ASU crashes top 5; Arizona Wildcats back in poll at No. 23

The balance of power in Pac-12 basketball has shifted to the state of Arizona, and it’s tilting toward Tempe.

While Arizona reemerged in the AP top 25 poll at No. 23 Monday following a two-week hiatus, ASU jumped all the way from No. 16 to No. 5 following its 95-85 upset win at Kansas on Sunday.

ASU’s No. 5 ranking marked the first time the Sun Devils have reached the Top 10 since 1981, when they were led by guards Fat Lever and Byron Scott plus big man Alton Lister.

In the USA Today coaches top 25, ASU moved to No. 6 while UA also checked in at No. 23.

It is the first time since Arizona and ASU joined the then-Pac-10 in 1978-79 that the Sun Devils and Wildcats have been the conference’s only representatives in the AP Top 25.

ASU’s emergence apparently even caught the Washington Post off guard. The newspaper led the men’s basketball roundup in its print edition Monday with this headline: “Behind (Tre) Holder, Wildcats humble No. 2 Jayhawks.”

The Pac-12’s two Arizona teams have also hogged all the conference Player of the Week awards so far this season, too.

ASU guard Shannon Evans won Pac-12 Player of the Week honors Monday after averaging 20.0 points and 5.5 rebounds in the Sun Devils’ wins over St. John’s and Kansas, while shooting 50.2 percent from the field and posting an 11-1 assist-turnover ratio.

Holder won two straight weekly awards last month, giving ASU three of the past four Pac-12 Player of the Week awards, while Arizona’s Allonzo Trier won the first weekly award on Nov. 13 when he averaged 31.0 points in wins over NAU and UMBC.

UA forward Deandre Ayton won the Dec. 4 Pac-12 award after he averaged 20.5 points on 62 percent shooting in the Wildcats’ wins over Long Beach State and UNLV.

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Ayton also might have won the award Monday if it were just about any other week, one that didn’t include Evans’ performance and ASU’s stunning win at Kansas.

Last week, Ayton averaged 21.0 points and 14.0 rebounds in UA’s wins over Texas A&M and Alabama, with career-highs of 29 points and 18 rebounds against Alabama and 13 points and 10 rebounds against Texas A&M. Ayton also shot 59.3 percent over the two games.

After the UA beat Alabama 88-82 on Saturday, UA coach Sean Miller was defensive about Ayton, who has moved up to the No. 1 spot on the mock draft boards of Sports Illustrated and NBADraft.net.

“I don’t want to hear anything about his motor,” Miller said of some analyst views about Ayton. “They’re almost fabricating or inventing things that aren’t true. He is a special talent and we’ve seen it in a number of situations. When the game’s on the line, he rises to the challenge.

“He practices hard, he’s responsible, he’s takes care of business, but his ability as a player in my mind is unmatched.

“I don’t know how to describe what he’s able to do, as he’s so skilled and yet so big and athletic. Usually there’s one or the other. He has both.”

Ayton will get a chance to test himself in what will now be an even more charged UA-ASU game on Dec. 30 at McKale Center, against a Sun Devils team that is thriving with guard play from Evans, Holder, Kodi Justice and Remy Martin.

Among others, ASU (9-0) has now beaten Xavier, Kansas State, San Diego State and Kansas.

“I didn’t really have to coach a whole lot tonight,” the Arizona Republic quoted ASU coach Bobby Hurley as saying after Sunday’s game in Lawrence, Kansas.

“These guys sitting with me here (Evans, Holder and Martin) deserve all the credit just with their playmaking ability, their shot-making, their unselfishness, the energy they played with at both ends. ... It was a tremendous thing for me to witness and be a part of.”