It’s amazing how much things can change in a week.
Last week, wins over Colorado, Washington and Washington State put the Arizona Wildcats on the precipice of cracking the AP Top 25.
Now, they aren’t even close.
UA didn’t receive any votes in the latest AP poll after being swept at home by USC and UCLA. They had received enough votes the week prior to make them the No. 31 team in the country.
The Wildcats plummeted in other metrics as well. They dropped from 21st to 37th in the NET ratings and from 28th to 41st in KenPom, which rates Arizona’s offense as the 21st-best in the country but its defense 63rd.
The Wildcats saw their Pac-12 championship hopes dim significantly as well.
At 3-3, they are sixth in the conference standings, three games behind first-place UCLA in the loss column. Had the Wildcats swept the Los Angeles schools, they would be tied for first right now with the Bruins. (Remember, there are no tiebreakers for regular-season championships.)
KenPom currently projects Arizona will finish 11-9 in the Pac-12, a sixth-place finish. The Wildcats were picked to finish fifth in the preseason media poll, what head coach Sean Miller actually thought was too high, so it’s not like you can say this season has been a surprise so far.
The Wildcats will try to get back to winning ways Thursday at Oregon State before a road game at No. 22 Oregon on Saturday. The Ducks are the only ranked team in the Pac-12.
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