Arizona remains a 1-seed in NCAA Tournament media mock brackets

ESPN resident bracketologist Joe Lunardi released that the top mock number one seeds in the media brackets are Michigan, Duke, Arizona and Houston in that order. Duke plays Michigan in Washington, D.C. and Arizona is at Houston on Saturday in games worthy of a Final Four.

Arizona held on to its projected number one seed despite losses last week to Kansas and Texas Tech. Arizona ended its two-game losing streak with a victory over BYU on Wednesday night. The Wildcats are one spot higher in the mock bracket rankings than the national rankings released on Monday.

The media mock bracket is more in line with the metric sites, where Arizona is third in four of the five biggest sites. The win over BYU was the 10th for Arizona in the NCAA Net Ratings quadrant one. Duke and Michigan are the only other teams with 10 quad one wins in 2025-26.

Arizona is also third in Wins Above Bubble. Michigan is first in WAB and Duke is second. WAB is a metric that is gaining importance in how the NCAA Tournament committee determines seeds and which teams earn berths.

Opportunities to maintain number one seed

In addition to playing at Houston on Saturday, Arizona hosts Kansas on February 28 and Iowa State on March 2 in its most significant remaining regular-season games. A loss at Houston would not be damaging if Arizona can beat Kansas and Iowa State.

Arizona also plays at Baylor and Colorado to conclude the 2025-26 regular season. The Big XII Tournament could have Arizona, Houston and Iowa State competing for number one seeds in Kansas City. One of those teams will have another opportunity for quad 1A wins while the NCAA Tournament committee is meeting in Indianapolis.

Houston will end a four game stretch for Arizona against teams ranked in the top 20 nationally. Arizona will be favored in each of its last four games. Arizona will be heavy favorites to defeat Baylor and Colorado. The Arizona games against Iowa State and Kansas will be closer to even.