PAC-12 Basketball power rankings: Colorado climbs to top, UCLA rises

LAS VEGAS, NEVADA - NOVEMBER 26: Tyler Bey #1 of the Colorado Buffaloes is mobbed by teammates as he is announced as the tournament MVP after the team's 71-67 victory over the Clemson Tigers to win the MGM Resorts Main Event basketball tournament at T-Mobile Arena on November 26, 2019 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images) /

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LOS ANGELES, CA – DECEMBER 21: Nick Rakocevic #31 and Jonah Mathews #2 of the USC Trojans (Photo by Jayne Kamin-Oncea/Getty Images) /

#8 – Stanford

Oscar Da Silva’s injury — and the circumstances surrounding it — are just brutal. Not only did it probably play a role in the CU comeback and win, but it’s also completely changed the outlook for both the short and long-term.

Without their best player for an unknown amount of time, the Cardinal are in free-fall only a week after the biggest win of their season over Oregon. They’re in a precarious time of year for this type of thing to happen, especially for an aspiring tournament team. A double-digit seed could still be possible, but things need to pick up.

But let’s talk about that Oregon game. Stanford played like they had something to prove against the Ducks, and they probably did — it wasn’t a fluke by any sense of the word. But without Da Silva for the foreseeable future, it’s hard to reward them properly for that win. The Cardinal will hope that he is back ASAP, but the schedule is not getting any easier with visits from Arizona and Arizona State coming up soon.

#7 – USC

USC is intriguing. The Trojans have been all over the place. Sometimes they look like they can keep up with the class of the conference and other times they get pushed around from both sides of the standings. They’ve now lost three in a row, but all against solid teams. Colorado and Arizona were not expected to lose to the Trojans, but they probably should have been able to handle Arizona State.

Andy Enfield’s struggles in February are apparent by now. His teams are 14-34 in February, and the signs of fatigue are mounting for USC. They’ve failed to close out games that they could win (see last possession against ASU) and have been blown off the court early multiple times as well.

Regardless, Onyeka Okongwu is a monster for the Trojans and is probably deserves to be more of a household name. He’s incredibly physically gifted and is the catalyst on both ends for this team. Okongwu had a couple of subpar offensive performances this week (11, 11 and 5 points in the last three) but his rim protection and rebounding have never dropped off. Enfield needs to get him more touches.

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