Arizona women's basketball still on NCAA Tournament bracketology bubble

Arizona remains one of the last four teams out in the updated bracketology by Charlie Creme of ESPN posted on Tuesday. Utah beat Arizona 67-58 in Salt Lake City on Friday. Arizona remains on the road at Colorado on Wednesday night. Creme has Utah as a seventh seed and Colorado as the next four out.

The game at Colorado on Wednesday night is a critical NCAA Tournament bubble game. The ESPN Women's Basketball Power Index projects Colorado with a 59.6 percent chance to beat Arizona. Arizona is 58th in the NCAA Net Ratings and Colorado is 60th. The game is quadrant one game for Arizona and quad two for Colorado.

Arizona enters the game on Wednesday night with a 5-3 road record but 1-5 versus quadrant one. Colorado is 11-1 at home, but 2-2 versus quadrant one. Arizona has to start earning quad-one wins to play themselves off the bubble, Arizona's 77-62 win over West Virginia last week is the sole quad-one victory.

West Virginia is 12th in the Net Ratings. Arizona has other opportunities for Quad One wins later this month versus Oklahoma State and TCU. Oklahoma State is 28th in the Net Ratings and TCU is 10th. Oklahoma State has a 74.6 percent chance to beat Arizona in Stillwater. Arizona has a 22.6 percent chance to beat TCU in Tucson.

For the fourth straight season, Arizona won an NCAA Tournament game with a 69-59 win over Auburn in the First Four. Syracuse outscored Arizona 15-5 in the final four minutes to earn a 74-69 win in the first round. Arizona is in a better place after 23 games this season. The Wildcats were 12-11 after 23 games in 2023-24.

After falling to 12-12 in 2023-24, Arizona won four consecutive games before losing three of the last four. Arizona and Auburn were 11 seeds. Columbia and Vanderbilt as the other at-large First Four game were 12 seeds and the final teams in the 2024 NCAA Tournament. Arizona needs to go on a late-season run to get off the bubble.