6) This week in the Pac-12…
UCLA and Alford’s stock is going the other way. The loss to Belmont was a crushing reminder of the program’s perennial underachievement under Alford and has his hot seat getting even hotter.
Of course, from the Pac-12 perspective, the Bruins are simply a mirror for the conference as a whole.
Washington got smacked by Virginia Tech in a game that wasn’t as close as the 73-61 final score indicated, showing the promise they played with against Gonzaga wasn’t going to last. Utah lost to Kentucky by nearly 30. Cal only beat Cal Poly by one. Even Arizona State, the Pac-12’s only previously reliable team, needed heroics from Luguentz Dort to eke out a two-point win over Georgia.
All of those games were disappointing, but the results were expected. Some disappointing results were not expected.
There was obviously the UCLA debacle, but USC also got handed a double-digit loss by Oklahoma and Arizona fell to Baylor, marking their first non-conference home loss since 2011. The conference just continues to reinforce the notion that there aren’t any good teams outside of Arizona State.