Arizona is 5-0 and already has wins against Florida, Connecticut and UCLA
The Kansas Jayhawks and the rest of the college basketball teams in the Big 12 may be looking up at one team the remainder of the season.
On Wednesday, the Arizona Wildcats defeated Connecticut on the road. The Wildcats n ow have victories against the Huskies, Florida Gators and UCLA Bruins. It led Roundtable Sports Editor In Chief Tom Brew to call the Wildcats the best team in the nation.
"The Wednesday night's win might have been the best," Brew wrote. The Wildcats traveled across the country to take on Connecticut — the current No. 3 team in the country — in their cramped and loud band box of an arena, the icon Gampel Pavilion. It was loud and crazy — and it didn't matter one bit. The Wildcats stayed calm, cool and collected in the frenzied final few minutes and won 71-67 against the six-time NCAA champs, with all of them coming since 1998. That's one hell of an impressive run. It's only the third time ever that a team has two top-3 wins in the first five games of a season, an the first since Kansas in 1989-90."
The Jayhawks, meanwhile, have gotten off to a somewhat lukewarm start to the season. They are coming off a 78-66 loss to the No. 5 Duke Blue Devils. KU, which is 3-2, also lost to the North Carolina Tar Heels earlier this month.
A lot of the struggles could be attributed to the absence of star freshman Darryn Peterson, who is battling hamstring issues. They still have plenty of time to turn things around. The Jayhawks don't play the Wildcats until Feb. 9 in Lawrence, Kan.
In the meantime, keep an out for Arizona. They are turning heads across the country. It's still early but the Wildcats are having an impressive beginning and could be a team to watch in March.
"Arizona is 5-0 now and — in my book — the best team in the country," Brew wrote. "They've made their statement on the floor, and no one has that three-game resume so far. This is no disrespect to Purdue, the current No. 1, or even Houston. Arizona has the wins, three of them, and all damn impressive. They were all close, which is even more tantalizing to me. They are proving they can win tight games, and do it in style."
Shandel Richardson is the publisher of JayhawksRoundtable. He can be reached at shandelrich@gmail.com