With No. 1 ranking probably on the way, Cats in extremely healthy place

When center Oumar Ballo says the possibility of Arizona being ranked No. 1 on Monday doesn’t mean anything “because it’s not March,” he has a point.

College basketball, in the end, is always defined by its postseason. Over the years, the Wildcats’ seasons have been probably known more often as an “Elite Eight” or “Sweet 16” or “Final Four” team than as a Pac-12 champion or a team that held a No. 1 ranking at whatever point.

Also notable: During the one season that the Wildcats won the national championship, 1996-97, they never rose higher than No. 6 in the Associated Press Top 25 poll, which isn’t conducted after the NCAA Tournament begins.

But reaching the top spot in the AP Top 25 does get more people talking about you, does put you at the top of ESPN’s ticker, and, maybe more than anything, is an overall barometer of an elite program's health.

During the 15 peak years of the Lute Olson era, from 1987-88 to 2002-03, the Wildcats held the No. 1 spot for a total of 29 weeks over five seasons, counting preseason polls in 1997-98 and 2002-03.

Also in that 15-year period: The Wildcats reached four Final Fours and, with a relatively young collection of talent recruited in the wake of previous successes, won that 1997 title.

Conversely, Arizona has not held the No. 1 spot since the week of Jan. 27, 2014, when the Sean Miller era began sliding slowly downward.

Six days after that poll was released, standout forward Brandon Ashley suffered a major foot injury in the Wildcats’ 60-58 loss at Cal. The Wildcats, who entered that game 21-0, had their invincibility shattered.

Arizona lost four more games that season without Ashley and it was hardly a stretch to imagine he could have easily made the difference in the Wildcats’ 64-63 overtime loss to Wisconsin in the 2013-14 Elite Eight. While Ashley came back the next season in part because of the injury, the Wildcats lost again to Wisconsin in the Elite Eight.

From there, the Wildcats were shocked by Wichita State in the first round of the 2016 NCAA Tournament, then coughed up a Sweet 16 loss to Xavier in 2017 before, later that year, FBI agents barged into the home of UA assistant coach Book Richardson.

Back to homepage

Subscriber Login

Keep reading with a digital access subscription.

Subscribe now

You probably know the rest of that story.

By 2021, in came Tommy Lloyd from Gonzaga to replace Miller and, thanks in part to a core of Miller-recruited players, the Wildcats rose all the way to No. 2 for four weeks at the end of the 2021-22 season before gaining a No. 1 NCAA Tournament seed.

Last season, the Wildcats were ranked as high as No. 4, though they lost in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, and last week they moved up to No. 2 after beating Michigan State.

With the Wildcats now at 7-0 after beating Colgate 82-55 on Saturday, evidence suggests they’ll take the top spot this week. No. 1 ranked Purdue lost in overtime at Northwestern on Friday, while five other Top 10 ranked teams also lost in the past week.

Of the other unbeaten teams, Houston appears to have the best résumé after winning at Xavier on Saturday, while Baylor moved to 8-0 after beating a pair of low-major teams last week. No other remaining unbeaten team was ranked higher than BYU was at No. 19 last week.

Kansas appears to have the strongest case of any beaten team, sitting at 7-1 with wins over Kentucky, Tennessee and Connecticut — and a loss only to Marquette.

So the Wildcats probably will move to No. 1. But, even if they don’t, what may really matter is that they could be in a healthier place than they’ve been for nearly a decade.

Some appropriate perspective might come from freshman guard KJ Lewis, who was an elementary student in Vail a decade ago.

“Being a freshman on this type of team, with this type of bullseye on your back, just adds fire,” Lewis said. “It adds confidence.”