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PAC-12 RUNDOWN

• 26 » For the third consecutive weekend, the Pac-12 calendar features a top-10 matchup when No. 8 UCLA travels to No. 9 Utah on Sunday at 11 a.m. PT. The showdown will be the 26th between a pair of Pac-12 teams in the AP Top 10 since 2016-17 (including the postseason), which is 11 more than any other league. The ACC has had 15 such meetings over the past seven seasons, the SEC 12, the Big 12 eight and the Big Ten seven.
• 44 » The UCLA at Utah meeting will be the 44th top-10 matchup between a pair of Pac-12 schools all-time. The Conference only had 18 such games during the first 30 years of women’s basketball sport sponsorship, from 1986-87 through 2015-16.
• 5 » For the 10th consecutive week, at least five Pac-12 teams are in the AP Top 25 in No. 3 Stanford, No. 8 UCLA, No. 9 Utah, No. 19 Arizona and No. 25 Colorado.
• 3 » It’s also the third consecutive week and 49th time overall the Pac-12 has three programs in the Top 10. All 49 of those instances have come in the past seven seasons (since 2016-17), which is the most in the country over that span (ACC - 44; SEC - 16; Big Ten - 12; Big 12 - 7).
• 43.08 » The Conference’s schools have an averaging NET positioning of 43.08, which is the best in the country (ACC - 45.40; SEC - 53.43; Big 12 - 53.70; Big Ten - 56.93). Eleven teams are in the NET top 100, including an NCAA-leading seven in the top 30 - No. 4 Stanford, No. 7 Utah, No. 14 Oregon, No. 22 Colorado, No. 26 Arizona, No. 27 UCLA, No. 30 USC.
• 8+1 » ESPN’s latest Bracketology from Tuesday, Jan. 24 has eight Pac-12 teams in the field in No. 1 seed Stanford, No. 3 seed Utah, No. 4 seed UCLA, No. 5 seed Arizona, No. 8 seed Oregon, No. 7 seed Colorado, No. 10 seed USC and No. 11 seed Washington State. Oregon State is listed among the first four teams out. The Conference’s record of NCAA Tournament participants is seven from 2016-17.
• 1 » The Pac-12, which went a national-best 115-20 (.852) during non-conference play, is the country’s top-rated league according to Massey Ratings. Per Massey, the Pac-12 has finished as the No. 1 conference every season since 2018-19.
• 6 » Stanford leads the country in AP Top 25 victories with six. Six Pac-12 programs - Arizona, Colorado, Oregon State, Stanford, UCLA, Utah - have multiple Top 25 wins on their resumes, which is tied with the 14-team Big Ten for the most in the country (Pac-12/Big Ten - 6; ACC - 4; Big 12/Big East - 3; SEC - 2).
• 8 » Rosters for the 2023 McDonald’s All American Games were revealed on ESPN on Tuesday, Jan. 24, and of the 24 women selected to play in the showcase, six have signed National Letters of Intent to join Pac-12 programs next season - Sofia Bell (Oregon), Breya Cunningham (Arizona), Amanda Muse (UCLA), JuJu Watkins (USC) and Jada Williams (Arizona) representing the West, and Courtney Ogden (Stanford) on the East roster - the second-highest total among all conferences (SEC - 7). It’s the fifth consecutive year the Pac-12 has boasted at least five signees named to McDonald’s All American Game rosters. Last year, the Conference had a national-best 11 of the 24 women selected.
• 15-4 » At 15-4 overall, USC is off to its best start through 19 games since it opened the 1993-94 season 17-2. Colorado is 15-4 in its first 19 for the first time since 2012-13, including its best eight-game start in Conference (6-2) since joining the Pac-12.

