While Arizona moved up to No. 5 in the Associated Press Top 25 poll Monday, the Wildcats also appear to be moving back into potential No. 1 NCAA Tournament seed territory.
Even before the Wildcats beat Colorado 99-79 on Saturday to finish a sweep of the Pac-12's mountain schools, ESPN's Bracketology projected the Wildcats would take the No. 1 seed in the West Region. CBS's Bracketology, which was updated Monday, moved UA from a No. 2 to a No. 1 seed.
The Wildcats are No. 3 in the NCAA's NET ratings and No. 4 in Kenpom, also indicating they are in potential range of a No. 1 seed.
In the AP poll, UConn and Purdue remained 1-2 at the top, while Houston moved from No. 5 to No. 3, Marquette moved from No. 7 to No. 4 and UA moved up from No. 8 to fifth.
Among other UA opponents this season, Duke stayed at No. 9 after beating Notre Dame and Boston College, Wisconsin dropped from 11th to 20th after losing to Michigan and Rutgers, Alabama moved up from No. 16 to No. 15 after losing to Auburn but beating LSU while Florida Atlantic dropped from 20th to 24th after losing to UAB but beating Wichita State.
Washington State (18-6), which is in second place in the Pac-12 at 9-4, received the 30th-most points in voting.
FWIW, here was my ballot.
Arizona nominated Pelle Larsson for Pac-12 Player of the Week after he averaged 22.5 points, 5.5 rebounds and 5.0 assists in the Wildcats' wins at Utah and Colorado. Larsson shot 60.7% from the field and 44.4% from 3-point range.
Leading a team to a road sweep will help Larsson's chances for the weekly award, but WSU's Jaylen Wells did the same thing. He averaged 18.5 points and 5.5 rebounds while making 10 of 12 3-point shots over the Cougars' wins at Oregon State and Oregon.
Arizona has nominated Larsson twice earlier this season, after Larsson scored 21 points in UA's Dec. 9 win over Wisconsin and after he led UA to a home sweep of USC and UCLA last month but he didn't win either award.
The Wildcats did not nominate a Freshman of the Week candidate. Guard KJ Lewis fouled out after eight minutes at Colorado and Motiejus Krivas was scoreless at Utah.
