Well, it’s now March somehow. But everyone knows what that means: The most electric playoffs in all of sports begins.
The Pac-12 Men’s Basketball Tournament.
Kidding, that’s obviously March Madness, but the Pac-12 Tournament is a close second (still kidding, sorry, I’ll stop). For a majority of the teams in this conference, a loss means the season is over. Everyone will be fighting as hard as they can and I for one can’t wait.
The emotions, the adrenaline, the buzzer-beaters, the drama, the tears; how could you not love it?
But let’s get straight into the rankings and see who has a legitimate shot at becoming the champion of the Conference of Champions.
The three top dogs
1) Arizona (29-3 overall, 18-2 conference)
Believe it or not, the team that is ranked second in the country is the best in their conference. Crazy right, who would’ve thought?
Arizona absolutely pummeled USC last week. The Wildcats looked like a big brother just bullying his younger brother on the court. The only difference being no angry mother came out of the house to scold them.
The loss to Colorado on the road was tough but not unforgivable. Colorado is a good team and that’s just the way it goes in college basketball, no one is perfect. But if you want to know who the best team in the Pac-12 is it’s obviously still Arizona.
The Wildcats have the top offense in the conference, the best player in the conference in sophomore guard Bennedict Mathurin and the best defensive field goal percentage in the conference. If they play to their ability, it’s tough to see them losing to anyone in the conference.
2) UCLA (24-6 overall, 15-5 conference)
3) USC (26-6 overall, 14-6 conference)
The Bruins got a big win over USC and leapfrogged them into the second position in my power rankings and also in the conference standings. Yet, I honestly think that both teams are essentially even.
UCLA has a better offense and USC has a better defense. On any given night either team has an equal shot at winning in my eyes. The thing with USC and UCLA is that they have all the pieces, but it hasn’t really come together consistently for either team.
They’ve looked incredible and they’ve looked abysmal. What version of junior forward Jaime Jaquez Jr. for the Bruins will we see? The same goes for the Trojan junior guard Boogie Ellis. Both teams can beat anyone but haven’t played consistent enough basketball for me to be very confident in either of them. However, I think the bright lights will (hopefully) bring the best out of the Trojans and the Bruins. If all goes as planned, the semifinal matchup between these two teams should be fun.
The team with a fighting shot
4) Colorado (21-10 overall, 12-8 conference)
Colorado finds themselves in the Pac-12′s final four but a step below the other three. The Buffs got a huge win against Arizona in the regular season that may have opened some eyes to how good this team is. Or, I should say, can be. They also lost to Arizona State by 17 points just two days before, but Colorado is a solid team.
The Buffaloes aren’t the best (nor the worst) on offense or defense. They just play good team basketball. Their frontcourt of forwards sophomore Jabari Walker and senior Evan Battey is a tough matchup for anyone.
The road to the championship for the Buffs will be tough as they have to play Arizona. They have shown that they have what it takes to pull off that upset, but it’s going to be difficult to repeat that magic. The Buffs will have to dominate the paint on both sides of the floor if they want to have a shot at the title game.
The season is over but it was fun while it lasted
5) Oregon (19-14 overall, 11-9 conference)
Oregon was on a three-game skid coming into the tournament and wasn’t looking its best. With senior guard Will Richardson out for the tournament with an illness, I wasn’t too confident in the Ducks.
Senior guard Jacob Young picked up some of the scoring responsibilities that Richardson left and had 20 points or more in the two games that Richardson missed. However, missing their leader in points and assists averages proved to be too much for the Ducks to make a run in the conference tournament as they lost to Colorado.
6) Washington State (19-14 overall, 11-9 conference)
The Cougs are rather inconsistent even in Pac-12 terms. They have the lowest field goal percentage in the conference at 41.1% and no real studs on the offensive side of the court.
They do have a great defense and that’s what has won them games. Defense does win championships, but, at the end of the day, you have to have at least one guy who can create their own offense consistently.
Senior guard Michael Flowers leads the team in points with 14.2 per game yet shoots only 40.4% from the field. Flowers had only 8 points, though, in their loss to a superior UCLA team in the quarterfinals. WSU had the defense to be a contender but just didn’t have the firepower on the offensive side of the ball.
7) Washington (17-14 overall, 11-9 conference)
If you have the conference’s leading scorer you always have a chance. Senior guard Terrell Brown Jr. is sensational (on offense at least) but he has to score 20 or more points for the Huskies to win because of the team’s porous defense.
The Huskies allow 72.6 points per game which is the second-worst in the conference. On defense, they gamble too much, don’t close out to shooters and just can’t seem to keep players in front of them.
Washington knew they had to shoot the lights out if they were going to win the conference tournament, but the Huskies fell short against USC. Brown had 23 points but it came on 9-25 (36%) shooting. The Huskies looked better on defense in their last game, but the game stayed tight down the stretch and Washington couldn’t pull off the upset.
8) Stanford (16-16 overall, 8-12 conference)
I’ll be honest, I don’t know how Stanford won their first game of the Pac-12 Tournament. The Cardinal went on a 16-1 run to close out their game against ASU and squeeze out a one-point win.
Junior forward Spencer Jones had a career-high 26 points with a huge three-pointer to cut the lead to one with under one minute left. It was a miraculous comeback, but it was just game one of the Pac-12 Tournament. Next, Stanford had to face Arizona.
Stanford is a dangerous team, but Arizona is not Arizona State. The Cardinal put up a valiant fight with Jones having another career-high with 28 points. However, the Wildcats proved to be too much and inevitably won the game 84-80.
9) Arizona State (14-17 overall, 10-10 conference)
10) Utah (11-20 overall, 4-16 conference)
11) Cal (12-20 overall, 5-15 conference)
12) Oregon State (3-28 overall, 1-19 conference)
All of these teams lost in the first round of the conference tournament and, unless Bill Walton is the only man creating the March Madness bracket, these teams aren’t going dancing.
“Pac-12 Basketball Power Rankings” typically runs every other Thursday.