Arizona Basketball moves to No. 14, Bay Area Trip Up Next

Arizona Basketball is moving up the AP Top 25 chart and landed at No. 14 this week above ASU. The Wildcats take on Cal and Stanford on this weeks road trip.

The order has been restored in the AP Top 25 basketball poll this week as the Arizona Wildcats (14-4, 4-1 Pac-12) jump from No. 17 to No. 14 in the nation following home wins vs. Oregon State (10-7, 2-3) and Oregon (12-6, 2-3).

Arizona State (14-3, 2-3), however, dropped from No. 11 to No. 16 after a home loss to Oregon and a very narrow win over Oregon State.

Week 11 of the AP Top 25 poll marks the first time the Wildcats have been ranked higher than the Sun Devils since before the Battle 4 Atlantis debacle when Arizona was ranked No. 2 at 3-0 and ASU was unranked.

Arizona Wildcats Basketball

Next Up

After the home sweep of the Oregon schools, the Cats will head to the Bay Area to take on California and Stanford.

Arizona at California: Haas Pavilion, Wednesday 1/17, 7:00 pm MST, Pac-12

The Golden Bears (7-11, 1-4) come into Wednesday’s contest having limped through the first half of the season.

Losses to UC Riverside, Central Arkansas, Portland State, and a sweep in the Maui Invitational tell the story of a Cal team that is struggling to find itself under Wyking Jones.

Cal’s one conference win, however, came against the Stanford Cardinal. The Bears rallied from a 13-point halftime deficit in Palo Alto to beat Stanford 77-74 at Maples Pavilion to open conference play.

Haas Pavilion has proven to be a difficult place to play for Arizona in recent history; the Wildcats are 2-2 in their last four trips to Berkeley.

Miller had this to say about Cal in today’s press conference: “I think the one thing about Cal that’s really clear is that they’re a great offensive rebounding team, the best offensive rebounding team in the conference. They play with a lot of energy, they have two big guys that are great offensive rebounders.

Marcus Lee, a transfer from Kentucky who’s older, he’s in his fifth year, and they have a number of younger players that play really hard, so they get second shots because of that [and] you foul them a lot. They also press, and even when they’re not pressing, they will turn you over; they’ll steal the ball, they’ll deflect, they shoot as well as any team in our conference as well. Again, Marcus Lee is a big part of that, and they use those shot-blocks to get out in transition.”

Arizona at Stanford: Maples Pavilion, Saturday 1/20, 2:00 pm MST, CBS

The Cardinal (10-8, 4-1) had a bit of a rough start in non-conference play, losing four in a row to North Carolina, Florida, Ohio State, and Portland State.

After their conference season-opening loss to Cal, however, Stanford has rattled off four straight wins, a home sweep of the SoCal schools (including this game-winning full-court shot) and a road sweep of the Washington schools.

Miller on Stanford: “Stanford has a lot of experience, maybe the most returning experience in our conference; but, I also know they’ve battled through a significant amount of injuries in the non-conference season. When you have your most experienced starters, and…guys not there (and they played a tough schedule as well), you can get on a losing streak and maybe not be as good as you can be. But they’re 4-1, and ironically they had a big lead against Cal, in the only game they lost, and Cal made a great comeback in the second half to beat them. Stanford is a good team and it seems like they’re playing their best with a lot of confidence, and in fairness to them, they’re healthy.”

Final Thoughts

Despite Stanford having the best conference record through five games, anything less than a sweep would be somewhat disastrous. In order to be on the level that Arizona aspires to be, the team needs these two road wins. The defensive effort looked better in stretches during this homestand, but the Cats need to sustain that effort for 40 minutes. There is no easy road wins in the Pac-12, and even though Arizona should win these games. Keep in mind though, as Miller advised in today’s press conference, both teams have the ability to upset the Wildcats if the intensity isn’t there.

Miller in conclusion: “We’re trying to accomplish significant things, and we’re competing, we’re trying to win every game. Winning both on the road, sweeping, leaving with two road victories, is not an easy thing to do. We can be a very good team and not do that.”

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The last Wildcat road trip ended with a loss in an early Saturday game after a win on a Thursday night and Sean Miller lamenting on his lack of connection with his players. It seems Miller is more optimistic these days. Let’s hope that this road trip ends a little differently.