Arizona Wildcats bump up to No. 3 in AP rankings, Zags on top
Feb 14, 2022, 10:40 AM | Updated: 10:42 am
Arizona Wildcats forward Azuolas Tubelis (10) gets pressure from Washington Huskies guard Terrell Brown Jr. (23) and Huskies center Riley Sorn (52) during a Pac-12 game between the Arizona Wildcats and the Washington Huskies on February 12, 2022 at Hec Edmundson Pavilion in Seattle, WA. (Photo by Jeff Halstead/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
(Photo by Jeff Halstead/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
The Arizona Wildcats (22-2) jumped over the Purdue Boilermakers to land at No. 3 in The Associated Press men’s basketball poll released Monday.
Purdue suffered an 82-58 loss to the Michigan Wolverines last week before rebounding with a one-point win against Maryland.
Arizona, ranked fourth last week, cruised to double-digit victories at Washington State and Washington to follow a rescheduled win at rival Arizona State last Monday.
Gonzaga reclaimed the No. 1 ranking in the men’s college basketball poll, while Providence climbed into the top 10 and Wyoming earned its first ranking in more than seven years.
Mark Few’s Bulldogs earned 56 of 60 first-place votes in Monday’s poll to swap positions with Auburn, which had spent the past three weeks at No. 1 but fell from the top spot after suffering its first loss since November.
Gonzaga (21-2) was the preseason No. 1 after last year’s run to the NCAA championship game for what became its only loss. The Zags spent three weeks at the top before falling out after a loss to Duke, and also spent a week at No. 1 in mid-January before being supplanted by Auburn.
Bruce Pearl’s Tigers earned the other four first-place votes despite losing in overtime at Arkansas last week to snap a 19-game winning streak.
After Arizona, No. 4 is Kentucky — which has its highest ranking since spending a week at No. 1 in November 2019. Purdue fell to fifth.
Kansas was next at No. 6, followed by reigning national champion Baylor and Providence, which climbed three spots to No. 8 for its highest ranking since spending a week in that same position in January 2016.
Duke and Villanova rounded out the top 10, with the Wildcats making the week’s biggest jump by climbing five spots.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
AP Top 25
| Record | Pts | Prv | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Gonzaga (56) | 21-2 | 1496 | 2 |
| 2. Auburn (4) | 23-2 | 1413 | 1 |
| 3. Arizona | 22-2 | 1370 | 4 |
| 4. Kentucky | 21-4 | 1350 | 5 |
| 5. Purdue | 22-4 | 1163 | 3 |
| 6. Kansas | 20-4 | 1151 | 8 |
| 7. Baylor | 21-4 | 1148 | 10 |
| 8. Providence | 21-2 | 1093 | 11 |
| 9. Duke | 21-4 | 1073 | 7 |
| 10. Villanova | 19-6 | 911 | 15 |
| 11. Texas Tech | 19-6 | 858 | 9 |
| 12. Illinois | 18-6 | 778 | 13 |
| 13. UCLA | 17-5 | 711 | 12 |
| 14. Houston | 20-4 | 700 | 6 |
| 15. Wisconsin | 19-5 | 631 | 14 |
| 16. Tennessee | 18-6 | 595 | 19 |
| 17. Southern Cal | 21-4 | 554 | 21 |
| 18. Ohio St. | 15-6 | 503 | 16 |
| 19. Michigan St. | 18-6 | 485 | 17 |
| 20. Texas | 18-7 | 410 | 20 |
| 21. Murray St. | 24-2 | 290 | 23 |
| 22. Wyoming | 21-3 | 190 | – |
| 23. Arkansas | 19-6 | 158 | – |
| 24. UConn | 17-7 | 112 | 24 |
| 25. Alabama | 16-9 | 80 | – |
Others receiving votes: Marquette 77, Xavier 51, Colorado St. 29, Saint Mary’s (Cal) 22, LSU 18, Iowa 17, Notre Dame 17, SMU 14, Rutgers 10, Virginia 4, South Dakota St. 3, Toledo 3, Miami 3, Boise St. 3, San Francisco 2, Belmont 2, Vermont 1, Wake Forest 1.