BEST CONFERENCE IN NON-CONFERENCE

• Pac-12 teams finished with a national-best .852 (115-20) non-conference winning percentage this season, ahead of the ACC (.818, 139-31), Big 12 (.802, 93-23), SEC (.794, 143-37), Big East (.760, 79-25) and Big Ten (.757, 115-37).
• The league’s .852 clip is a new Pac-12 record, bettering the .848 mark (117-21) from 2016-17 when a Conference-record seven teams earned NCAA Tournament berths.
• Not including the pandemic-impacted season of 2020-21, which featured inconsistent and erratic non-conference scheduling, the Pac-12’s .852 winning percentage is the best in the NCAA since the Big 12 won 86.1 percent (99-16) of its regular-season, non-conference games in 2011-12.
• Removing 2020-21, the Pac-12 actually owns three of the four best regular-season, non-conference winning percentages in women’s college basketball since 1999-00.
  • Big 12 - 2011-12 - .861 (99-16)
  • Pac-12 - 2022-23 - .852 (115-20)
  • Pac-12 - 2016-17 - .848 (117-21)
  • Pac-12 - 2019-20 - .839 (115-22)

STUNNING SUCCESS OF LATE

• Since 2015-16, the Pac-12 leads all conferences in Final Four appearances (7), non-conference winning percentage (.801), NCAA Tournament wins (76), NCAA Tournament winning percentage (.685) and WBCA All-Americans (15).
• Taking it back even further, the Pac-12 also leads all conferences in Final Four appearances since 2012-13 with nine. Those nine appearances have been spread across six different programs - Arizona (2021), California (2013), Oregon (2019), Oregon State (2016), Stanford (2022, 2021, 2017, 2014), Washington (2016) - which is two more than any other conference.
• Simply put, in an amazing display of depth, half of the Pac-12 has appeared in a Final Four in the past nine NCAA Tournaments. The ACC has had four different programs make the Final Four over the same span, the Big East three, the SEC two, and the Big Ten, Big 12 and American each one.
• Stanford’s appearance in the national semifinals last season was the 20th for the Conference all-time (since the start of Pac-12 sport sponsorship in 1986-87). Of those 20 Final Four appearances, more than one third have come in just the past six NCAA Tournaments (35 percent; seven total).

FRESHMAN DOUBLE-DOUBLES

• Oregon State’s Raegan Beers has 10 double-doubles in her first 19 career games, leads the Pac-12 and is second among the country’s freshmen in that category.
• Beers is the ninth true freshman in the Pac-12 to have 10 double-doubles in a season since 1999-2000.
  • 21 - Shawntinice Polk, ARIZ - 2002-03
  • 14 - Kristine Anigwe, CAL - 2015-16
  • 12 - Jillian Alleyne, ORE - 2012-13
  • 11 - Alissa Pili, USC - 2019-20
  • 11 - Ruthy Hebard, ORE - 2016-17
  • 11 - Chiney Ogwumike, STAN - 2010-11
  • 10 - Raegan Beers, OSU - 2022-23
  • 10 - Taylor Jones, OSU - 2019-20
  • 10 - Nicole Powell, STAN - 2000-01

40+

• One week after Washington State’s Charlisse Leger-Walker became the 25th player in Pac-12 history to score 40 points in a game at Washington on Dec. 11, Oregon State’s Talia von Oelhoffen became the 26th when she poured in 41 on 17-of-20 shooting (.850) in a 96-84 victory over Nevada in Maui on Dec. 17. Two of only 12 40-point performances in the country this season, the Pac-12 is one of two leagues to have multiple players among the 11 along with the Big East (Aneesah Morrow, DePaul/Maddy Siegrist, Villanova). It’s the first time the Pac-12 has had multiple 40-point scorers in single season since 2016-17 (Kelsey Plum, Washington/Kristine Anigwe, California).
• von Oelhoffen’s efficient outburst was just the seventh 40-point effort on 85.0 percent shooting in the country since 1999-00 and the first since UConn’s Katie Lou Samuelson had 40 points on 12-of-14 shooting (.857) against South Florida on March 6, 2017. The only other Pac-12 player to put up those numbers this century was California’s Reshanda Gray against Washington State on Feb. 27, 2014 when she scored 43 on 17-of-20 shooting (.850).

