3. Arizona (25-2)
One of the nation’s final unbeaten teams, Arizona was 23-0 before a pair of tough losses this past week, losing at Kansas before being upended by Texas Tech. The Wildcats have been an absolute unit for the entirety of this season and it’s not a mistake that they were top-ranked for such a long stretch. While some were concerned heading into this tougher part of their schedule, they proved a lot of doubters wrong this week.
The Wildcats bounced back on Wednesday night, winning 75-68 against BYU to finish a season sweep over those Cougars. Anthony Dell’Orso really emerged with 22 points off the bench while Ivan Kharchenkov added 18 points and 7 rebounds. Saturday brought one of their best wins of the season, with Arizona triumphant 73-66 at Houston. Another ranked win came thanks to Dell’Orso, who again had 22 points off the bench, while Jaden Bradley himself added 17 points.
Arizona wasn’t lights out from long-range nor did they get these stellar efforts from their young stars, but they still did more than enough to secure two very important wins. Anyone disappointed in the Wildcats after last week is telling a new story and the emergence of Dell’Orso could be enormous for this team’s national title hopes. Their month from hell continues with Baylor and Kansas ahead.