Arizona’s streak of 61 straight appearances in the Associated Press Top 25 men’s basketball poll is officially over.
Not that it was a surprise after the Wildcats lost four of their past five games, but UA dropped out of the poll Monday for the first time in over three years.
The Wildcats (3-4) had been ranked constantly since Nov. 22, 2021, after coach Tommy Lloyd’s first UA team beat Wichita State and Michigan to win the Main Event mini-tournament in Las Vegas.
That season, when Lloyd replaced Sean Miller as coach, the Wildcats were unranked in the preseason poll and in the first poll of that regular season but rose all the way to No. 2 and held that spot for the final four weeks of the season. Arizona lost in the 2022 Sweet 16 to Houston but AP Top 25 polls were not conducted after the NCAA Tournament until last season.
In 2022-23, the Wildcats were ranked No. 17 in the preseason poll and never were ranked lower during the season, reaching as high as No. 5. Last season, UA started at No. 12 and finished in the same place but spent two weeks at No. 1 in December.
This season, Arizona was ranked No. 10 in the AP Preseason Top 25, rose to No. 9 a week later and fell to No. 17 after losing 103-88 at Wisconsin on Nov. 15. They lost 69-55 to Duke on Nov. 22 and dropped again to No. 24 before losing two of three games in the Battle 4 Atlantis last week in the Bahamas.
Arizona has a light early December schedule to recover from its Battle 4 Atlantis experience. The Wildcats are scheduled to next face Southern Utah (7-2) on Saturday in McKale Center, then won’t play again until they play UCLA (6-1) on Dec. 14 in Phoenix.
Oklahoma jumps in
The winner of the Battle 4 Atlantis, Oklahoma (7-0), jumped into the AP poll at No. 21 while Kansas (7-0) remained atop the poll.
Among other UA opponents this season, Iowa State (5-1) dropped one spot to No. 6, Houston (4-3) dropped 11 spots to No. 17 after losing to San Diego State, Duke (5-2) moved to No. 9 despite losing to Kansas, Wisconsin (8-0) rose four spots to No. 11, Cincinnati (6-0) jumped to No. 14 and Baylor (5-2) was 15th.
ASU, which moved to 7-1 after beating New Mexico and Saint Mary’s at the Acrisure Classic, remained unranked but received the 30th most points.
Big 12 honors Mountaineer duo
In part because of how they helped beat the Wildcats in the Battle 4 Atlantis third-place game on Nov. 29, West Virginia’s Javon Small and Tucker DeVries picked up Big 12 weekly honors on Monday.
Small, who had 14 points and eight rebounds against Arizona, was the Battle 4 Atlantis’ leading scorer with an average of 23.7 points a game. He had 31 points in the Mountaineers’ upset of Gonzaga in the first round, a loss that sent the Zags down in the rankings from No. 3 to No. 7.
Small had another 26 points in West Virginia’s second-round loss to Louisville on Nov. 28, then came back for 14 points against the Wildcats, playing 42 or more minutes in each of the Mountaineers’ three overtime games.
Small made only 2 of 9 shots from the field against UA but went to the line for 9 for 10 free-throw shooting and dished the eight assists to three turnovers.
“I thought he was incredibly good at both ends of the floor, controlling the game,” West Virginia coach Darian DeVries said. “He’s just a winner. What I loved about him (against UA) was he recognized some other guys had it going. He was a very willing passer. He’s all about the right things all the time.”
Tucker DeVries, Darian’s son, was named Big 12 co-newcomer of the week along with Iowa State’s Keshon Gilbert. DeVries averaged 16.7 points in the Battle 4 Atlantis while shooting 54.5% from 3-point range over three games; Gilbert was named to the Maui Invitational all-tournament team after averaging 20.7 points in three games.
DeVries set a Battle 4 Atlantis record by hitting eight 3-pointers against Arizona, while doing so on just 12 attempts.
“There’s not many guys in college basketball that can make those” shots that DeVries hit, UA coach Tommy Lloyd said.
