Arizona moved up three spots to No. 3 in the Associated Press Top 25 poll Monday, behind only top-ranked Gonzaga and No. 2 Auburn.
This may actually not be good news for UA coach Tommy Lloyd, with the Wildcats struggling at times in wins over Colorado and Utah last week.
"Rat poison," Lloyd said Saturday, quoting Alabama coach Nick Saban when asked about the possibility the Wildcats would jump into the top three, after losses by Baylor, UCLA and USC.Β "This team is just sitting around and everybody's telling them how good they are.
"They've got to understand what makes them good. What makes them good is when they're edgy, they got a chip on their shoulder. They play incredibly hard. They attention to detail, they take care of the ball, and I feel like we've just slipped a little bit in those areas and and we've to fight to get them back."
The No. 3 ranking is the highest for the Wildcats since Arizona was No. 2 early in the 2017-18 season before dropping out completely following three losses in the Battle 4 Atlantis.
Gonzaga moved up to No. 1 after Baylor lost twice last week, while Auburn moved into the No. 2 spot despite getting more first-place votes (36) than the Zags (25) -- indicating Gonzaga was more consistently voted either No. 1 or No. 2.
UCLA fell from No. 3 to No. 9 after losing to Oregon while USC fell from No. 5 to 16 after losing to Stanford and Oregon.
The Ducks weren't ranked but picked up the 32nd most points in voting (15).
FWIW, I moved Arizona up two spots to No. 7 onΒ my ballot, with Gonzaga No. 1, UCLA at No. 9, USC at 17 and Oregon at 25.Β
The Wildcats are No. 2 in NET, No. 4 in SagarinΒ andΒ No. 8 in Kenpom.
