Arizona basketball moves into top-10 of AP Poll, ASU remains in
Jan 29, 2018, 10:20 AM
A sweep of Colorado and Utah at home this week built the Arizona Wildcats’ winning streak to six games, and that has Sean Miller’s team making the leap into the top-10 of the Associated Press rankings.
Arizona moved from 11th to ninth, while rival Arizona State split over the weekend and fell from No. 21 to No. 25, keeping the Sun Devils in the poll for the 10th straight week.
The Sun Devils fell to the Utes in overtime, 80-77, on Thursday before recovering to beat the Buffaloes on Saturday. That continued a trend for ASU, which at 16-5 overall and 4-5 in Pac-12 play has started each of its last four weeks with a loss, then followed it up with a win.
Arizona State, which entered the poll on Nov. 27 and at one point was ranked No. 3 in the country, began Pac-12 play with a loss in Tucson.
Meanwhile, the Wildcats (18-4) have gone 8-1 in conference, losing only to Colorado on Jan. 6. They beat the Buffaloes 80-71 on Thursday before holding on to drop Utah on Saturday, 74-73. Arizona won both games this week without starting guard Rawle Alkins, who has missed three of his last four with soreness in his surgically-repaired foot.
Arizona moved back into the top-10 for the first time since it fell out of the top-25 entirely on Nov. 27 despite holding a No. 2 ranking the week prior.
Atop the AP Poll, Villanova, Virginia, Purdue and Duke remain the highest-ranked teams, in that order. Fifth-ranked Kansas fell to seventh, and Michigan State moved from sixth to fifth.
