Where Arizona women’s basketball stands in the AP poll, Pac-12 title race and NCAA Tournament picture

Polls, standings and rankings. Where is Arizona?

After the Arizona Wildcats dismantled the Oregon Ducks on ESPN2, the coaches around the sport moved them up one spot to No. 8. Perhaps the media had a memory lapse.

The Wildcats stayed put in the Associated Press poll this week, standing pat at No. 10 after winning three games by an average of 17 points. After defeating then-No. 11 Oregon for the second time this season, Arizona avenged its earlier loss against Washington State and won over Washington in the teams’ first matchup of the year.

Oregon moved down two spots to No. 13 in both polls this week.

In addition to the Wildcats and the Ducks, the Pac-12 placed Stanford and UCLA in both polls. The Cardinal moved up two spots to No. 4 in the WBCA Coaches poll and down one spot to No. 6 in the AP after beating Oregon State by 25 on Saturday. They play Oregon on Monday, Feb. 15.

UCLA once again ran into depth difficulties and was forced to cancel a game against Colorado on Sunday. The Bruins defeated Utah in their lone game this week. They stayed at No. 8 in the AP after falling from No. 4 to No. 7 in the coaches poll earlier in the week.

As of now, Arizona controls its own destiny for a Pac-12 title

Conference tournament seedings will be based on winning percentage in conference play. As the teams head into their final three or four regularly-scheduled games, a lot is riding not only on those games, but also on whether postponed games can actually be rescheduled.

Arizona head coach Adia Barnes is not confident that the Wildcats will be able to make up the five games that they are missing. She believes it may be more advantageous for teams that are looking for wins to make up their games against those in the bottom half of the conference.

“I don’t know how much people are gonna want to make up our game,” Barnes said. “Because it has to be mutually agreed upon. So, we’ll see.”

The four ranked teams remain in the top four of the standings in the Pac-12. Despite being three games behind Stanford in the win column, Arizona can win the Pac-12 regular-season championship outright if it wins out since that would include a victory over the Cardinal. The two teams are set to rematch in Palo Alto on Feb. 22. (However, the math could change if Stanford, UCLA and/or Arizona make up some of their postponed games.)

1. Stanford 15-2 (88.2 winning percentage)
2. Arizona 12-2 (85.7)
3. UCLA 10-3 (76.9)
4. Oregon 9-4 (69.2)
5. USC 8-7 (53.3)
6. Washington State 7-9 (43.8)
7. Colorado 6-8 (42.9)
8. Arizona State 5-7 (41.7)
9. Oregon State 4-6 (40)
10. Utah 4-13 (23.5)
11. Washington 2-11 (15.4)
12. California 0-10 (0)

Arizona projects as a 3-seed in the NCAA Tournament, according to both NET and bracketologists

The women’s game joined the men in the use of the NET Rankings for NCAA Tournament evaluation this season. With the limited amount of non-conference play this season, it’s unclear how accurate the tool is, but it will play its role regardless.

The first glimpse of exactly how much the committee will consider it comes at halftime of the Stanford-Oregon game on Feb. 15. The committee will reveal the top 16 seeds on ESPN during halftime of that game.

Currently, the Pac-12 has four teams that should be in that group based on NET. Stanford stands at No. 1. Oregon is next at No. 6, followed by UCLA at No. 8. Arizona is the final Pac-12 team with a No. 11 ranking. That translates to a 3-seed, which is also how ESPN’s Charlie Creme projects Arizona right now.

The only other Pac-12 team in the top 40 is Washington State, which comes in at No. 39. That would likely put them on the bubble for an NCAA Tournament appearance. Colorado at No. 57 is almost assuredly on the outside looking in.

ASU at No. 76 and Washington at No. 95 are the only other conference teams in the top 100.