AP Men's Basketball Poll, March 13: UCLA, Arizona hold in final media poll of season
The final AP Men’s Basketball Poll of the 2022-23 season has been released, and there was a shakeup at the top after conference tournament action, but a come-from-behind upset win in the Pac-12 Tournament did nothing to change the ordering of the Pac-12’s teams in the final media poll.
Arizona erased a nine-point second-half deficit to down UCLA on Saturday and claim back-to-back Pac-12 Tournament titles. And yet, the Bruins fell five spots from No. 2 to No. 7, remaining one spot ahead of the Wildcats. Arizona did not move up after its 3-0 week in Las Vegas.
Still, the Wildcats have back-to-back top-10 finishes in the AP Top 25 after just one such finish in the five years prior to coach Tommy Lloyd’s arrival.
UCLA has its first top-10 AP finish since the 2016-17 season. And in spite of its title game loss, the Bruins received one first-place vote in this week’s poll — from Bret Bloomquist of The El Paso Times.
Both Arizona and UCLA begin play in the NCAA Tournament on Thursday.
The rest of the AP Top 25 can be seen below, with first-place votes in parentheses:
- Alabama (48)
- Houston (9)
- Purdue (3)
- Kansas
- Texas
- Marquette
- UCLA (1)
- Arizona
- Gonzaga
- UConn
- Baylor
- Duke
- Xavier
- Virginia
- Kansas State
- Miami (FL)
- Texas A&M
- San Diego State
- Saint Mary’s
- Tennessee
- Indiana
- TCU
- Missouri
- Memphis
- FAU
Others receiving votes: Creighton 94, Oral Roberts 58, Kentucky 39, Iowa State 32, VCU 26, Utah State 15, Penn State 11, Charleston 10, West Virginia 2, Drake 2, Kent State 2, Northwestern 2