The best part of college basketball season is underway, and the Pac-12 Tournament should not disappoint. 

We have already seen upsets in the OVC, with Southeast Missouri State upsetting Tennessee Tech to make only its second tournament appearance in team history and Kennesaw State winning the ASUN championship, giving the Owls their first ever tournament appearance. Perhaps the Pac-12 showdown will feature some surprises in Vegas as well!

The favorites:

No. 2 UCLA: Finishing the season second in the nation only behind Houston, the Bruins had a fantastic season and went 18-2 in their conference and 27-4 overall. They lost to both Illinois and Baylor, both top 25 teams at the time, before conference play.

 They then lost to foes Arizona and USC in conference play. However, they came back and managed to defeat Arizona in the last game of conference play to secure the No. 2 spot in the AP poll after Texas upset Kansas in the last Big 12 game.

Although the team does not look powerful statistically, they will be a juggernaut in this tournament and in March Madness.

No. 8 Arizona: The Wildcats walk into the tournament with arguably the best offense in all of college basketball. Sure, they allow 71.9 points per game, but none of that matters when you have the fifth highest scoring team in the NCAA, led by junior Azuolas Tubelis who averages the most points per game in the Pac-12.

Arizona can pass the ball like nobody has ever seen and its creative abilities lead them to be an offensive juggernaut, so it should be interesting to see what happens if Arizona does face off against UCLA in the conference final after taking the second seed with a conference record of 14-6.

The contenders:

USC: Even though the Trojans went 14-6 in conference play and earned a bye in the tournament, the team is currently fighting for their lives. Losses to Tennessee and Wisconsin early in the season and getting swept by Arizona in conference play led them to the tournament bubble where anything can happen.

Senior Boogie Ellis leads the team in scoring with 18.1 points per game. He is also second highest in the Pac-12, just behind Arizona’s Tubelis. Senior Drew Peterson also is a key player in this team, leading USC in both assists and field goal percentage. 

Overall though, it’s looking like USC will need to win the tournament to get action in March Madness, otherwise it will most likely be stuck in the NIT.

Oregon: The Ducks walked into the season ranked 21st on the AP poll, but plummeted this season and took hard losses to Houston, UCONN and Michigan State all in a row which sent them low on the charts. As the season went on though, they rebounded and beat Villanova, Arizona and USC, leading them to a 12-8 conference record.

They do not look very impressive with scoring, only averaging 71 points per game, but their rebound game looks decent with an average of 37 rebounds per game. Just like USC and all the other teams in this section, this is Oregon’s last push if it wants to be in the tournament.

Arizona State: The Sun Devils looked incredible entering the season, winning 11 of their first 12 games, some of those being against Michigan, SMU, Creighton and VCU. By the end of the streak, they were 25th in the country.

When conference play came, they started to decline, and they recorded  a four game losing streak and lost their final two games of the season to UCLA and USC. They will have to go against Oregon State in the first round.

Washington State: The Cougars had an on and off season, where they struggled to get in a rhythm and it cost them some valuable games against Baylor and Boise State. The middle of conference play ended up being a nightmare when at one point they’d only won one in six games.

It was a true miracle in the end of the season though, they won six straight games to finish 11-9 in conference play. Washington State doesn’t pass the ball much, only averaging 11.9 assists per game so it should be interesting to see how the Cougars play in the tournament, where they face Cal in the first round.

Utah: Maybe the coldest team entering the tournament, the Utes finished the season with a five game losing streak. They finished 10-10 in their conference and did not really play any major team before conference play started. Their biggest win came against Arizona. 

They had major losses against Mississippi State, TCU and BYU in the beginning of the season, and especially after the ending to conference play, Utah will need to heavily rebound if it wants a chance to claim the title as the Utes face Stanford in the first round.

The long shots:

Washington: Although they have a 16-15 record, their conference record ended up being 8-12. The Huskies ended up having multiple streaks of losing at least four games in a row, including a loss from a small team in CA Baptist. This team will likely be led by Kelon Brooks, who averages 17.8 points per game. Washington will face off against Colorado in the first round.

Colorado: Just like Washington, the Buffs have an above .500 overall record, but their conference record is much less impressive. They had a five game winning streak at one point in the season, and managed to defeat Tennessee and Texas A&M, two hard playing SEC teams, early in the season. Even though they had a tough time in conference play, those two wins do give Colorado a bit of hope to win a few games in the tournament.

The “see you next seasons:”

Stanford: The Cardinals ended up finishing 7-13 in the conference and 13-18 overall. Although they did have a five game winning streak at one point in the season, they also had a losing streak of five games just before it. They played difficult teams such as Texas and Wisconsin prior to conference play and even managed to beat Arizona in one game this season, but you can pretty much call Stanford’s season over.

Oregon State: The Beavers went only 5-15 in conference play and at one point had a losing streak of six games. They won their first three to start the season, but after that it all went downhill. They did however play Duke close only losing by three, but averaging 61.4 points per game won’t get you anywhere in this conference.

Cal: This year was nothing but a tragedy for the Bears. They went 0-12 to start the season and ended the season 0-15. After just a 2-18 conference record and their leading scorer Lars Thiemann only scoring 9.5 points per game, this will be a season Cal fans want to forget about. I don’t want to call a team’s season over, but it’s over.

My Pick: 

Arizona: The stats speak for themselves. With an offense as good as the Wildcats’, I see them going all the way and getting their revenge against UCLA in the tournament final after losing to the Bruins in the last game of the season.