Arizona men’s basketball slips to 9th in Associated Press Top 25

With each impressive win, Arizona climbed the rankings from completely outside the Top 25 to just outside the Top 5. But the Wildcats’ journey to the top has hit a hurdle after losing at Tennessee last week.

The UA is ranked No. 9 in the latest Associated Press Top 25, down from No. 6 a week ago.

Arizona’s 77-73 loss at Tennessee helped the Volunteers jump from 19th to No. 14, while the teams the Wildcats were supposed to play this week—UCLA and USC, sit at No. 5 and No. 7, respectively.

Those games have been postponed due to COVID issues within the UCLA and USC programs. To shorten Arizona’s gap between games, a previously rescheduled home contest against Washington has been moved up to Jan. 3 at McKale Center.

The UA’s Jan. 13 home game against Colorado could also be in jeopardy after the Buffaloes had to postpone this week’s games against the Oregon schools due to COVID concerns. As it stands, Arizona only has 18 of its 20 Pac-12 games currently scheduled, with any that cannot be made up being considered a no contest according to the conference’s recently changed COVID-related cancellation policy.