Ranked 10th in the preseason, then bouncing in and out of the Associated Press Top 25 throughout 2024-25, Arizona wound up ranked No. 15 in the AP’s postseason poll on Tuesday.
The ranking earned UA coach Tommy Lloyd a $20,000 bonus for finishing between 11-15 in the final poll, and a final athletic incentive total of $90,000. Lloyd, who is being paid $5.25 million in guaranteed compensation this season, already had earned $20,000 for winning 20 regular-season games and $50,000 for reaching the Sweet 16.
The Wildcats, who finished at 24-13 after losing to Duke in the NCAA Tournament Sweet 16, fell from the AP poll twice during the season.
They first dropped out on Dec. 2 after going 1-2 in the Battle 4 Atlantis over Thanksgiving week. UA resurfaced in the poll on Feb. 3 and spent five weeks in it before dropping out following an 83-76 loss at Kansas on March 8.
But after beating Kansas and Texas Tech in the Big 12 tournament, the Wildcats moved back in at No. 21 entering the NCAA Tournament and climbed six more spots after beating Akron and Oregon during their first two NCAA Tournament games.
Big 12 champion Houston (35-5) unsurprisingly finished second in the AP poll behind Florida (36-4) after losing to the Gators in the NCAA championship game Monday, while Big 12 second-place team Texas Tech (28-9) wound up No. 8.
BYU (26-10), which finished in a third-place tie with Arizona, was ranked No. 13 while fifth-place Iowa State (25-10) was ranked No. 17.
Arizona head coach Tommy Lloyd gathers the Wildcats in a brief huddle as they get ready for a Sweet 16 game against No. 1 seed Duke in the men’s NCAA Tournament in Newark, NJ, March 26, 2025.
In the AP’s preseason poll, the Big 12 had five teams in the Top 10, counting Kansas (1), Houston (4), Iowa State (5), Baylor (8) and Arizona (10). But Kansas and Baylor finished unranked while only Houston remained in the Top 10 of those five; Texas Tech was unranked in the preseason.
The Wildcats finished the season with a NET ranking of No. 10, having gone 10-12 in Quad 1 and 6-1 in Quad 2 games.
Five-star guard Burries to announce Wednesday
While the Wildcats are waiting to see if forward Carter Bryant will declare for the NBA Draft, two recruiting websites are indicating they likely will receive a commitment from Bryant’s longtime club teammate for 2025-26.
Five-star guard Brayden Burries posted that he will announce where he’ll play next season at 9:45 a.m. on ESPN’s SportsCenter.
On3’s “Recruiting Prediction Machine” gave Arizona an 81.1% chance of landing Burries, while USC was listed second with a 3.6% chance, and 247 analyst Travis Branham indicated Burries was a UA lean on a 247 video.
“There’s been one school that has steadily popped up, and that is Arizona,” Branham said. “If I have to make a prediction right now on this show, I’m placing my prediction on Tommy Lloyd and the Arizona Wildcats.”
Although 247 Sports did not post a formal “Crystal Ball” pick for Burries as of Tuesday afternoon, a “way too early Top 25” post from 247’s Isaac Trotter noted that the Wildcats are “firmly in the mix for five-star guard Brayden Burries, who is a bucket.”
A 6-4 combo guard from Roosevelt High School in Eastvale, Calif., Burries has announced a final five of Arizona, USC, Oregon, Texas and Alabama. A longtime target of the Wildcats who played club ball with Bryant from ages 9 to 15, Burries is ranked No. 11 overall in the class of 2025.
Not only have the Wildcats been recruiting Burries for years, but Bryant also stopped by the Section 7 recruiting event in Glendale last June to watch him. Bryant and Burries were also both on the “Portland Generals” team that scrimmaged against top USA junior players before last spring’s Hoop Summit game.
He says, “let’s play together again,” Burries said of Bryant at Section 7. “That’s pretty much it.”
Arizona target Brayden Burries conducts an interview after playing in a Section 7 game for Roosevelt High School on June 22, 2024, at State Farm Stadium in Glendale.
Bryant, meanwhile, moved up from No. 23 in ESPN’s February Mock NBA Draft to No. 20 in the post-NCAA Tournament mock draft it posted Tuesday.
Wildcats 11-23 in ‘way too early’ Top 25s
The “way too early” media posts out Tuesday, all subject to considerable change because of transfer portal and NBA decisions to come, had Arizona ranked between No. 11 and No. 23 for the upcoming season.
The Wildcats were No. 11 in the Athletic’s version, 17th in ESPN‘s, 18th in 247’s, 19th in SI‘s and 23rd in USA Today‘s.
ESPN’s Jeff Borzello added “ground rules” to his picks that said any player in the top 50 of ESPN’s NBA Draft rankings would be considered a departure, meaning Bryant was not included in his assessment.
“This is another team that probably will have a dramatically different lineup for our next update,” Borzello wrote about UA. “The Wildcats need another guard, and they’re targeting five-star recruit Brayden Burries.
Perry’s Koa Peat (10) draws a crowd of Badgers including Tucson’s Malaki Cunningham-Hiadzi (22), Adam Armadillo (5) and Xavier Grajeda (1) while dragging down an offensive rebound in their game at Tucson High on Jan. 7.
“They could also use another versatile frontcourt player, given that it’s unlikely the trio of Koa Peat, Tobe Awaka and Motiejus Krivas will play together all that much for Tommy Lloyd. Peat is a terrific player, and it won’t be a surprise to see him assume the role as the team’s go-to guy right off the bat.”
