The first full week of the new year is nearly complete and that means Pac-12 play is starting to get into full swing. Arizona's men will head on the road for the first time of 2020 after defeating in-state rival Arizona State Saturday night to open conference play.
Meanwhile, the UA women have returned from their first road trip of the conference season and will finally get to play their first home game since before Christmas later this week.
As is the tradition throughout the season, the Associated Press released its top 25 lists for both the men and the women Monday and both teams remain ranked heading into the new week.
Arizona men move up in latest AP poll
Sean Miller's team bounced back nicely from a rough finish to the nonconference portion of the season with a dominating 75-47 victory over Arizona State in the lone game of the week. The win helped UA (11-3, 1-0 Pac-12) move up a spot to No. 24 in the Associated Press Top 25 poll Monday keeping UA's streak of being ranked moving forward this season. UA has spent the entire season inside the AP's top 25.
"We really worked hard this week," freshman forward Zeke Nnaji said after scoring 17 points and grabbing 11 rebounds in UA's win over ASU. "We worked on our deficiencies and what we need to improve on, and that helped a lot."
Now things will ramp up a bit for UA as it once again has a top-25 matchup on the schedule when the Wildcats head up to Eugene to face Oregon this Thursday night. The Ducks (12-3, 1-1) dropped their league opener to Colorado last week before knocking off Utah by five points on the road.
The challenging week against the Mountain schools dropped Dana Almtan's team a few spots as Oregon now checks in at No. 9 overall after entering last week as the No. 4-team in the country.
UA's matchup with the Ducks is set for a 7 p.m. MST tip at Matthew Knight Arena.
UA women's loss to UCLA doesn't hurt ranking
The Arizona women's basketball team had the first blip in the last 20 games Sunday when the Wildcats finally took their first loss since last season. UA's nation leading 19-game winning streak came to an end at Pauley Pavilion at the hands of UCLA, a top-10 team. Both teams went into the matchup undefeated.
Because of that the Wildcats did not drop in latest rankings as Adia Barnes' group remained at No. 18 when the updated list was released Monday. The Wildcats have remained at No. 18 for several weeks as the wins piled up. UA (13-1) was able to score a 65-57 victory over USC on the road Friday night giving the team a 1-1 conference record entering an important week.
UA will now turn its attention to two of the best teams in the conference and the country as they welcome Oregon State and Oregon to McKale Center this weekend. Both teams head into the week as two of the top three teams in the country with the Beavers ranked No. 3 and the Ducks sitting at No. 2 in the latest AP poll.
Oregon's lone defeat came at the hands of then-No. 8 Louisville while Oregon State remains a perfect 14-0 and is coming off double-digit wins over Colorado and Utah.
UA will open up against the Beavers Friday night with tip off set for 8 p.m. MST.