The first AP poll of the women's basketball season was released today and Arizona was ranked No. 19 to open the season. To me, this means a couple of things.

1. The AP voters respect the work Adia Barnes has done as the coach at Arizona. Especially given the fact that the Wildcats lost so many players via transfer and ended the season with an embarrassing loss to UNC at McKale Center.

2. Also, that despite the team losing so many players, Barnes was able to land key transfers to add to one of the best recruiting classes in the country. So, voters see the high-level talent that the roster has.

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I've locked in a Rivals FutureCast pick for Inglewood athlete Justin Johnson in favor of Arizona who is currently on campus for a visit with the Wildcats. I expect this one to move quickly. Although he is listed as a receiver, he projects as a defensive back at the next level. I watched him at the Under Armour and Rivals camps this offseason, and he has good length and moves well. He'll add some more depth to the secondary and probably will fit in as a safety at UA though he could very easily play cornerback.

Michigan State, Florida State, Colorado State and Grambling are his other offers.

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The latest PFF grades and snap counts have been logged in, and here is our breakdown of the grades from our own Dylan Grausz. Some interesting notes in there for sure. Jayden de Laura having his highest-rated game of the season is no surprise, and there is a lot of information to back up the changes that were made defensively plus some of the things you all are calling for defensively.

Make sure to check it out and let us know what you think after seeing the grades.

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Arizona does not have a game this week, but there are plenty of things to work on as the Wildcats begin their most grueling stretch of the season starting with next week's matchup against USC. Jedd Fisch met with reporters this afternoon to discuss the plan for the next few days and what's on tap for his staff in what will be a busy couple days for recruiting. Fisch will head out to four different games himself on Thursday and Friday while the staff will be represented at 28 games overall in multiple states including Hawaii.

Watch Fisch's full Monday press conference, which will be the team's only media availability this week, in the video above.

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Arizona checks in at No. 17 on the preseason AP Top 25 men's basketball poll this morning. The Wildcats are one of three Pac-12 teams to make the list with UCLA set to begin the season at No. 8 while Oregon will be at No. 21.

Yesterday, Ken Pomeroy released his preseason rankings and Arizona is at No. 10 on that list followed by UCLA at No. 11. Oregon is the other Pac-12 team in the top 50 at No. 29.

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GAME INFO

Who: Arizona (3-3, 1-2 Pac-12) vs. Oregon (4-2, 1-2)
When: 2:30 p.m MST
Where: Husky Stadium | Seattle, Washington
TV: Pac-12 Network
All-time series: Washington leads 24-11-1 (Last meeting: 21-16 Oregon win at Arizona; Oct 22, 2021)
Odds: Washington (-14.5) O/U 71.5

Hey everybody! Im getting the game thread started early here with about four and half hours until the 2:30 p.m MST kickoff at Husky Stadium.

PREGAME NOTES

• Arizona is averaging 4.34 yards per rush
• Washington is averaging 4.28 yards per rush
• Arizona is averaging 47% 3rd down conversions
• Washington is averaging 52% 3rd down conversions
• Arizona is averaging 4.7 penalties per game
• Washington is averaging 6.7 penalties per game

Hello everyone,
Here is my recap updated with quotes with more stories soon to follow from Arizona's 49-39 loss against Washington.

Two calls by the refs killed us.

Judgement call on the lateral on 4th and 1 blowing the play dead. I could sort of see, but unfortunate especially since the defense didn't stop playing ... no one did. It was bang bang and Coleman picked up the muffed lateral and got past the first down marker with the defense in pursuit.

Second call was egregious. Wardell had wrapped his arm around the waist, but he never did tug or pull. Replay showed no contact, only the appearance of a foul. It would have brought up 4th and 12 and decision time to try to kick a FG or go for it on 4th down. Changed the whole complexion of the game with 5-6 minutes left. We could have had the ball down 3 or down 6 instead of down 2 possessions.

The defense had their struggles but did stop UW on two 4th and short plays, held them to a FG try and should have given us the ball back down 3 or 6 with the chance to a chance to win or tie with 5 minutes left. The momentum was ours at the time ... very unfortunate call.

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Our preview show is back once again as Troy and I look back at what went wrong in the Oregon game plus look ahead to this week's matchup against Washington. The audio-only version is available below if you'd rather listen to the show that way.

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See you on the forum, Go Wildcats!!


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I have been asked to pin this number to the top so that it is handy for you all to call in whenever you decide to do so.

Here is the number to call: (520) 276-5034

Guidlines

1) For now let's do our best to keep these messages under four minutes just in case we have multiple messages that I want to use for each podcast.

2) Please leave your message board/log-in name either at the beginning or the end of the message. I can edit the voice messages that you will be leaving, so if you would like me to cut out your name from the final product that goes on the podcast I can do that to keep it more anonymous. However, I still want to make sure you identify yourself on the message so that I can verify that only GOAZCATS.com subscribers are the ones leaving messages for me to use.

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Lastly, there are essentially two ideas I have and want to utilize these voicemail messages for on the podcast. I would like to have a segment where you all ask questions that you have on your mind and I can answer them or use them for a discussion topic and then I also want to have a "sound off" type of segment, like I mentioned before, giving you all the opportunity to speak your mind uninterrupted. This will be time for you to rant, give your opinion or discuss something that hasn't been discussed.