Pac-12 Tournament Preview

The two teams met only once during the Pac-12 regular season, with the Ducks escaping with a 71-70 win at Matt Knight Arena in early February. “It’s like tasting your favorite candy”.

For the UCLA Bruins the Pac-12 tournament is a chance to solidify their credentials as one of the countries best teams. This crown came thanks to a comeback that relied heavily on a stifling defensive performance and a huge lift off the bench from Smith. As hard as it was to admit, there came a time when trying to play this season no longer seemed worthwhile.

“We’ve had a lot thrown at us this year”, Thompson said.

He also pointed to the first half in home games against Arizona (allowing 27 points) and Colorado (24) and both games against UCLA (34 and 32). “We’ve got to become a better rebounding team”.

The conference’s No. 1 seed will be in action on Thursday against the victor of Wednesday’s Arizona State (+6600) vs. Stanford (+4000) game. On a neutral court, they will have beaten USC (still probably a Tournament team, and one which already beat UCLA once), Arizona (a top ten RPI team that also beat UCLA once), and OR (bordering on a top 5 RPI team that also beat UCLA once).

To combat Stanford’s size advantage, the Sun Devils veered from their typical 3-point-centric offense and focused on dribble drives and attacking the interior of Stanford’s defense. Travis is Stanford’s best player, and without his dominating play, Stanford struggles.

“We thought it would be a hard-fought game”, said Cuonzo Martin following the game.

Dickerson has six double-doubles this season, including a 12-point, 15-rebound effort against Gonzaga. He finished with 10 points and, most impressive of all, shot 2/5 on threes and 2/2 on free-throws.

Wiese’s 3-pointer with 3:23 left cut the lead in half and was Oregon State’s only field goal of the fourth quarter.

Even when the Bears tried to pull away, the Beavers stayed on their heels, keeping the game closer than expected. Rabb, who combined for 19 points on 4/14 shooting in his last two outings, missed multiple shot attempts around the rim in the first half.

The Ducks finished the regular season by repeating as Pac-12 champions for the second year in a row.

“Nothing surprised me, to be honest”.

Arizona State head coach Bobby Hurley has been here before. It’s been well-recorded that the Sun Devils live by the three-point shot, but after their opening match-up against Stanford, they’ve proven efficient in the frontcourt as well.

The Beavers’ setback Wednesday was the loss of Eubanks, who left the game with 16:12 remaining after coming down wrong on his left ankle after a shot attempt. That meant a first-round game against the No. 5 seeded California Golden Bears.

“If I could have played the second half of this game, I’ll play, just because I want to be out there with my guys”, Tinkle said. Without receiving the support of the writers or coaches, Utah may need to make it to the Pac-12 Championship Game in order to improve its resume enough to not simply get an NIT invite on Sunday (March 12). With three titans of the game resting atop the PAC 12 standings, this tournament should be a whole lot of fun.

Of the three heavyweights, the Wildcats would be the easiest sell, so to speak: Six top-50 wins, a challenging non-conference schedule … and look at how well they’re playing with a fully-loaded roster.