Arizona was ranked No. 1 in the AP Men's Top 25 basketball poll last week, which is a historical and defining statistic, no matter its Saturday outcome against Alabama.
Why? Here's the up-to-date list of leaders, teams ranked No. 1 each week since the AP poll began in 1949:
– Duke, 147
– UCLA, 134
– Kentucky, 125
– North Carolina, 113
– Kansas, 81
– Indiana, 54
– Cincinnati, 45
– Arizona, 40
As Lute Olson said on Dec. 21, 1987, the first day Arizona was ever ranked No. 1: "Regardless of how long it lasts, you can't under-rate the value of it for long-range effects for our program." Bingo.
Arizona is similarly ranked in Blue Blood territory for number of votes received in the 76 years of the AP poll, a list that is up-to-date to last week:
– Kentucky, 18,495
– North Carolina, 17,894
– Duke, 17,844
– Kansas, 16,230
– UCLA, 13,161
– Arizona, 9,957
That's about as elite as it gets in college basketball. In December 1987, Arizona athletic director Cedric Dempsey said: "Once you get to that status of recognition, it's a lot easier to stay there."
Arizona has stayed there, being ranked No. 1 in eight seasons.
Being ranked No. 1 is a fleeting honor, as Arizona has learned, sometimes painfully. Only 10 teams in 76 years have gone wire-to-wire as No.1: San Francisco in 1956, Ohio State in 1961, UCLA in 1967, 1969, 1972 and 1973, Indiana in 1976, UNLV in 1991, Duke in 1992 and Kentucky in 2015.,
The Wildcats went into Saturday's game at Alabama with a 47-9 regular season record as the AP's No. 1 team. That's crazy good. What we've learned is that when the No. 1 team hits the road, the road hits back. Here's a list of the teams that beat No. 1 Wildcat teams (all but one were on the road):
– 1988: Lost 61-59 to New Mexico and lost 82-74 at Stanford.
– 1989: Lost 82-80 at No. 2 Oklahoma.
– 1998: Lost 95-87 to No. 3 Duke in Hawaii.
– 2001: Lost 72-69 at Purdue.
– 2003: Lost 66-65 at LSU and lost 82-77 to Stanford at McKale.
– 2014: Lost 60-58 on a last second shot at Cal.
– 2024: Lost to No. 3 Purdue on the road, 92-84.
Not every team is as fortunate as Arizona. Seven teams were ranked No. 1 for just one week, ever: Oklahoma State in 1951, Wichita State in 1964, South Carolina in 1969, Georgia Tech in 1985, Iowa in 1987, St. Joseph's in 2004 and Wisconsin in 2007.
When the Wildcats were first ranked No. 1 on that memorable December day in Pullman, Washington, awaiting a game against Washington State that night, Steve Kerr famously said "Now I can say to my kids 10 years from now that I played on the No. 1 team in the nation."
But then Kerr laughed and said, "unfortunately, the local paper today referred to us as the Arizona Sun Devils."
Those days are gone. The Sun Devils have been ranked in the AP Top 25 just 113 weeks in 76 years, which is 78th nationally, behind St. Bonaventure, of all teams.
If you would like a more in-depth look at the history of the AP's top 25, I highly recommend elipowell.com.
