Pac-12 Basketball Tournament Preview

Published: 5^th Mar 12 10:46 am

by David LaRose
University of Colorado Blogger

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The Pac-12 conference is in the midst of a down year with no clear cut locks for the NCAA Tournament. Because of the parity it makes this year’s tournament anybody’s title to win.

Well maybe not USC or Utah but other than the bottom two it is wide open.

Cal and Washington traded turns on the top of the standings throughout the season so if you had to pick someone they would probably be the “favorites”.

Oregon is probably playing the best of any team in the conference right now, winning eight of their last ten games. At this point in the season it’s all about who is playing the best and who can get on a roll and Dana Altman has his Ducks ready to make a run.

Other teams in the conference have shown flashes of championship play but have been too inconsistent to be taken seriously as contenders. Arizona put together a nice stretch of wins mid-way through the year but then got beat by Arizona State in their last game of the season. Colorado was still in the running for part of the regular season crown but then went 0-2 on their Oregon road trip to finish out the year. UCLA started out the year with too high of expectations and faltered but have finally started to put it together beating regular season champion Washington in their last game to get the #5 seed.

This league is likely to only get 2 or 3 teams into the big dance and that will depend a lot on how the teams do in this tournament. There is a lot at stake and teams will be giving their best effort to try and win so it should be an exciting few days in California.

It’s a fools errand to try and predict a winner but I’m going to anyways

Prediction: Washington over Oregon

I will be out in Los Angeles covering all of the games so check back for new updates and exclusive content from the Pac-12 Tournament.

2012 PACIFIC LIFE PAC-12 MEN’S BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT SCHEDULE
Wednesday-Saturday, March 7-10
STAPLES Center, Los Angeles, Calif.

Wed., Mar. 7
Game 1 – No. 8 Washington State vs. No. 9 Oregon State, 12:10 p.m. PT – FSN
Game 2 – No. 5 UCLA vs. No. 12 USC, 2:40 p.m. PT – FSN
Game 3 – No. 7 Stanford vs. No. 10 Arizona State, 6:10 p.m. PT – FSN
Game 4 – No. 6 Colorado vs. No. 11 Utah, 8:40 p.m. PT – FSN

Thurs., Mar. 8
Game 5 – No. 8/9 vs. No. 1 Washington, 12:10 p.m. PT – FSN
Game 6 – No. 5/12 vs. No. 4 Arizona, 2:40 p.m. PT – FSN
Game 7 – No. 7/10 vs. No. 2 California, 6:10 p.m. PT – FSN
Game 8 – No. 6/11 vs. No. 3 Oregon, 8:40 p.m. PT – FSN

Fri., Mar. 9
Semifinal 1, 6:10 p.m. PT – FSN
Semifinal 2, 8:40 p.m. PT – FSN

Sat., Mar. 10
Championship Game, 3:10 p.m. PT – CBS