Wildcats drop to 10th in AP poll, rank just 26th in NET ratings after eight games

Arizona stayed in the Top 10 of the Associated Press Top 25 poll Monday but the first NET rankings of the season weren’t so kind to the Wildcats.

An official NCAA metric used in determining NCAA Tournament bids and seeding, the NET published its first rankings Monday with Arizona at No. 26. Although the Wildcats are still just four weeks into the season, a NET rating of 26 suggests a tournament seed in the 5-8 range.

What’s more, both UCLA (14th) and Utah (19th) had higher NET ratings than Arizona. After beating the Wildcats in Salt Lake City on Thursday, Utah went on to win at Washington State in overtime on Sunday, giving the Utes a Quad 1 and a Quad 2 win for the week (and the WSU win will become a Quad 1 win if the Cougars move their No. 78 NET ranking inside the Top 75).

Arizona is 7-1, but its relatively soft schedule and defensive struggles likely played a role in pushing down its NET ranking. The NET no longer considers scoring margin but just two factors, the “team value index” and “adjusted net efficiency,” both of which incorporate opponents’ strength and game locations.

As a result, Arizona’s first three victories, when they won by an average of 26.7 points over low-major teams, probably did not help its NET rating much. The Wildcats’ defensive efficiency ranking of 59 also likely dragged down the number.

Arizona has the nation’s third-best offensive efficiency, according to Kenpom, scoring 117.4 points per 100 possessions, but allows 95.8 points per 100 opponent possessions, for a net efficiency of 21.6 points per 100 possessions.

The Wildcats have played only one road game and Kenpom rates their schedule strength at 85th overall and 99th in nonconference games. In the NET, Arizona is 2-1 in Quad 1 games, 2-0 in Quad 3 games and 3-0 in Quad 4.

Wildcats drop six spots

Losses by Baylor (at Marquette) and Indiana (at Rutgers) helped keep the Wildcats in the AP Top 10 despite their 81-66 loss at Utah.

Arizona fell from No. 4 to No. 10, while the Wildcats will have a chance to move back up if they can beat the No. 14 Hoosiers on Saturday in Las Vegas. Indiana and Arizona are scheduled to play at 5:30 p.m. as part of a doubleheader that includes an opening game between UNLV and Washington State.

Among other Arizona opponents this season in the AP poll, Tennessee was No. 7, UCLA 19th, Creighton 21st and San Diego State 22nd.

Meanwhile, ASU picked up the 30th most points in voting while Utah (7-2) had the 31st most. The Wildcats and Sun Devils will meet at noon on Dec. 31 in Tempe.

Pac-12 honors Utes’ Worster

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After leading the Utes to their upset of Arizona, as well as a road win at Washington State, Utah guard Rollie Worster was named Pac-12 Player of the Week.

Worster had 12 points, 11 rebounds and nine assists against Arizona, while collecting a career-high 19 points and adding seven boards and four assists at Washington State.

UCLA’s Amari Bailey was named Freshman of the Week after averaging 16.5 points 5.5 rebounds and 2.0 assists in the Bruins’ wins over Stanford and Oregon.

Lloyd supports Larsson

Since the Wildcats’ first three home games, Arizona guard Pelle Larsson hasn’t scored in double figures and is shooting just 2 of 12 from 3-point range. He was 0 for 3 from 3-point range against both Utah and California.

But after Larsson had eight points while defending Cal standout Devin Askew on Sunday, Lloyd expressed plenty of support.

“Pelle’s a great player,” Lloyd said. “Obviously, his numbers maybe aren’t where he would like them to be or where we kind of expected them to be, but that happens sometimes. And if Pelle is my problem, then I probably don’t have very many problems, and Pelle is not a problem.

“He’s gonna figure it out and he’s gonna have a great season. … he’s a guy that I love having on our team and I completely trust.”

Ballo slips at line

Similarly, Lloyd said he wasn’t concerned about center Oumar Ballo’s free throw shooting. Ballo has been on a tear all season, averaging 19.1 points and 9.3 rebounds but made just 3 of 10 free throws Sunday to fall to 54.1% at the line so far this season.

Ballo hit 68 of 97 (70.1%) free throws last season.

“Oumar’s probably never going to be Larry Bird from the free-throw line but I know he’s better than he was today,” Lloyd said after the Cal game.

“There’s still value when you go through 3 of 10 from the line. I know we can get greedy and want a little bit more, but you put tons of foul pressure on that other team and those things are body blows. And he does a great job of wearing other teams out. He’s been really, really consistent so far this year, which is awesome to see.”