Pac-12 mayhem makes for some great viewing
With 8 teams within one game of each other, potential trouble looms on Selection Sunday
The Bay Area was the epicenter of mayhem this weekend:
Cal beat Oregon State, which beat Stanford, which beat Oregon, which beat Cal.
Results from Los Angeles were mildly surprising, too: UCLA beat Colorado by four, then Colorado slapped a who-figured 21-point defeat on the same USC team that recently beat UCLA by 11.
(The Trojans now claim two of the most surprising losses of the season, at least based on the margin: The 32-point loss at Washington and the 21-point home loss to CU.)
As a result of the latest chaos, five teams have three losses and three teams have four losses.
Eight of the 12 are within a game of each other.
Oregon: 7-3 Colorado: 6-3
USC: 6-3 Arizona: 5-3 Stanford: 5-3 UCLA: 5-4
ASU: 4-4
Cal: 4-4 According to the FS1 broadcast on Sunday from Pauley Pavilion, this is the earliest point that every team has at least three conference losses since the 2010 season.
That year, if you don’t recall, Cal won the regular-season title with a 13-5 mark.
It’s comparable to the cannibalism we witnessed during the football season, with Oregon and Utah removed from the calculation.
The parity makes for terrific theatre but is suboptimal for NCAA seeding purposes.
Too much eating of your own undercuts resumes and damages seeds.
Back in 2010, when Cal won the title at 13-5, the conference only sent two teams to the NCAAs.
We’re unlikely to see such a limited number of bids this season — the conference performed well enough in November and December to expect three or four at-large berths.
But continued mayhem will undermine March Madness seeding. And the lower your seed, the more difficult the path to the second weekend.
To restore its tarnished reputation, the Pac-12 needs more than four or five teams in the NCAA field.
It needs two or three in the Sweet 16.
BOTTOM’S UP … TO THE MIDDLE >> The Pac-12 is better, indisputably better, and the uptick starts with the coaching.
Last season, it was substandard.
But Washington State, Cal and UCLA have upgraded, with improvement most obvious in Pullman and Berkeley:
• Under Mark Fox, the Bears already have more conference wins (four) than they did all of last season.
• Under Kyle Smith, the Cougars already have equalled their victory total (four) from last year.
The bottom of the conference is so much better, it’s no longer the bottom of the conference.
The Bears and Cougars — the worst teams in each of the past two seasons, by a large margin — are currently on the middle tier.
The Bears are one game out of first place in the loss column, and the Cougars are two full games out of last place, looking down at Utah, OSU and Washington.
This year, the bottom of the conference has two future Lottery Picks in its lineup (Washington).
Sure, the Huskies haven’t played to their potential. But as a bottom feeder, they’re one of the best the Pac-12 has seen in years.
SIGNS OF LIFE IN WESTWOOD >> The Pac-12 Tournament is five weeks away. Were it starting today, we’d nominate UCLA as a potential bracket buster.
After a 1-3 start to conference play, the Bruins have won four of their past five and are part of the jumbled mass, one game out in the loss column.
They’re stout defensively, having held each of their four recent victims under 43 percent shooting, and they’re slowly figuring it out offensively.
Chris Smith, who carved up Colorado with 30 points, has emerged as the top option.
That’s an encouraging sign for UCLA — one of several.If the rate of improvement continues, the Bruins will be one of the toughest outs in Las Vegas.