Pac-12 men: Teams not polling well nonconference.
The teams in the Pac-12 Conference have been trying to reload after losing 13 players to the NBA draft, including the top two selections and six in the first round.
The renovations aren’t going as quickly as predicted, evidenced by the fact that the conference opened the season with two top-10 teams in the Associated Press poll and has only three among the top 40 in RPI.
Just nine months after the Pac-12 had three top-three seeds in the NCAA Tournament, and on the eve of conference openers, bracketologist Joe Lunardi includes only Arizona and Arizona State from the Pac-12 among this season’s 68-team field.
Here’s a look at the Pac-12’s non-Bay Area teams (listed in alphabetical order), including a focus on the newcomers who could help repair the conference’s image: Arizona (10-3): The Wildcats have won seven in a row by an average of 15.4 points per game since a three-game skid over Thanksgiving in the Bahamas. Junior guard Allonzo Trier leads the team in scoring (21.2 points per game), but Deandre Ayton is getting all of the attention from NBA scouts. The 7-foot-1 freshman is averaging 19.5 points and 11.4 rebounds per game. Arizona State (12-0): Picked to finish sixth in the conference, the Sun Devils are now No. 3 in the country. Arizona State is ranked fourth in the nation in adjusted offense, averaging 120.1 points per 100 possessions. Tra Holder averages a team-best 21.3 points per game, but Buffalo transfer Shannon Evans II makes the offense hum, leading the conference in assist-to-turnover ratio (3.7-1) and three-pointers per game (3.2). Colorado (8-4): The Buffaloes have dropped four of six since losing senior forward Tory Miller-Stewart indefinitely to a foot injury. Freshman point guard McKinley Wright IV’s per-game averages top the team in scoring (17.0), assists (4.7), steals (1.3) and blocked shots (0.8). His 5.2 rebounds per game are second on the team. Oregon (10-3): Already sporting a conference-best plus-8.1 rebounding margin per game, the Ducks have bumped that number to plus-10.0 since freshman forward Troy Brown Jr. returned from a concussion five games ago. After losing the school’s top two shot blockers of all time ( Jordan Bell and Chris Boucher) to the Warriors, Oregon simply inserted Kenny Wooten. The 6-foot-9 freshman leads the conference in blocked shots (3.2 per game) and field-goal shooting (75 percent on 64 attempts). Oregon State (8-4): The Beavers returned 95.1 percent of their scoring, 90.9 percent of their rebounds and 89.5 percent of their assists from last season’s 5-27 team. Those numbers might be slightly misleading, because do-it-all sophomore forward Tres Tinkle missed 26 games with a broken right wrist. The head coach’s son is leading the team in scoring (18.2 points per game), rebounds (7.2 per game) and steals (1.5 per game). UCLA (9-3): Even after LiAngelo Ball was withdrawn from school and fellow freshmen Jalen Hill and Cody Riley were suspended for the rest of the season following their arrests for stealing in Hangzhou, China, five of the Bruins’ top eight rotation players didn’t log a second last season. Starting freshman guards Jaylen Hands and Kris Wilkes are combining to average 24.5 points, 10.1 rebounds and four assists per game, but the team is still led by bulldog guard Aaron Holiday and center Thomas Welsh, who is one of the conference’s two players averaging a double-double. USC (9-4): A No. 10 preseason ranking, the program’s best since finishing 199192 eighth, was ruined by a three-game skid in a 13-day span near Thanksgiving. Jordan McLaughlin leads the conference in assists (7.8 per game), and he has plenty of targets in big men Bennie Boatwright, Chimezie Metu and Nick Rakocevic. Each member of the 6-10-plus front line recorded a double-double against Santa Clara this month, with the three combining for 57 points and 32 rebounds in the game. Utah (8-3): The Utes boast the conference’s best defense, allowing only 67.9 points per game and 29.1 percent threepoint shooting. David Collette leads the team in scoring (13.5 points per game), and Tyler Rawson grabs a team-best 6.5 rebounds per game — making Utah the only team in the conference without a player among the top 15 in either category. Washington (10-3): The Huskies are 15th in the nation in steals (9.3 per game), but they allow 45.3 percent shooting from the floor — tied with Cal for last in the conference. Jaylen Nowell has connected on six of his past 10 three-point attempts and leads the team in scoring (16.9 points per game). Probably not long for college, the freshman guard is shooting 78.9 percent from the floor in the final five minutes of games. Washington State (8-4): Since winning the Wooden Legacy tournament over Thanksgiving, the Cougars have lost four of six. They rank fourth in the nation in three-pointers (11.9 per game) after connecting on more than 11 threes only one time all of last season. Junior forward Robert Franks, who is averaging a team-high 18.1 points per game, already has scored 22 more points than he did all of last season.