NO SIGNS OF SLOWING DOWN

• Pac-12 women’s basketball programs signed 29 student-athletes to National Letters of Intent during the early signing period for the Class of 2023, 19 of whom are in the espnW HoopGurlz Top 100 (65.6 percent), including three in the top 10.
• Five of the nation’s top 20 classes have been put together by Conference programs, including three of the top 10 - No. 3 Arizona, No. 7 Stanford, No. 10 USC, No. 16 Washington, No. 18 Oregon.
• On Nov. 15, USC signed the nation’s top recruit and a local product in JuJu Watkins out of Sierra Canyon High School. The third time in the past five seasons the country’s No. 1 recruit has picked a Pac-12 program (Lauren Betts, Stanford - 2022; Haley Jones, Stanford - 2019), it’s the first time in nine recruiting cycles that the No. 1 recruit has signed with two different schools in the same league in back-to-back years (A’ja Wilson, South Carolina - 2014; Mercedes Russell, Tennessee - 2013).
• Pac-12 programs put together record-setting recruiting classes last season, signing 23 student-athletes from the 2022 espnW HoopGurlz Top 100 who are freshmen on campus this fall, including seven of the top 10 (No. 1 Lauren Betts, STAN; No. 2 Kiki Rice, UCLA; No. 6 Timea Gardiner, OSU; No. 7 Chance Gray, ORE; No. 8 Aaliyah Gayles, USC; No. 9 Maya Nnaji, ARIZ; No. 10 Raegan Beers, OSU).
• Six of the nation’s top 14 classes from 2022 were put together by Conference programs, including each of the top three and five of the top eight - No. 1 UCLA, No. 2 Oregon, No. 3 Oregon State, No. 5 Stanford, No. 8 Arizona and No. 14 Washington.
• Of the 24 women selected to play in the 2022 McDonald’s All American Game, a national-best 11 are on Pac-12 rosters this season in Arizona’s Paris Clark and Maya Nnaji, Oregon’s Chance Gray and Grace VanSlooten, Oregon State’s Raegan Beers and Timea Gardiner, Stanford’s Lauren Betts and Indya Nivar, UCLA’s Gabriela Jaquez and Kiki Rice, and USC’s Aaliyah Gayles.

TOP TALENT THRIVES

• Since 2015-16, the Pac-12 leads all conferences with 15 Women’s Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) All-Americans, two more than the SEC (13). Stanford’s Cameron Brink and Haley Jones landed on the 10-member team in 2022, giving the conference multiple WBCA All-Americans for the fourth consecutive season and sixth in the past seven.
• The Conference also boasts a NCAA-high 18 U.S. Basketball Writers Association (USBWA) first-, second- and third-team All-Americans since 2015-16, tied with the 14-team SEC and one more than the 14-team Big Ten (17).

IT STARTS AT THE TOP

• Not only does the Conference boast the winningest coach in the history of women’s college basketball in Stanford’s Tara VanDerveer (1,176 wins), it also has three of the 35 winningest active Division I coaches by percentage in VanDerveer, Oregon State’s Scott Rueck and Oregon’s Kelly Graves, a total tied for the most among Power 5 leagues (ACC).
• Five of the Conference’s head coaches have led a team to the Final Four in Arizona’s Adia Barnes, Oregon’s Kelly Graves, Oregon State’s Scott Rueck, Stanford’s Tara VanDerveer and USC’s Lindsay Gottlieb, who took California in 2013.
• Of the country’s 13 active NCAA head coaches who have led a Division I team to the Final Four, five are from the Pac-12, which is the most among all leagues. The Pac-12 and the SEC (4) are the only conferences with multiple coaches that have taken a program to the Final Four.
• At the Conference level, the Pac-12 recently made a pair of important hires with backgrounds as NCAA DI Women’s Basketball Committee chairs in Rhonda Lundin Bennett and Lisa Peterson. Bennett, who chaired the committee in 2017-18 and 2018-19, began at the Conference on Sept. 22 as Associate Commissioner for Women’s Basketball & Sports Management, spearheading the Pac-12’s strategic planning efforts to elevate, advance and grow its women’s basketball brand. Peterson started at the Pac-12 on Oct. 17 as Senior Associate Commissioner for Sports Management and is responsible for the comprehensive management and oversight of the league’s 21 Olympic sports.

