The Pac-12 has had a couple of seasons to forget, and that reality has been well-chronicled. It hasn’t looked like a power conference of late, and last year, the only remote saving grace was Oregon’s run to the Sweet 16 in the NCAA Tournament that few saw coming based on their disappointing regular season. We knew that if the conference was to have a resurgence this season, we would get a decent idea early on if that might happen based on schedules.
Just under two weeks in, the early returns are very positive, and Sunday was just the latest instance of that. It was a perfect 4-0 day, all wins coming by double digits.
While Washington State’s 72-61 win over Idaho State isn’t going to make a lot of people take notice, and Arizona State’s 92-55 thumping of Rider is perhaps a little better than you think, the best wins of the day were Oregon taking care of UT Arlington 67-47 and Arizona thumping New Mexico State 83-53. UT Arlington should contend in the Sun Belt as they return most of last season’s pleasant surprise of a team, while New Mexico State has been the class of the WAC for a while now, and they have given power conference teams plenty of fits.
The conference suffered a blemish over the weekend when Washington went down to Tennessee in Toronto on Saturday, but thus far Pac-12 teams have lost just four games. One of those losses was Arizona State losing to Colorado in Shanghai. And while they have certainly knocked off lesser foes, Pac-12 teams have had some tests thus far.
The best wins are certainly noteworthy, such as Washington knocking off Baylor, Oregon State taking out Iowa State, Arizona handling Illinois, Oregon holding off Memphis and Utah beating Minnesota. But the conference has also turned back some underrated opponents, teams that they all too often lost against last year. UCLA and Cal have both knocked off UNLV, Utah and USC have gone to Nevada and won, Oregon took care of steady Mountain West program Fresno State and blew out Boise State, Oregon State won at Wyoming, Stanford beat Big Sky favorite Montana by double digits, and UCLA beat Big West contender UC Santa Barbara by double digits.
Teams are doing it at the defensive end, as nine of the 12 teams are holding opponents below 40 percent on the season and half of the teams are forcing over 16 turnovers a game. That goes a long way towards winning.
There is much non-conference basketball to be played, and it’s important to remember that December was a disaster for the Pac-12 last year. But the first two weeks have been promising for the Pac-12, meaning there are early signs that this season could be a resurgence for it. Time will tell if they can maintain it or not.
Side Dishes
Seton Hall got a nice road win at Saint Louis by a score of 83-66 as Myles Powell had 23 more points, while UConn edged Florida 62-59 in Storrs for a big win. The Gators have not looked like a Final Four team on consecutive Sundays now, but as we said last week, let’s not get carried away with over-analysis just yet. The Gators have a good deal of youth among their key contributors, so some growing pains are to be expected and especially against either good rivals (Florida State) or on the road (UConn). One should also recall that there is a lot of evenness in college basketball this season if the early results are any indication.
Is Charlotte on the verge of breaking out? In Ron Sanchez’s second season at the helm, the 49ers first knocked off Davidson, then on Sunday edged visiting Wake Forest 67-65 in overtime. Charlotte went 14-44 the past two seasons and hasn’t had a winning season since 2013-14 when they went 17-14 in their first season back in Conference USA.
Other results of note: VCU was impressive in blowing out Jacksonville State 93-65 in Richmond; Wisconsin pulled away from Marquette 77-61 behind a double-double from Brevin Pritzl (15 points, 13 rebounds); UCF went to Illinois State and rallied to pull out a 67-65 win after being down by nine at halftime; Oklahoma State held off Yale 64-57; and Mississippi State got a big double-double from Robert Woodard II (21 points, 16 rebounds) en route to blowing out Southland contender New Orleans 82-59.
Tonight’s Menu
In-season tournaments are about to take over college basketball, but for the moment we have more campus games on a slate that isn’t full of big matchups.
- A couple of early games feature matchups of undefeated teams, as SMU travels to Evansville and William & Mary heads to Oklahoma (7 p.m.)
- The final game in the Spartan Invitational has Appalachian State taking on host UNC Greensboro (7 p.m.)
- Auburn should get a good challenge from Patriot League favorite Colgate (8 p.m.)
- The best matchup out west is Colorado hosting UC Irvine, although Air Force at TCU could be a good one as well (both tip at 9 p.m.)
