No. 3 is nice. No. 2 is even better. And No. 1 may not be far off.
Arizona men’s basketball (6-0) moved up to No. 2 in the Associated Press poll Monday after defeating Michigan State and UT Arlington last week. Purdue is ranked No. 1 after winning the Maui Invitational.
The two programs are set to meet in Indianapolis on Dec. 16 in what could be a matchup of the No. 1 vs. No. 2 teams.
Purdue received 60 of 61 first-place votes, with one going to Arizona and two to UConn. Arizona got 1,467 points, up from 1,387 last week.
Marquette, UConn and Kansas round out the top five.
Arizona already has a pair of marquee non-conference wins over No. 7 Duke and Michigan State, which dropped out of the top 25 after falling to UA 74-68 in Palm Springs, Calif. last Thursday.
In addition to Purdue, Arizona has ranked non-conference games in December against No. 13 FAU and No. 23 Alabama.
Arizona is the lone ranked Pac-12 team after Colorado dropped out of the rankings with a loss to Florida State last week.
Colorado received 70 votes, UCLA received 24 and USC received seven.
Arizona’s No. 2 ranking is its highest since the end of the 2021-22 regular season, when the Wildcats got to No. 2. Arizona hasn’t been ranked No. 1 since January 2014.
Arizona returns to action Saturday when it hosts Colgate at McKale Center at 1 p.m. MST.
