Despite losing at Colorado on Saturday, Arizona remained No. 2 in the Associated Press Top 25 poll Monday andΒ still widely projected to be in line for a No. 1 NCAA Tournament seed.
Several other teams on the one- and two-seed lines also suffered losses last week, including Gonzaga, Auburn and Kansas, helping the Wildcats retain their projections.
However, Arizona was just ahead of No. 3 Baylor and No. 4 Duke in Top 25 voting, both of whom received first-place votes while UA did not receive any.
USC, which will host Arizona on Tuesday at the Galen Center, stayed at No. 16 after a sweep in Oregon while UCLA dropped from No. 12 to No. 17.
CBS' Bracketology still has UA as the No. 1 seed in the South Region, while the majority of brackets in the Bracket Matrix have the Wildcats as a No. 1 seed -- including the ones that were updated after Arizona lost at Colorado on Saturday.
Arizona dropped to No. 3 in KenpomΒ and SagarinΒ ratings but is No. 2 in the NCAA NET ratings.
FWIW, I had Arizona fourth on my AP Top 25 ballot, moving Duke and Auburn ahead of the Wildcats.
Five-star guard Kylan Boswell is expected to pick Arizona over Illinois and UNLV when he makes his announcement Monday. He is scheduled to make it via the CBS HQ stream at 1 p.m.
Boswell officially visited Arizona during its win over Oregon on Feb. 19 and has made several previous trips to campus as an unofficial visitor, since he's spending this season at Chandler's AZ Compass Prep.
Arizona nominated guard Kerr Kriisa for the Pac-12 Player of the Week award after he posted a triple-double last Thursday at Utah, but USC's Drew Peterson may be the frontrunner after leading the Trojans to a sweep in Oregon over the weekend.
In the Ducks' wins at OSU and Oregon, Peterson averaged 21.5 points, 9.0 rebounds and 2.5 assists while shooting 46.9% overall, 50% from 3-point range and 88.0% from the line. He had 23 points and 10 rebounds in a 94-91 double-overtime win over OSU last Thursday and then had 20 points including a game-winning 3-pointer in USC's 70-69 win at Oregon on Saturday.
Peterson scored just five points in Arizona's 72-63 win over USC on Feb. 5 at McKale Center but the two teams will meet again Tuesday with the Pac-12 regular-season title on the line.
Arizona will clinch the Pac-12 title with a win. With a loss, Arizona will have to beat Stanford or Cal at home to clinch a tie or the Wildcats can win it outright with a sweep or one win and a USC loss to UCLA on Saturday.
