There was a different No. 1 team in the Associated Press Top 25 poll for the third consecutive week when it updated Monday. Previously, Kansas and Purdue both held the top spot. This week it’s Arizona.
“It’s what we want in this program,” Arizona coach Tommy Lloyd said this weekend, following an 82-55 victory over Colgate, about the possibility of the Wildcats moving to No. 1 in the AP poll for the first time since January 2014. “I think we’ve got to get comfortable being in this position. We can’t get big heads or make too big of a deal of it.”
Arizona was already No. 1 in the CBS Sports Top 25 And 1 daily college basketball rankings, having moved there Saturday morning after Purdue lost 92-88 in overtime at Northwestern on Friday night. Among the reasons I went with Arizona is because the Wildcats are the only undefeated team in the country with multiple wins over schools also ranked in the Top 25 And 1 — specifically a 78-73 win at No. 18 Duke and a 74-68 neutral-court victory over No. 19 Michigan State. Purdue (7-1) and Kansas (7-1) — the schools that are No. 2 and No. 3, respectively, in Monday morning’s updated Top 25 And 1 — both have better wins than Arizona (7-0), I acknowledge. But, again, Arizona has two good wins, the best road win and a zero in the loss column, and that’s enough for me to place the Pac-12 favorite ahead of the Boilermakers and Jayhawks, at least for now.
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