Arizona climbs back into college basketball top 10

By foxsports
Published

Arizona has made its way back into The Associated Press college basketball Top 10, moving up from 12th to ninth in this week's rankings. The Wildcats (22-5) have rattled off six consecutive wins following two straight losses to California and Oregon and are now tied with the Ducks atop the Pac-12 conference.

Arizona played only once last week, routing Arizona State 99-61.

Arizona concludes its conference road schedule this week with games at Colorado on Wednesday and Utah on Saturday. The Utes (21-7) are back in the Top 25 at No. 22 following a road sweep of UCLA and USC. Oregon (21-6) is ranked 13th.

Villanova remains No. 1, holding its comfortable lead over Kansas.

Villanova (24-3) received 45 first-place votes from the 65-member national media panel on Monday for its third week on top of the poll. Kansas (23-4) was No. 1 on 20 ballots to hold second.

Villanova will have its toughest test yet as the top-ranked team when the Wildcats travel to No. 5 Xavier on Wednesday.

Oklahoma and Virginia are tied for third and are followed in the top 10 by Xavier, Michigan State, North Carolina, Iowa, Arizona and Maryland.

No. 21 Texas A&M joins Utah as newcomers to the top 25 this week, replacing Dayton, which dropped out from 15th, and Providence, which was 23rd.