Dick Vitale liked Duke at No. 5 in this week's AP poll.
Photo by Andrew Synowiez-US PRESSWIRE

Arizona is 21st in today’s AP poll, the team’s first appearance in the media rankings since Dec. 31, 2007, although ESPN’s Dick Vitale was one of four voters to leave the Wildcats off the ballot.

In any case, it’s hard to believe it’s been more than three years since the Cats were ranked by the AP.

Arizona is 18-4 overall and is on a three-game winning streak against Washington State, UCLA and USC. The win at Washington State looks even better now that the Cougars knocked off visiting Washington on Sunday night.

Washington is No. 20 in the AP poll.

Arizona was listed on 61 of the 65 AP ballots. Vitale and author John Feinstein were among those not including the Cats.

On the flip side, Gary Laney of The Advocate in Baton Rouge, La., seems to have gone overboard by ranking Arizona at No. 10. Arizona’s next-highest placing was at No. 15.

You can see where all the voters had the Wildcats at Pollspeak.com. (Bruce Pascoe of the Arizona Daily Star put Arizona at No. 24.)

The Wildcats are 22nd in the coaches poll. Washington is 19th.

This entry was posted on Monday, January 31st, 2011 at 11:08 am and is filed under Arizona basketball. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.