The Arizona Wildcats got a shot to their overall resume heading into the Pac-12 Tournament this week. After a loss to USC, Arizona bumped from fifth to sixth in the Associated Press’ final top 25 rankings for men’s basketball before UA’s postseason begins.
In terms of NCAA Tournament seeding, the loss to the Trojans bumped Arizona from a likely No. 1 seed to a No. 2 seed in most bracket projections for the Big Dance. Kylan Boswell #4 of the Arizona Wildcats looks sad from the bench during the second half against the Arizona State Sun Devils
Tennesee, which had been on the Wildcats’ heels heading into this past weekend, is now the fourth No. 1 seed, while North Carolina is the top-ranked No. 2 seed, according to a composite of bracket predictions.
Arizona has a chance to move back up the rankings and in NCAA Tournament positioning if it can get some help in other conference tournaments, then advance well past the winner of Washington and USC on Thursday to open its Pac-12 Tournament play.
Heading into the week of major conference tournaments, Houston remained atop the AP poll for the third consecutive week Monday while a couple of the game’s traditional blue bloods made big jumps as they peak just in time for postseason play.
The Cougars received 52 of 62 first-place votes from a national media panel after a week in which they beat UCF and routed then-No. 14 Kansas to clinch the Big 12 regular-season title in their first year in the league.
