Arizona stays near top of college basketball rankings after BYU loss

Posted by author February 23, 2025 Basketball

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The Arizona Wildcats missed an opportunity to pick up their ninth “quality win” of the season on Saturday night, which would have put them in select company.

But Arizona’s controversial 96-95 Big 12 loss to BYU did not hurt them in the only national college basketball rankings that matter.

Arizona (18-9, 12-4) stayed at No. 9 in the country in the updated NCAA NET Rankings, which the NCAA Tournament Selection Committee uses as the primary sorting tool for selection and seeding for the NCAA Tournament.

How the NET Rankings work

The NET, which stands for the NCAA Evaluation Tool, has been used by the 12-person Selection Committee since 2018. It replaced the simplistic RPI formula and takes into account “strength of schedule, game location, game results, net offensive and defensive efficiency, and the quality of wins and losses.”

Strength of schedule is arguably the most impactful metric for Arizona right now. The Wildcats have played the eighth-toughest schedule in the nation according to KenPom, and are in the middle of a brutal stretch.

Seven of Arizona’s last eight games have been Quad 1 games, which are defined as home games against teams in the top 30 of the NET, and road games against teams in the top 75 of the NET. The Wildcats have two more Quad 1 games on their schedule — at Iowa State and at Kansas — plus likely several more in the Big 12 Tournament.

Arizona is one of 13 Big 12 teams ranked in the top 75 of the NET. The Wildcats are the fourth-ranked Big 12 team behind No. 3 Houston, No. 7 Texas Tech and No. 8 Iowa State. Kansas is next at No. 19, followed by BYU at No. 29. The Cougars moved up one spot after beating Arizona.

Arizona needs to finish the season strong to claim a top-four seed in the Big 12 Tournament. The Wildcats are tied with Texas Tech for second place, one game ahead of Iowa State and two games ahead of BYU. The top four teams receive byes into the Big 12 Tournament quarterfinals.

The Wildcats are currently projected to be a No. 3 or No. 4 seed in the 2025 NCAA Tournament. Selection Sunday is March 16.