NCAA Basketball: 8 bold predictions for conference play in 2019
By Brian Rauf
2) The Pac-12 will only send two teams in the NCAA Tournament
I wrote last week that it was time to start talking about the Pac-12 potentially being a one-bid league because of their conference’s massive struggles through the season’s first two months.
While I think it’s a real possibility, I simply don’t see the selection committee giving just a single bid to a power conference. That said, I don’t think they’ll even be able to repeat last season’s three bids.
Arizona State is the only team from the conference that is currently ranked and I think can be considered a lock to make the tournament (assuming they don’t completely fall apart in Pac-12 play, of course). They’ll be an at-large even if they don’t win the conference tournament.
Outside of the Sun Devils, however, no one is a lock for an at-large bid. Washington has the best chance since they have no “bad” losses, but they also have no good wins. Oregon has the best win outside of ASU (Syracuse) but has a terrible loss to Texas Southern and another bad one to Baylor on their resume.
I think it will likely come down to Arizona State and Washington or ASU and whoever ends up winning the Pac-12 Tournament. Since I think the Sun Devils and Huskies are the two best teams in the conference, I expect them to earn bids – and I don’t think anyone else will get one.