Pac-12 teams surging to NCAA
Last season the Pac-12 was awful in men’s basketball.
The league ranked last of the seven power conferences in the NCAA’s NET metric and had a historically bad non-league winning percentage (62%) that was worse than several midmajor conferences. Washington was a No. 9 seed, Arizona State was a No. 11 seed and Oregon was a No. 12 seed in the NCAA tournament.
The year prior wasn’t much better. The league failed to advance a team to the second round of the 2018 tournament, the first time since 1997 a power conference failed to do so.
Much has changed in one year. The Pac-12 now is tied with the Big East for the secondmost teams of any power conference in the projected field – only trailing the Big Ten. The league bounced back with a 74% winning percentage in non-conference.
While the Pac-12 has only one team poised to land a top seed on Selection Sunday (Oregon is a No. 4 seed in today’s bracket), a plethora of bubble teams are well positioned to hear their name called.
Over the weekend UCLA took command of the conference standings and vaulted into the projected field for the first time. The Bruins are a No. 12 seed this week, while Stanford (No. 11), Southern California (No. 10), Arizona State (No. 8), Colorado (No. 7) and Arizona (No. 7) all currently are in.
Although the Pac-12’s seeding lines for these teams aren’t favorable, getting inis half the battle. In March, anything can happen.
And if the Pac-12 wins the bubble as it is now 13 days from Selection Sunday, it could also be a major winner in the NCAA tournament.
No. 1 seeds: Kansas, Baylor, Gonzaga, San Diego State.
Last four in: UCLA, North Carolina State, Rutgers, Texas.
First Four out: Richmond, Cincinnati, Rhode Island, Mississippi State.