Arizona Wildcats Have One Glaring Hole To Overcome To Improve NET Rank

The Arizona Wildcats didn’t have a great Thanksgiving holiday as their trip to the Bahamas was filled with losing basketball.
Participating in the Bad Boy Mowers Battle 4 Atlantis, Arizona defeated the Davidson Wildcats in their first round matchup. After that, they suffered two losses, getting beaten by the Oklahoma Sooners before falling to the West Virginia Mountaineers.
It dropped their record to 3-4 on the season, as being below the .500 mark is not something that occurs often in Tuscon.
Head coach Tommy Lloyd is still trying to find the right lineup combinations, as seven different players have started at least one game already. Only Trey Townsend, Jaden Bradley and Caleb Love have started all eight games.
One of the most talented rosters in the nation, chemistry and cohesion still needs to be built up with so many new faces. It has led to some shaky performances to this point, with a glaring trend growing.
On Saturday afternoon, the Wildcats got back into the win column with a dominant performance over the visiting Southern Utah Thunderbirds.
Handling lower-tier teams has been no issue for Arizona to this point. Their other wins are against the Canisius Golden Griffins, Old Dominion Monarchs and Davidson.
All four of those opponents provided them with Quad 3 and 4 victories per the NET Rank. And there lies the problem for Lloyd’s squad; they haven’t been able to break through against any of the Quad 1 opponents they have faced.
Their first loss of the season came in a true road game against the Wisconsin Badgers at the Kohl Center. The Duke Blue Devils paid a visit to the McKale Center for their next matchup and they lost that one also.
In the Bahamas, both of their losses were Quad 1 games where they failed to get the victory as well, putting them at 0-4.
While there will be ample opportunities to rack up quality wins playing in a loaded Big 12, that is a troubling trend out of the gate. The No. 10 team in the nation in the first edition of the Top 25 has already fallen out of the rankings and has struggled against upper-echelon opponents.
If this is a sign of things to come throughout the remainder of the campaign, it will be tough sledding in Tuscon.
The Wildcats will have a chance to put some of those worries to rest when they take the court next. A rivalry game against their former Pac-12 foes, the UCLA Bruins, is on deck on Friday, December 13.