After losing five of their last eight games, the Arizona Wildcats have dropped out of the Associated Press Top 25 heading into conference championship week and Selection Sunday.
Since being ranked No. 24 last week, Arizona beat ASU 113-100 and lost at Kansas 83-76. That put UA at 20-11 overall and 14-6 in the Big 12, where the Wildcats finished in a third-place tie with BYU entering the Big 12 Tournament this week.
However, ESPN still projects UA as a No. 5 NCAA Tournament seed, and CBS has the Wildcats as a No. 6 seed. Arizona is a No. 4 seed in the Bracket Matrix compilation, which includes many projections made before the Wildcats lost at Kansas on Saturday.
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The Wildcats had received a No. 3 seed in the NCAA’s early bracket reveal, which was released before UA lost to Houston on Feb. 15 at McKale Center.
Arizona, which received the 27th-most points in AP voting results, also fell out of the Top 25 on Dec. 2 after going 1-2 in the Battle 4 Atlantis over Thanksgiving week. The Wildcats resurfaced in the poll on Feb. 3 and spent five weeks in it before dropping out Monday.
BYU (23-8, 14-6) moved up from No. 23 to No. 17 after winning at Iowa State in overtime and beating Utah at home. The Cougars earned the No. 4 seed in the Big 12 Tournament because Arizona beat second-place Texas Tech and BYU did not, meaning they will open Thursday against Iowa State, Cincinnati or Oklahoma State.
Iowa State dropped from No. 10 to No. 12, snapping a streak of 25 straight weeks in the Top 10, while Big 12 regular-season champion Houston went from No. 3 to No. 2 in the AP poll.
Among other teams Arizona has faced this season, Duke took the No. 1 spot from Auburn, which lost to Texas A&M and Alabama and dropped to No. 3.
Contact sports reporter Bruce Pascoe at bpascoe@tucson.com. On X(Twitter): @brucepascoe
Bruce Pascoe
Reporter
