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

#2 – Oregon

It was inevitable that the Ducks had to drop from the top this week. It wouldn’t be fair to Arizona and Colorado to not do so. It also wouldn’t be fair to the two teams that upset them in the past week.

Oregon looked hapless on offense twice in the last week and paid for it.
First, scoring sputtered against Stanford, going scoreless for 10 minutes in the second half as OU choked up a 9-point lead. For the first time in a while, the Peyton Pritchard-led attack looked vulnerable.

Then they turned around and lost to Oregon State in Corvallis. Pritchard’s worst shooting effort of the season (1-for-8 beyond the arc) compounded the Ducks’ isolation ball issues and they fell to a team they should’ve had little trouble with. In the last 17 minutes, they only produced 6 buckets and finished with only 4 free throws total.

“We’re not playing as well as we should. We’re not competing as we should,” said coach Dana Altman after the loss. “It’s our job as coaches, my job to get our guys to compete. I don’t like what we are doing.”

They’ll need a win in their next game against Colorado to regain any sense of momentum and avoid a regular-season sweep that would probably boot them from the conference title picture.

#1 – Colorado

It’s finally Colorado’s time at the top. They’re the only team that hasn’t lost a game to a team that’s objectively below their level, and they’re getting rewarded for it. Their NCAA Tournament resume keeps improving as well — the Buffs have no losses from outside of Quadrants 1 and 2 still, and they earned a quality blowout win at USC last Saturday.

They proceeded on to take care of business against Cal and Stanford too, something Arizona and Oregon haven’t necessarily been doing themselves. It’s not a bad time to play the best basketball of the season.

If Colorado can keep chugging along at the pace they’re going — including that upcoming date with the Ducks — Tad Boyle’s team could sweep the rug out from under Arizona and Oregon and solidify a program-best seeding in the tournament this year. Who would’ve thought? Not us.