Busting Brackets
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Pac-12 Basketball Tournament: Washington, Arizona State the favorites

By Zach Loo

TUCSON, ARIZONA - FEBRUARY 07: Jaylen Nowell #5 and David Crisp #1 of the Washington Huskies react after scoring against the Arizona Wildcats during the second half of the NCAAB game at McKale Center on February 07, 2019 in Tucson, Arizona. The Huskies defeated the Wildcats 67-60. (Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images)
TUCSON, ARIZONA - FEBRUARY 07: Jaylen Nowell #5 and David Crisp #1 of the Washington Huskies react after scoring against the Arizona Wildcats during the second half of the NCAAB game at McKale Center on February 07, 2019 in Tucson, Arizona. The Huskies defeated the Wildcats 67-60. (Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images) /
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LAS VEGAS, NEVADA – NOVEMBER 21: Luguentz Dort #0 of the Arizona State Sun Devils reacts after dunking the ball against the Utah State Aggies during the second half of the championship game of the MGM Resorts Main Event basketball tournament at T-Mobile Arena on November 21, 2018 in Las Vegas, Nevada. Arizona State won 87-82. (Photo by David Becker/Getty Images)
LAS VEGAS, NEVADA – NOVEMBER 21: Luguentz Dort #0 of the Arizona State Sun Devils reacts after dunking the ball against the Utah State Aggies during the second half of the championship game of the MGM Resorts Main Event basketball tournament at T-Mobile Arena on November 21, 2018 in Las Vegas, Nevada. Arizona State won 87-82. (Photo by David Becker/Getty Images) /

Despite a disappointing season, teams for Pac-12 Basketball still can make the Big Dance by winning the conference tournament. Who will cut down the nets?

What a year for Pac-12 Basketball. Most fans of teams in the conference and college basketball as a whole are ready to look towards next season after having such a down year. Regardless of how bad the Pac-12 was this year, at least one team will need to represent them in the NCAA Tournament. Let’s recap some of what happened.

Coming into this season, many saw Washington and Oregon as the front-runners to compete for the Conference Championship. In non-conference play, Washington suffered losses to Auburn, Minnesota, Gonzaga and Virginia Tech. None of these losses are necessarily “bad” but this sparked concern for how good Washington actually is. Oregon never was able to reach their potential because of the injuries they suffered throughout the course of the season.

Five-star forward and #11 recruit in the 2018 class Louis King missed the first seven games due to injury. Just two games after King returned, future lottery pick and #4 recruit in the 2018 Class Bol Bol suffered a season ending foot injury. I had high expectations this year for the Ducks but injuriees your top two players would be a crucial blow to any team.

Arizona State did the opposite and burst onto the national stage with their overall non-conference performance. The Sun Devils beat then ranked #15 Mississippi State, Utah State and the huge upset of #1 ranked Kansas at. These wins put Arizona to #17 in the nation but losing their next game to unranked Princeton at home left them out of next weeks Top 25.

UCLA just barely finished .500 in conference play, ending the season 9-9 which was their worst conference performance since the 2015-2016 season. Arizona did not finish the season above .500, with a 8-10 conference record. This is the worst they have done in conference play since the 2007-2008 season. With the #1 ranked recruiting class next year, expect the Wildcats to bounce back next season. Although, it now looks like there is a chance Sean Miller’s tenure in Tuscon is over.

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