4) UCLA Bruins (7-2)
LW: 6
Positive: UCLA’s only two losses came against highly-ranked teams in Michigan State and North Carolina.
Negative: Those are the only teams they’ve played that are expected to make the NCAA Tournament and nearly lost at home to a bad Notre Dame team.
The Bruins are young and talented but don’t shoot many threes and don’t execute at a high level. That largely comes from their often lackadaisical style of play and lack of intensity. They’re capable of being one of the best teams in the conference but have yet to show anything that would instill any confidence in them.
3) Washington Huskies (7-3)
LW: 3
Washington’s season had been a disappointment until, like Stanford, they pushed a top team all the way to the end on the road. Their two-point loss to Gonzaga in Spokane reminded everyone of how good this Huskies team could be even though we haven’t seen it often enough.
Jaylen Nowell (18.8 ppg, 4.6 rpg) and Noah Dickerson (16.4 pg, 7.2 rpg) have been as good as advertised but they have not been getting consistent help on the offensive end. Washington has struggled on that end of the floor because they rely on a lot of one-on-one action (289th nationally in assist rate) and struggle to stretch opposing defenses (243rd in three-point percentage).
Those have been their two biggest issues along with defensive rebounding, which is a common problem for teams that play a lot of zone. Improve in those areas and the Huskies can challenge for a Pac-12 title.