Pac-12 Basketball: 5 key questions and storylines for 2021-22 season
There were lots of questions regarding Pac-12 Basketball throughout last season. However, many of those were answered in the postseason, where the conference massively overachieved in the NCAA Tournament. That included three programs (USC, Oregon State, and UCLA) making it all the way to the Elite 8, while the Bruins made the Final Four and was a halfcourt shot away from being in the national title game.
Now just a month away from the 2021-22 season, there are some new questions for the Pac-12, including a new head coach, key transfers, and the overall hierarchy. To help answer some of these questions are a trio of contributors for Busting Brackets that are very familiar with the conference to provide some insight for the programs out west. Here are the participating writers and their social media handles.
Jason Burgess – @Collegehoopsguy
Jake Verboven – @JakeVerboven
Tuck Clarry – @tuckclarry
1. With Oregon and UCLA are the consensus top-2 teams, who is the 3rd-best in the Pac-12?
Burgess
I think the third-best team in the conference is Arizona. The Wildcats have a new coach, Tommy Lloyd and I love this sophomore class with Bennedict Mauthrin, Azuolas Tubelis, Dalen Terry, and Kerr Kriisa. I think the addition of Kim Aiken will be huge for the Wildcats’ defense and this team has Sweet Sixteen potential.
Verboven
Arizona has to be the next best team in the conference. There will be some questions regarding their backcourt, but a frontcourt trio of Bennedict Mathurin, Azuolas Tubelis, and 7 footer Christian Koloko make it hard to put another team above them.
Clarry
While there seems to be a gap between UCLA and Oregon with everybody else, there seems to also be a bit of distance between USC in third and the rest of the conference. Losing Evan Mobley and Tahj Eaddy is tough but the Trojans have experience in key spots and the additions of transfer Boogie Ellis and freshman Malik Thomas should be enough to keep them in the fight for the conference championship.