NCAA Basketball: A one-bid Pac-12, overrated Oklahoma and more takeaways
By Brian Rauf
1) It’s time to start talking about the Pac-12 being a one-bid league
This thought kind of started out as a joke on Twitter early in the season but now…it’s a scary thought that has at least some realistic chance of happening.
Arizona State is really good. Barring a collapse worse than last season’s in conference play, the Suns Devils are in the NCAA Tournament.
But outside of them? It’s looking increasingly likely that anyone else is going to have to win the Pac-12 tournament to earn a bid.
Oregon probably has the best non-conference win (Syracuse) of the rest of the conference, yet they have also lost to Texas Southern and Baylor. Washington does not have a top-60 KenPom win. Arizona is 9-4 with losses to likely non-NCAA Tournament teams in Alabama and Baylor. USC is 6-6 without a top-185 KenPom win. Colorado has losses to San Diego and Indiana State.
Then there’s UCLA, who is 7-5, on a disastrous three-game losing streak (which includes a home defeat to Belmont), and has just one top-120 KenPom win (which is over a bad Notre Dame team). Bruins head coach Steve Alford is also on the hot seat and, at this point, it would be a major upset if he returned next year.
Not only are those losses problematic for each respective team, but they’ve also all lowered their standing to the point where there are no quality wins to be had in the conference outside of one over ASU.
I think it’s more likely that the Pac-12 gets three teams in like last year as opposed to just one, but it’s a legitimate concern that now has to be taken seriously.