Arizona women’s basketball back into the Top 15 of Associated Press Top 25

Arizona women’s basketball rose four spots to No. 14 in the Associated Press Top 25 after wins over then-No. 4 Utah and No. 21 Colorado. The team also improved in the NET, Her Hoops Stat Rating, and Massey Rating while solidifying their No. 4 position in the Pac-12 standings with the two wins.

The Wildcats are now sitting at No. 22 in the NET, an improvement of five spots. They are trying to get a top 16 seed to host the opening rounds of the NCAA Tournament and a run down the stretch with a good NET will go a long way toward making that a reality.

Massey agrees with the media voters. The Wildcats have also climbed four spots in that rating system to No. 14. Her Hoop Stats still lags behind all other indicators, putting Arizona at just No. 28, although it agreed with the four-place improvement from last week.

The Wildcats helped solidify their No. 4 spot in the Pac-12 rankings, which would give them a bye in the first round of the Pac-12 Tournament. They are a half-game ahead of UCLA, which plays at Stanford to complete this week’s games. Arizona also holds the tiebreaker over the Bruins.

Arizona is not far out of third place, either. It is now just one game in back of Colorado, which hosts Stanford and California next week. Climbing to third would likely mean missing Stanford in the semifinals, but the Cardinal still have ranked games against UCLA, Utah and CU. Two of the three are on the road.

ESPN Bracketology has not been updated since Feb. 17. Before Arizona defeated the Utes and the Buffs, Charlie Creme had them as the No. 6 seed in South Bend, Ind.

There was movement for several members of the Pac-12 in the AP poll. Stanford was not one of the teams that moved, though. The Cardinal are still No. 3 after defeating USC. They will host No. 17 UCLA tonight. The Bruins dropped one spot despite winning their only game of the week.

Utah is still in the Top 10, but the Utes tumbled four spots after losing to Arizona and getting a close win at Arizona State. Colorado held steady at No. 21.

USC fell out of the rankings after getting upset by unranked California in overtime on Sunday. The Women of Troy played to a three-point loss at Stanford before also losing by three to the Golden Bears. The game against the Cardinal was played without Rayah Marshall, who is in the running for national defensive player of the year. She was back for the loss in Haas Pavilion.

The Women of Troy got one vote at No. 25 to still be on the “others receiving votes” list. USC is the only unranked Pac-12 team that is still getting a vote.

Arizona next travels to Oregon on Thursday and Oregon State on Saturday to end the regular season. The Ducks are on a seven-game skid but still provide a good NET opponent. They are No. 24 in the NCAA’s rating system, dropping just two spots after getting swept at Washington and Washington State. The Beavers are on an eight-game losing streak and are No. 54 in the NET.