Wildcats moving down the bracket

Bracketology has become such a common term in college basketball that ESPN.com even has a tab for its page in the Web site’s college basketball section.

It can be addicting to look at every week, yet doesn’t mean much with so much basketball left to play.

Still, it provides a decent snapshot of what’s going on in college basketball at the time, which is why Arizona fans had to be happy last week to see the Wildcats as a No. 4 seed in Joe Lunardi’s bracket.

They must have been even more excited to see a group of 20 members of the United States Basketball Writers Association who created a mock NCAA Tournament bracket peg with the Wildcats as a No. 4 seed as well, an assessment agreed upon by 20 broadcast journalists who did the same thing.

The fickle nature of Bracketology, however, reared its ugly head this week – and rightfully so after the Wildcats’ loss to ASU – when Lunardi’s bracket dropped Arizona down to a No. 8 seed and into the dreaded 8-9 game it has taken part in three of the past four years, which in this case would mean a second-round date with No. 1 seed Tennessee in Birmingham, Ala.

With the nation’s No. 1 strength of schedule and a steadily declining Ratings Percentage Index that’s still at No. 14 even with eight losses, the Wildcats should make the NCAA Tournament unless the bottom completely falls out.

The problem is if Arizona stays around the middle of the conference with the .500 record it now has, which would be no easy feat in itself, the current snapshot could become reality, sending the Wildcats back to the 8-9 game and a possible second round match against a No. 1 seeded team.