After their exhilarating 86-75 overtime win over Iowa State on Monday night, Arizona moved up another seed line in the updated ESPN Bracketology on Tuesday. ESPN Bracketology guru Joe Lunaradi has Arizona as a fifth after being sixth in his previous update last week.
Lunardi projects Arizona as the fifth seed in the West Regional playing in the San Francisco sub-regional. Arizona is projected to play the winner of the First Four game by 12th-seeded Central Florida and Texas in the NCAA Tournament first round. The winner would play the Oregon-Middle Tennessee State winner in the second round.
Arizona defeated Central Florida 88-80 in their only regular-season meeting this season on January 11 in Tucson. With mega conferences the new reality in college basketball, teams from the same conference may play in the first round if two or more teams from that league are among the last four at-large seeded teams per the NCAA.
Lunardi has Ohio State, Texas, North Carolina and UCF as his last four teams in the NCAA Tournament. That would not fit in the NCAA's rules for seeding and bracketing. All four of the above teams are from different conferences.
— Joe Lunardi (@ESPNLunardi) January 28, 2025
Arizona is currently 12th in the ESPN Basketball Power Index. The Wildcats are 4-6 versus the BPI top 50 and have the fourth toughest remaining schedule according to their metrics. Arizona moved up from 15th in the NCAA Net Ratings to 11th with the win over Iowa State and is now 4-6 versus quadrant one opponents.
Arizona is at Arizona State on Saturday and BYU on February 4. Both of those games count at quad-one opponents on the road. ASU is 59th and BYU Is 38th in the Net Ratings. Playing in the Big XII will provide Arizona will multiple opportunities for quad-one wins during the remaining six weeks of the season.