It was bound to happen some time. Arizona and Gonzaga are too much alike not to end up being tied to one another. The Wildcats moved up to No. 2 in the latest Associated Press Top 25 poll, Monday. UA is right behind Gonzaga, which received all 61 first-place votes to become the unanimous pick for the No. 1 spot.

Both programs have been two of the most consistent teams out west for many years. And, in many ways, the Zags have become the new version of UA.

The Wildcats' transition to a new head coach has come with only few hiccups. Tommy Lloyd has guided Arizona to 24 wins through 26 games, and the team has reached that point in style with its new head coach implementing an exciting uptempo system in his first season. It's similar to what he did at Gonzaga while helping to build that program to what it is today over the last two decades.

Mark Few is Lloyd's mentor and friend. So much so that a scheduled meeting between the two teams that was supposed to take place in December was put on ice shortly after Lloyd accepted the job with the Wildcats.

They will eventually play one another, but for now there is too much familiarity for it to happen right now. Still, the way both teams are playing right now they could be on a collision course to meet this spring during the NCAA Tournament.

Arizona and Gonzaga both earned No. 1 seeds in the early NCAA Tournament bracket reveal over the weekend. There are of course plenty of things that will change before the official bracket is released on Selection Sunday, but it certainly does feel like the two teams are bound to end up meeting one another a lot sooner than either Lloyd or Few would like.

"Weird, cool, awesome," Lloyd said after Saturday's win over Oregon about being ranked second behind Gonzaga, a school he has so much of a connection with. "I'm proud of those guys. They got a great team and they're family, and I think they're happy for us.

"We just gotta take care of business as they gotta take care of business, and we'll see how long it plays out."

Taking out the connection to Gonzaga, Arizona's most recent accomplishment is significant on its own. Prior to this season the Wildcats had not been ranked since Feb. 17, 2020. That was lull came to an end quickly this season when the Wildcats knocked off then-No. 4 Michigan to earn the title at the Roman Main Event.

Since then UA has been on a steady climb but had topped out at No. 3 on a couple different occasions. The move up to No. 2 on the list means UA has tied its highest ranking Nov. 20, 2017.

That team, which featured Deandre Ayton and Allonzo Trier, never was able to reach that spot on the list again that season after an early disaster road trip to the Bahamas that resulted in three losses in the Battle 4 Atlantis event.

UA was only able to reach as high as ninth the rest of the season that year.

While Lloyd has not concerned himself with rankings, it is certainly a big accomplishment to reach the No. 2 spot on the list in his first season. He remains well in the discussion for the top coaching award as Lloyd was recently included on the late season watch list for the Naismith Coach of the Year award.

Meanwhile, UA continues to make its push toward a regular season Pac-12 title and a top overall seed in the conference and NCAA tournaments. As that happens, the Arizona head coach is expecting the path to only become more difficult as it was over the weekend against the Ducks.

"As you get deeper into the season there's gonna be more close games, because you're gonna play higher-level competition," Lloyd said Saturday after his team's three-point win over Oregon. "We're gonna welcome and embrace it. If we win, great. If we lose, oh well. We'll hopefully get better and learn from it and move on."

Arizona switched places with Auburn on the updated top-25 list after the Tigers lost to Florida on the road Saturday. UCLA moved up one spot to No. 12 this week while USC moved up a spot to No. 16 team as the other two Pac-12 teams represented in the latest poll.

Benn Mathurin has looked every part of an NBA Draft lottery pick late in the season. The 6-foot-6 guard has raised his level of play over the recent stretch of games, and Monday that earned him his league-leading third Pac-12 Player of the Week award. Mathurin has been on fire on the offensive end of the floor over the last few weeks, and in wins over Oregon State and Oregon last week he averaged 22 points, 4.5 rebounds and three assists.

That falls in line with what Mathurin has looked like over the last five games. In the previous five contests, he has averaged 21.4 points, 4.8 rebounds and 3.2 assists for the Wildcats.

The UA sophomore has continued to rise as a star for the Wildcats this season, and he has hit his stride at the right time. His scoring has been boosted as of late with more consistent production from the 3-point line where he made 46% (6 for 13) in the wins over the Ducks and Beavers.

Mathurin is now the first Arizona player since Derrick Williams in the 2010-11 season to earn the league honor three times in one year. A UA player has now won the award on five different occasions this season, and that is the most since the 2000-01 season. There have been two other instances in program history when that has happened, 1987-88 and 1992-93.

Christian Koloko and Azuolas Tubelis also each won the award once earlier in the season.

UA will now begin a difficult stretch of games that will feature a road trip to the Mountain schools, Colorado and Utah, with an addition road game at USC on March 1 that will be a makeup game after the earlier matchup between the two teams was postponed.

The Wildcats will wrap up the regular season at home against Stanford and Cal beginning March 3.

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