After receiving a tentative No. 1 NCAA Tournament seed in the selection committee's early reveal Saturday, Arizona moved up one spot to No. 4 in the Associated Press Top 25.
The Wildcats are 20-5 overall and 11-3 in the Pac-12 after beating ASU 105-60 on Saturday heading into a showdown Thursday with second-place Washington State (20-6, 11-4) at McKale Center. The Cougars, who moved into the rankings for the first time this season at No. 21, beat the Wildcats 73-70 on Jan. 13 in Pullman and have won seven straight games.
After losing at Ohio State, Purdue dropped from No. 2 to No. 3. UConn became the unanimous pick for the top spot, while Houston was second.
Among other UA opponents this season, Duke rose from No. 9 to No. 8 after beating Wake Forest and Florida State, Alabama rose from No. 15 to No. 13 after beating Texas A&M, while Wisconsin and FAU dropped out.
FWIW, this was my ballot.
Washington State became the first Pac-12 school to sweep the conference's weekly awards twice when Isaac Jones was named Pac-12 Player of the Week and Myles Rice was named Freshman of the Week.
Jones and Rice also picked up the conference weekly awards after leading WSU past Arizona in Pullman.
This time, Jones averaged 18.0 points while shooting 73.7% from the field and averaging 7.0 rebounds in the Cougars' home wins over California and Stanford. Rice averaged 19.5 points, 4.0 rebounds and 3.5 assists while shooting 46.4% from the field in the two games.
Arizona had nominated Jaden Bradley for Player of the Week and Paulius Murauskas for Freshman of the Week.
Bradley scored a career-high 21 points while shooting 8 of 11 from the field, making the only 3-pointer he took, while going 4 for 4 from the free-throw line. He also had four rebounds and five assists with no turnovers.
Murauskas hit both 3-pointers and all four free throws he took while scoring a career-high 12 points in just five minutes.
Isaac Jones is your Pac-12 Player of the Week!After surpassing 1,000 career points and leading the Cougs to their third-consecutive weekend sweep, @_ijonez earns his second POTW.WSU becomes the only school in Pac-12 history to sweep the weekly awards twice.#GoCougs // #CVE pic.twitter.com/Qk4UkQ4tLG
— Washington State Men's Basketball (@WSUCougarsMBB) February 19, 2024
