Arizona on top of Big 12 after rout of West Virginia
Don't look now, but the Arizona Wildcats are the hottest team in college basketball.
Arizona (9-5, 3-0) routed No. 21 West Virginia 75-56 on Tuesday night for its fifth consecutive victory — and third in a row to open Big 12 play.
KJ Lewis had a career-high 21 points and 4 assists off the bench and Jaden Bradley added 15 points and 5 assists as Arizona led wire-to-wire in Morgantown.
Javon Small led West Virginia (11-3, 2-1) with 17 points.
Arizona Leads Big 12
In their first season in the Big 12, the Wildcats are tied for first place along with Houston and Iowa State. There's a long way to go, but Arizona desperately needed to get off to a fast start in one of the deepest conferences in the country.
West Virginia came into the game on a seven-game winning streak, which included a stunning 62-61 win at Kansas on New Year's Eve. But the Mountaineers struggled with Arizona's quickness and length. Arizona dominated the paint, scoring 36 points and outrebounding West Virginia 40-31.
Freshman Carter Bryant had another solid game, finishing with 7 points and 3 rebounds on a perfect 3-of-3 from the field. Anthony Dell'Orso had 10 points and Caleb Love added 9.
West Virginia came into the game ranked No. 26 in the NCAA's NET Rankings, which means the victory is Arizona's second Quad 1 win of the season. The Wildcats came into the game ranked No. 16 in the NET and should climb higher when the rankings are updated on Wednesday.
The NET, which stands for the NCAA Evaluation Tool, is used as the primary sorting tool for selection and seeding for the NCAA Tournament.
Arizona is back in action on Saturday with a home game against UCF (10-3, 1-1).
