Arizona finished with a No. 6 ranking in the final Associated Press Top 25 regular-season poll Monday, and the Wildcats are correspondingly being projected as a No. 2 NCAA Tournament pick heading into the Pac-12 Tournament this week.
Updated bracket projections from CBS and ESPN both have Arizona as the Β West's No. 2 seed behind Tennessee. CBS has the Wildcats opening with No. 15 South Dakota State in the first round at Salt Lake City on March 21 while ESPN forecasts that game being against Montana.
The Bracket Matrix compilation of forecasts has Arizona as the sixth-rated team overall, behind Tennessee in fourth and North Carolina in fifth, with all of the projections implying Arizona will need to win the Pac-12 Tournament and hope Tennessee and North Carolina lose early in their conference tournaments in order to become a No. 1 seed.
In the AP poll, the top three remained the same, with Purdue at No. 3 behind No. 1 Houston and No. 2 UConn. Among other UA opponents this season, Duke sank from No. 9 to 11, Alabama dropped from 16 to 19 and Washington State fell from 18 to 22.Β
FWIW, here was my AP Top 25 ballot.
