Arizona is at Oklahoma State on Tuesday night and hosts Colorado on Saturday before hosting Iowa State on January 27. The Wildcats need to beat the Cowboys and Buffaloes. After starting 4-5 this season, Arizona can't afford any bad losses in the Big XII.
Oklahoma State and Kansas State on February 11 are the only two Big XII road games for Arizona that will be outside quadrant one in the NCAA Net Ratings. Oklahoma State is 109th and Kansas State 118th in the Net Ratings. Games in Stillwater and Manhattan will be quad two games.
Road games in quad one are versus teams ranked first through 75th. Colorado is 81st in the Net Ratings. Arizona will have a quad three game versus Colorado at home. Quadrant three home games are versus teams ranked 76th through 160th in the NCAA Net Ratings.
Arizona has 14 regular season games remaining. There are five Big XII teams in the top 15 of the Net Ratings. Houston is third in the Net Ratings followed by Iowa State sixth, Kansas ninth, Arizona 14th and Texas Tech 15th. Arizona plays those four teams a combined six times this season.
Back to work 🚧
— Arizona Basketball (@ArizonaMBB) January 19, 2025
Appreciate @okcblue for the hospitality. pic.twitter.com/jpwn6NeeFr
The ESPN Basketball Power Index projects Arizona to finish with 20.4 wins and 10.6 losses overall with a 14.4-5.6 record in the Big XII. The projections are based on ESPN computer simulations. TeamRankings.Com projects Arizona's only remaining losses during the regular season at Baylor, Iowa State and Kansas and to Houston at home.
After Iowa State, Arizona plays at Arizona State and BYU. Arizona State is 64th and BYU 46th in the Net Ratings. Arizona State and BYU are quad-one road games for Arizona. The Big XII is unrelenting but also offers multiple opportunities to earn critical quad one victories throughout the rest of the regular season.