Pac-12 Basketball questions: Biggest 2022-23 surprises, disappointments

When looking at Pac-12 Basketball, most of the attention goes toward either Arizona or UCLA. Both have been top-10 teams for this season and are definite Final Four contenders. But plenty else has been happening in the conference, including some overachieving and underachieving teams.

To help talk more about the Pac-12, I asked three Busting Brackets contributors with plenty of knowledge of the league. Check out what they had to say about the conference, midway through the 2022-23 season.

Chris Thedinga – @CThedinga

Tuck Clarry – @hellohoopworld

Holden Walter-Warner – @hwalterwarner

1. Which team has been the biggest surprise so far?

Thedinga

Arizona State! If you were to have told me that Marcus Bagley would be, for all intents and purposes, off the team at the beginning of the year — I would not have anticipated a 13-3 start. Hurley has it moving in the right direction now, with solid non-conference wins over Creighton and Michigan.

Clarry

I have to go with the squad down in Tempe. Arizona State and Bobby Hurley looked uneasy early on when they dropped a game to Texas Southern, but the Sun Devils went on a 9-game winning streak that featured wins over Michigan, Creighton, and Colorado. The Cambridge brothers have been fantastic and the guard plays been steady despite the continued absence of Marcus Bagley. There’s a real chance that Arizona State holds on and finishes in the top third of the conference.

Walter-Warner

Utah. Every season, it feels like the Utes fly under the radar with a roster bereft of real star power, only to hold their own in conference play. Their only loss in Pac-12 play came against Oregon. Most of their games have been against the lower tiers of the conference, but they opened their slate with a 15-point win over Arizona, showing they’re for real.