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Pac-12 Men's Basketball Weekly Rundown - December 6, 2022

Dec 6, 2022

COMPLETE RELEASE

#PAC12MBB STARTING FIVE:

2-0 - Four teams emerged unscathed from last week’s early Pac-12 league games - ARIZONA STATE, UCLA, USC & UTAH.

  • For ASU, it marks only its fifth ever 2-0 start to Pac-12 play and first in a decade (1979-80, 1987-88, 2007-08, 2012-13, 2022-23).
  • For UTAH, it is its first 2-0 start since 2017-18 and just the third since joining the Pac-12 (2014-15, 2017-18, 2022-23).

3, 3, 3 - Pac-12 teams return to non-conference play with 17 contests this week, including:

  • Three true road games - ARIZONA STATE at SMU, WASHINGTON at #18 Gonzaga, OREGON STATE at Texas A&M
  • Three neutral site games in Las Vegas - WASHINGTON STATE vs. UNLV, #14 Indiana vs. #10 ARIZONA, ARIZONA STATE vs. #21 Creighton
  • Three AP Top 25 opponents - WASHINGTON at #18 Gonzaga, #14 Indiana vs. #10 ARIZONA, ARIZONA STATE vs. #21 Creighton

4 x 40 - The NCAA Evaluation Tool (NET) made its debut this week with seven Pac-12 teams in the top 100, including four in the top 40 - #14 UCLA, #19 UTAH, #27 ARIZONA and #35 ARIZONA STATE.

  • Only the Big 12 (five), Big Ten (seven) and SEC (seven) have more NET Top 40 teams.
  • It marks the best-ever NET ranking for UTAH, whose previous high was No. 47 in Jan. 2020.

8-1 - At 8-1, ARIZONA STATE currently owns the best record in the Pac-12 and is enjoying its best start since 2018-19 when it also started 8-1 and made its most recent NCAA Tournament appearance.

  • The Sun Devils have won six straight and are an OT buzzer tip-in at Texas Southern away from being undefeated.

221 - Player availability has been a substantial issue for Pac-12 programs early this season:

  • Across the league’s 12 teams, a combined 51 players have missed or had their action limited in a total of 221 games through Dec. 4 contests.
  • CALIFORNIA (7 players for 40 games), OREGON (9/45), WASHINGTON (7/32) and WASHINGTON STATE (6/25) have been particularly impacted.

PAC-12 NOTES

DDD-DEVILS & DEFENDIN’ UTES: ARIZONA STATE and UTAH have both gotten off to strong starts in large part because of their stout defenses.

  • The two join No. 1 Houston & No. 7 Tennessee as teams ranked in the top 6 in NCAA Division I in both field goal percentage defense and three-point percentage defense.
  • UTAH ranks second in FG% (33.7%) and third in 3FG% (22.5%) defense.
  • ASU ranks fifth in FG% (34.6%) and sixth in 3FG% (24.4%) defense.

KEY NON-CONFERENCE WINS

AP TOP 25 OPPONENTS (5-8)
COLORADO 78, #11 Tennessee 66 (Nashville, Tenn.)
ARIZONA STATE 87, #20 Michigan 62 (Brooklyn, N.Y.)
COLORADO 103, #24 Texas A&M 75 (Conway, S.C.)
#14 ARIZONA 87, #17 San Diego State 70 (Lahaina, Hawai’i)
#14 ARIZONA 81, #10 Creighton 79 (Lahaina, Hawai’i)

POWER 6 OPPONENTS (7-14)
COLORADO 78, #11 Tennessee 66 (Nashville, Tenn.)
ARIZONA STATE 87, #20 Michigan 62 (Brooklyn, N.Y.)
COLORADO 103, #24 Texas A&M 75 (Conway, S.C.)
UTAH 68, Georgia Tech 64 (Fort Myers, Fla.)
#14 ARIZONA 81, #10 Creighton 79 (Lahaina, Hawai’i)
STANFORD 70, Florida State 60 (Orlando, Fla.)
OREGON 74, Villanova 67 (Portland, Ore.)

PRESEASON CONFERENCE FAVORITES (5-4)
at UCLA 86, Norfolk State 56
at OREGON 81, Montana State 51
at USC 59, Vermont 57
#14 ARIZONA 87, #17 San Diego State 70 (Lahaina, Hawai’i)
#14 ARIZONA 81, #10 Creighton 79 (Lahaina, Hawai’i)

2022 NCAA TOURNAMENT TEAMS (9-14)
COLORADO 78, #11 Tennessee 66 (Nashville, Tenn.)
at UCLA 86, Norfolk State 56
at OREGON 81, Montana State 51
at USC 59, Vermont 57
#14 ARIZONA 87, #17 San Diego State 70 (Lahaina, Hawai’i)
#14 ARIZONA 81, #10 Creighton 79 (Lahaina, Hawai’i)
WASHINGTON 68, Saint Mary’s 64 (OT) (Anaheim, Calif.)
OREGON 74, Villanova 67 (Portland, Ore.)
at COLORADO 65, Yale 62

PRESEASON AWARDS CANDIDATES

NAISMITH TROPHY NATIONAL PLAYER OF THE YEAR
Top 50 Watch List

Azuolas Tubelis, Arizona
Will Richardson, Oregon
Harrison Ingram, Stanford
Tyger Campbell, UCLA
Jaime Jaquez Jr., UCLA
Drew Peterson, USC

