati, San Diego State and Creighton, Ballo appeared to be a shoo-in for his first Pac-12 Player of the Week honors.
The stiffest competition Ballo might have had for the award was Washingtonβs Keion Brooks, who averaged 15.0 points, 8.0 rebounds, 2.5 blocks and 2.0 steals in the Huskies' wins over Fresno State and Saint Mary's en route to the Wooden Legacy title. Brooks had 14 points and 11 rebounds in Washington's 68-64 overtime win over Saint Mary's in the championship game.
Ballo had 30 points and 13 rebounds in Arizona's Maui Invitational championship game win over then-No. 10 Creighton on Nov. 23, while power forward Azuolas Tubelis had 30 points and 11 rebounds against Cincinnati two days earlier. They are the only teammates to have a 30-point, 10-rebound game so far this season.
Over the three games in Maui, Ballo also shot 27 of 34 (79.4%) from the field while blocking two shots and playing an average of 29.9 minutes. He hit just 9 of 20 free throw attempts.
After being awarded the MVP trophy Wednesday in Lahaina, Ballo took on a modest tone. He said it was "a little bit crazy" that he shot as well as he did,Β credited the UA guards for finding him with the ball, while saying the MVP honors were not evidence that he had arrived after three previous seasons in college basketball.
"We haven't done anything yet," Ballo said. "It's a long season. It's a marathon. So I'm just trying to run with the pace and trying to be available for my team."
Ballo's performance was somewhat reminiscent of the MVP performance that then-UA center Christian Koloko put up in the Las Vegas Main Event last November. Koloko averaged 17.5 points, 9.0 rebounds and 4.0 blocks per game in UA wins over Wichita State and Michigan, then picked up the Pac-12 Player of the Week award the following Monday.
Arizona has not had a player pick up Pac-12 Player of the Week honors since Bennedict Mathurin received it on Feb. 21 last season after averaging 22.0 points per game in the Wildcats' homecourt wins over Oregon State and Oregon. But overall, Arizona has now had 107 players named Pac-12 Player of the Week, the most of any team in the conference. UCLA is second with 83 weekly awards.
Pac-12 season starts Thursday
The Pac-12 for the first time will wrap both of each teamβs early-season conference games around its football championship game, which is scheduled for Friday between No. 4 USC and No. 12 Utah.
The leagueβs menβs basketball schedule will open Wednesday when USC plays at Cal. Arizonaβs game at Utah will be one of five conference games played Thursday. All 12 teams will conference games again on Sunday, with Arizona hosting Cal at 3 p.m.
Utah is 5-2, having beaten Georgia Tech but losing to Mississippi State in the Fort Myers Tipoff last week. The Utes then beat St. Thomas 95-66 on Saturday at the Huntsman Center.
Cal is 0-7, coming off losses to TCU (59-48) and Clemson (67-59) in the Emerald Coast Classic in Niceville, Florida.
