Arizona climbed one spot to No. 2 in the Associated Press Top 25 poll Monday, sitting behind only coach Tommy Lloyd's former team at Gonzaga.
The Wildcats swept Oregon State and Oregon at home last week while Auburn (24-3) lost at Florida to drop out of the No. 3 spot.
Meanwhile, UCLA (to No. 12) and USC (16) each moved up one spot after both swept the Washington schools at home.
The Wildcats haven't been ranked No. 2 since Nov. 20, 2017, the poll released before they lost three games in the Battle 4 Atlantis event and fell completely out of the Top 25 the next week.
They haven't been No. 1 since they went 21-0 in 2013-14 and held the topΒ spot for eight weeks through Jan. 27, 2014. They weren't beaten until Feb. 1, 2014, losingΒ 60-58 at Cal in a game when standout forward Brandon Ashley suffered a season-ending foot injury.
FWIW, I had Arizona at No. 2, UCLA at 11 and USC at 18 on my AP ballot.
Arizona was projected as the third overall team in the NCAA Tournament field, and as South Region's No. 1 seed, during the selections committee's early reveal on Saturday.
The Wildcats probably moved to No. 2 overall with the committee after Auburn lost but would still be assigned to the South as of now because Gonzaga would be in the West as the top team overall. UA is No. 2 overall in the NCAA's NET ratings and inΒ Sagarin and No. 3 in Kenpom.
But the difference is only that UA would play second weekend games in San Antonio instead of San Francisco, and those cites are a similar distance from Tucson. The Wildcats are likely to play first-weekend games in San Diego no matter what region they are assigned.
Arizona nominated Bennedict Mathurin for Pac-12 Player of the Week after he averaged 22.0 points, 4.5 rebounds, 3.0 assists and had no turnovers in the Wildcats' wins over OSU and Oregon.
Among the other top candidates:
-- Colorado's Jabari Walker averaged 17.7 points and 11.0 rebounds over three road wins (OSU, Cal and Stanford) while shooting 53.3%. He also became the first Buff to pull down at least 15 rebounds in two straight games (OSU and Cal) in 20 years.
-- UCLA's Jaylen Clark averaged 21.5 points, 8.0 rebounds, 3.0 assists and 2.5 steals in the Bruins' home wins over WSU and Washington.
-- USC's Boogie Ellis averaged 15 points, 3.0 rebounds and 1.5 assists in the Trojans' home sweep. Ellis hit a game-winning jumper with 0.2 seconds left in USC's 62-60 win over Washington State on Sunday.