WOODEN AWARD NATIONAL PLAYER OF THE YEAR
Top 50 Watch List

Azuolas Tubelis, Arizona
Will Richardson, Oregon
Harrison Ingram, Stanford
Tyger Campbell, UCLA
Jaime Jaquez Jr., UCLA

NABC NATIONAL PLAYER OF THE YEAR
Top 20 Watch List

Jaime Jaquez Jr., UCLA

NAISMITH MEMORIAL BASKETBALL HALL OF FAME AWARDS
Watch Lists

Bob Cousy Point Guard of the Year
Kerr Kriisa, Arizona
Will Richardson, Oregon
Tyger Campbell, UCLA

Jerry West Shooting Guard of the Year
Amari Bailey, UCLA

Julius Erving Small Forward of the Year
Pelle Larsson, Arizona
Harrison Ingram, Stanford
Jaime Jaquez Jr., UCLA

Karl Malone Power Forward of the Year
Azuolas Tubelis, Arizona

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Center of the Year
Oumar Ballo, Arizona
Adem Bona, UCLA
Branden Carlson, Utah
Kel’el Ware, Oregon

PAC-12 MEDIA PRESEASON ALL-CONFERENCE TEAMS
First Team
Tyger Campbell, R-Sr., G, UCLA
Branden Carlson, Sr., C, Utah
Boogie Ellis, Sr., G, USC
Mouhamed Gueye, So., F, Washington State
Harrison Ingram, So., F, Stanford
Jaime Jaquez Jr., Sr., G/F, UCLA
Spencer Jones, Sr., F, Stanford
Drew Peterson, 5th, G, USC
Will Richardson, Sr., G, Oregon
Azuolas Tubelis, Jr., F, Arizona

Second Team
Marcus Bagley, So., F, Arizona State
Tristan da Silva, Jr., F, Colorado
DJ Horne, Jr., G, Arizona State
Kerr Kriisa, Jr., G, Arizona
Pelle Larsson, Jr., G, Arizona

Honorable Mention
Amari Bailey (Fr., UCLA), Oumar Ballo (R-Jr., ARIZ), Jaylen Clark (Jr., UCLA); Quincy Guerrier (Sr., ORE), K.J. Simpson (So., COLO), Kel’el Ware (Fr., ORE).


CONFERENCE STANDINGS (Expanded Standings

Teams Pac-12 Record Overall Record
Arizona State 2-0 8-1
#19 UCLA 2-0 7-2
Utah 2-0 7-2
USC 2-0 6-3
#10 Arizona 1-1 7-1
Washington 1-1 7-2
Oregon 1-1 4-5
Oregon State 1-1 4-5
Colorado 0-2 4-5
Washington State 0-2 3-4
Stanford 0-2 3-6
California 0-2 0-9


WEEKLY SCHEDULE (Full Schedule)

Wednesday, Dec. 7 TV Time (PT)
ARIZONA STATE at SMU ESPNU 6:00 p.m. PT
Northern Kentucky at WASHINGTON STATE PAC12 6:00 p.m. PT
Eastern Washington at CALIFORNIA PAC12BA 7:00 p.m. PT
Cal State Fullerton at USC PAC12 8:00 p.m. PT
Thursday, Dec. 8 TV Time (PT)
Colorado State at COLORADO ESPN2 6:00 p.m. PT
Jacksonville State at UTAH PAC12 7:00 p.m. PT
Friday, Dec. 9 TV Time (PT)
WASHINGTON at #18 Gonzaga ROOT+ 6:00 p.m. PT
Saturday, Dec. 10 TV Time (PT)
Denver at #19 UCLA PAC12 12:00 p.m. PT
WASHINGTON STATE vs. UNLV (Las Vegas, Nev.) FS1 1:30 p.m. PT
Butler at CALIFORNIA PAC12 2:00 p.m. PT
Nevada at OREGON PAC12 4:00 p.m. PT
#10 ARIZONA vs. #14 Indiana (Las Vegas, Nev.) FOX 4:30 p.m. PT
Sunday, Dec. 11 TV Time (PT)
OREGON STATE at Texas A&M ESPN2 3:00 p.m. PT
Monday, Dec. 12 TV Time (PT)
ARIZONA STATE vs. #21 Creighton (Las Vegas, Nev.) FS1 6:00 p.m. PT
Tuesday, Dec. 13 TV Time (PT)
Texas A&M-Corpus Christi at ARIZONA PAC12 5:30 p.m. PT
UTSA at UTAH PAC12MT 6:00 p.m. PT
Cal Poly at WASHINGTON PAC12 7:30 p.m. PT

PAC-12 PERFORMANCE AWARDS PRESENTED BY NEXTIVA (Weekly Awards History)

Week of Player of the Week Freshman of the Week
Nov. 14 K.J. Simpson, So., Colorado Jordan Pope, Oregon State
Nov. 21 Desmond Cambridge Jr., 5th, Arizona State Austin Nunez, Arizona State
Nov. 28 Oumar Ballo, R-Jr., Arizona Amari Bailey, UCLA
Dec. 5 Rollie Worster, Jr., Utah Amari Bailey, UCLA
Dec. 12    
Dec. 19    
Dec. 26    
Jan. 2    
Jan. 9    
Jan. 16    
Jan. 23    
Jan. 30    
Feb. 6    
Feb. 13    
Feb. 20    
Feb. 27    
March 6    

NATIONAL WEEKLY HONORS

Week of Award - Recipient
Nov. 28 NCAA.com National Player of the Week - Oumar Ballo, Arizona