The Pac-12 has three legitimate Final Four contenders in Oregon, Arizona, and UCLA. Those three teams might also be the only three teams that make the NCAA Tournament from this conference. Such stratification is rare in conferences for the most part, but the Wildcats, Ducks, and Bruins are miles ahead of the rest of the conference. Between the three of those teams, they had seven conference losses, with five of these losses coming from each other.
These teams are facing an interesting situation with NCAA Tournament seeding. Gonzaga looks to be the top seed in the West region at present and the committee won't stick all three of these teams and Gonzaga in the same region. Somebody is going to have to do some travelling and the Pac-12 Tournament provides a good opportunity to avoid that for one of these teams. Right now, Oregon has been getting the nod as the lone 2 seed of this group. Arizona and UCLA are trending on the 3 line at this point.
Elsewhere, only USC and California are looking at potential at large bids. USC started the season 14-0 and then went 9-8 down the stretch, including a four game swoon in the last three weeks of the season. The Trojans had been comfortably in the tournament before that, but now they are on the 11 line, which is dangerous territory for a bubble team. California is only showing up in a handful of bracket projections right now and will need a miracle run in this tournament and maybe need the automatic bid just to be safe.
All 12 teams in the conference will take place in the tournament with the top four seeds getting a bye to the quarterfinals. The tournament will take place at the T-Mobile Arena in Paradise, Nevada.
First Round-Wednesday, March 8th
#9 Stanford vs. #8 Arizona State
#12 Oregon State vs. #5 California
#10 Washington State vs. #7 Colorado
#11 Washington vs. #6 USC
Quarterfinals-Thursday, March 9th
#8 Arizona State vs. #1 Oregon
#5 California vs. #4 Utah
#7 Colorado vs. #2 Arizona
#6 USC vs. #3 UCLA
Semifinals-Friday, March 10th
#4 Utah vs. #1 Oregon
#3 UCLA vs. #2 Arizona
Championship-Saturday, March 11th
Oregon and UCLA split the season series in two thrilling games that were decided by a combined 5 ponits. Oregon will have the easier path to the final as UCLA will have had to go through Arizona to get to this game. I expect this to be wear down the Bruins and allow Oregon to nail down a trip to the West Regional as probably the 2 seed, possibly the 1 again.
UCLA 78, Oregon 85
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