Arizona moved into the top 10 in this week's Associated Press college basketball poll, moving up five spots to No. 8 following Saturday night's victory over UNLV.
The Wildcats are 11-1 with one game left -- Tuesday night against Long Beach State -- before the Christmas break and start of Pac-12 conference play.
Michigan State (12-0) remains No. 1, receiving 64 of 65 first-place votes, followed by Kansas (9-1) and Oklahoma (8-0). The rest of the top 10 is Maryland, Virginia, Xavier, North Carolina, Arizona, Butler and Providence, which is the only team to beat Arizona.
Utah jumped into the Top 25 at No. 24 following its upset of Duke. The Utes are the only other Pac-12 team in the Top 25, although UCLA and Oregon are knocking on the door.
Arizona is outscoring opponents by an average of 21.7 points while winning six games in a row, and only twice over that stretch have the Wildcats had a repeat top scorer.
"Everybody's contributing, and I think that's something that's really hard to scout against," said forward Ryan Anderson, who is averaging 15.0 points and 9.2 rebounds during the winning streak. "You can't scout just one player."
Sophomore center Dusan Ristic was the latest to lead the team in scoring Saturday, finishing with a career-high 20 points as the starters totaled all but four points in an 82-70 win over UNLV.
The sophomore had averaged 6.1 ponts over Arizona's first nine games, a stretch that included criticism from coach Sean Miller about his positioning and fouling.
"I feel better," Ristic said. "When I show some good things and improvements, that gave me confidence."
The Wildcats should have plenty of confidence at the McKale Center, where they've won 46 straight games by an average of 22.4 points since losing to California on Feb. 10, 2013.
Arizona has won all five meetings against Long Beach State (6-7), and they've all come at home, including a 91-57 rout Nov. 11, 2013.
The 49ers -- playing their third Pac-12 opponent on the road after losses at UCLA and Oregon -- are 1-4 on the road, losing three straight while giving up 84.7 points per game on 50.8 percent shooting.
The 49ers are coming off a 94-73 loss Friday in Eugene to the Ducks. They were outscored 44-26 overall in the paint and allowed Oregon to shoot51.6 percent.
"What's disappointing is that we wasted a great effort by one guy to keep us in there until we could get other guys into a flow," coach Dan Monson said of Travis Hammonds' 27 points. "We just put too much effort on our offense.
"To give up 52 points in the last 15 minutes is unacceptable."