PAC-12/SWAC LEGACY SERIES

• The first Pac-12/SWAC Legacy Series took place this year and featured six women’s basketball games when Arizona State hosted Grambling State on Nov. 11, Washington State hosted Prairie View A&M on Nov. 13, Oregon played at Southern on Nov. 14, Utah played at Mississippi Valley State on Dec. 1, Arizona hosted Texas Southern on Dec. 14 and California hosted Florida A&M on Dec. 18.
• A first-of-its-kind educational and basketball scheduling pact between Autonomy 5 and HBCU leagues, the Pac-12/SWAC Legacy Series is aimed at: creating a forum for competition; promotion and education around issues of anti-racism and social justice; and motivating the current and next generation of community leaders to affect positive change.

FIBA WOMEN’S BASKETBALL WORLD CUP

• Eight Pac-12 women’s basketball players from five schools represented four national teams at the 2022 FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup in Australia.
• Oregon’s Sabrina Ionescu and Washington’s Kelsey Plum suited up for the gold-medal winning United States. Four of the 12 on the Canadian roster were from the Pac-12 in a pair of current Ducks, fifth-year Taya Hanson and sophomore Phillipina Kyei, along with UCLA’s Nirra Fields, a three-time All-Pac-12 performer (2016, 2015, 2014), and Arizona State’s Mael Gilles, the Conference’s fourth-leading rebounder from a season ago. Seattle Storm head coach and UCLA graduate Noelle Quinn was also an assistant coach for Team Canada.
• Colorado’s Mya Hollingshed, the program’s sixth all-time leading scorer and a two-time All-Pac-12 selection (2022, 2021), played for Puerto Rico, and UW’s Sami Whitcomb, who completed her sixth WNBA season with the New York Liberty, played for the bronze medalist Australians.
• The Pac-12’s eight women’s basketball alumnae at the event in Sydney tied with the ACC for the most among all conferences and were two more than the Big Ten (6), three ahead of the Big 12 and Big East (5) and double the SEC (4).

PAC-12 IN THE PROS

• Washington’s Kelsey Plum (first team), Oregon’s Sabrina Ionescu (second team) and Stanford’s Nneka Ogwumike (second team) were three of 10 players voted to the 2022 All-WNBA Team.
• The Pac-12’s three All-WNBA Team members tied with the SEC for most among all conferences and the two leagues were the only ones with multiple selections.
• It was the first time the Pac-12 has had a trio voted to the All-WNBA Team since 2001, when USC’s Lisa Leslie and UCLA’s Natalie Williams were on the first team and the Trojans’ Tina Thompson on the second team. The Conference had at least three All-WNBA picks in the first five years of the league (1997-2001) and had four selections in both 1999 and 2000 (Leslie, Thompson, Williams and USC’s Cynthia Cooper).
• Plum, Ionescu and Ogwumike were also voted starters for the 2022 AT&T WNBA All-Star Game in July, the first time since 2003 the Pac-12 had a trio voted to start in the WNBA’s midseason showcase.
• The Pac-12 had 20 former women’s basketball student-athletes on WNBA opening-day rosters entering the 2022 season. The conference was represented by seven of its 12 members and on 10 of 12 WNBA franchises.
• In comparing conference totals, the Pac-12 was fourth behind the ACC, which entered the WNBA season with a total of 26 on rosters, the SEC (23) and Big Ten (22). Based on per-membership averages, the Pac-12 was second among all leagues with 1.67 per school (ACC - 1.73).
• In addition to the former standouts on team rosters, the Pac-12 was the only collegiate league with multiple alumnae as WNBA head coaches. UCLA’s Noelle Quinn completed her second season leading the Seattle Storm and Stanford’s Vanessa Nygaard was hired to coach the Phoenix Mercury in late January.
• The Pac-12 had three players selected in the 2022 WNBA Draft, including three of the first eight picks in Nyara Sabally (No. 5 - New York Liberty), Lexie Hull (No. 6 - Indiana Fever) and Mya Hollingshed (No. 8 - Las Vegas Aces). It was the fourth time the Pac-12 had three first-round selections (1997 College Draft, 2000 College Draft, 2020) and the second time it has boasted three of the draft’s first eight selections (2020). The conference has had multiple first rounders in six consecutive drafts, an active streak that leads all leagues by three years. The SEC has had multiple first rounders in three consecutive drafts.

CONFERENCE STANDINGS (Expanded Standings) 

UPCOMING SCHEDULE (Full Schedule)

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

NATIONAL WEEKLY HONORS