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PAC-12 RUNDOWN

• 7 » An NCAA-best seven Pac-12 teams are in the top 30 of the latest NET rankings - No. 4 Stanford, No. 7 Utah, No. 19 Oregon, No. 21 Colorado, No. 25 Arizona, No. 27 UCLA and No. 28 USC - besting the 15-team ACC’s six.
• 8 » ESPN’s latest Bracketology from Tuesday, Feb. 7 features eight Pac-12 teams in the field - No. 1 seed Stanford, No. 2 seed Utah, No. 5 seed Arizona, No. 5 seed UCLA, No. 6 seed Colorado, No. 8 seed USC, No. 9 seed Oregon and No. 10 seed Washington State. The Conference’s record of NCAA Tournament participants is seven in 2016-17.
• 41.75 » The country’s deepest conference, Pac-12 schools have an averaging NET positioning of 41.75, which is tops in the nation (ACC - 45.47; SEC - 51.86; Big 12 - 52.60; Big Ten - 57.57).
• 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 and also boasts the nation’s No. 1 strength of schedule. Per Massey, the Pac-12 has finished as the No. 1 rated conference every season since 2018-19.
• 5 » For the 11th time this season, at least five Pac-12 teams are in the AP Top 25 in No. 6 Stanford, No. 7 Utah, No. 17 Arizona, No. 18 UCLA and No. 25 Colorado. At least five Pac-12 teams have been ranked in the same poll 93 times out of 838 total polls over 47 seasons. All but two of those occurrences (91) have come since the beginning of the 2015-16 season, which is the second-most in the country over that span behind the SEC’s 101. The ACC is third with 82 AP polls since 2015-16 featuring five or more league programs. Nov. 8 and Nov. 13, 2006 are the only two weeks outside the past eight seasons in which the AP rankings featured at least five Pac-12 programs.
• 6 » Stanford is tied for the national lead in AP Top 25 victories with six (Indiana). Eight Pac-12 programs - Arizona, Colorado, Oregon State, Stanford, UCLA, USC, Utah, Washington State - have multiple Top 25 wins on their resumes, which is tied for the national lead with the ACC (Big Ten - 7; Big 12 - 5; Big East - 3; SEC - 2).
• 20.9 & .607 » Utah’s Alissa Pili leads the Pac-12 in scoring and field goal percentage, averaging 20.9 points on 60.7 percent shooting. She is one of just two players in the country this season scoring at least 20.0 points per game while shooting better than 60.0 percent from the floor (Mackenzie Holmes, Indiana). Stanford’s Chiney Ogwumike in 2013-14 (26.1 ppg, .601 FG%) is the only Pac-12 player to finish a season with those numbers since 1999-2000.
• 14.0 & 11.8 » USC forward Rayah Marshall is the only player in the Pac-12 and one of eight major conference players nationally averaging a double-double this season (14.0 ppg, 11.8 rpg). California’s Kristine Anigwe in 2018-19 (22.5 ppg, 16.2 rpg) is the last Pac-12 player to average a double-double for an entire season.
• 100+ » Fourth in the country in both scoring (84.9 ppg) and field goal percentage (.493), Utah is coming off a 100-92 win at Oregon on Sunday, its third game this season hitting triple digits (124 vs. No. 16 Oklahoma - Nov. 16; 109 at Mississippi Valley State - Dec. 1). Utah is one of two programs nationally to have multiple 100-point performances on the road (Cleveland State) and one of two to have multiple 100-point outputs against major conference opponents (Iowa). The Utes’ 124 points against Oklahoma earlier this season tied a program record from 1979, are tied for fourth in Pac-12 history, and are the most scored against a ranked team in regulation since at least 1999-2000. A 133-130, quadruple-overtime win for No. 5 Kentucky against No. 9 Baylor on Dec. 6, 2013 is the only game this century in which more points were scored against ranked opponents.

STRONG STARTS

• A number of Pac-12 programs have put themselves in solid positions for NCAA Tournament berths with some quality starts to their seasons.
  • Colorado (18-5 overall, 9-3 Pac-12)
    • Best overall start since 2012-13 (18-5)
    • Best league start since 2000-01 (9-3 in Big 12)
  • USC (17-6 overall, 7-5 Pac-12)
    • Best overall start since 2015-16 (17-6)
    • Best league start since 2013-14 (8-4)
  • Utah (20-2 overall, 10-2 Pac-12)
    • Best overall start sine 2000-01 (20-2)
    • Best league start since 2008-09 (11-1 in MW)
  • Washington State (16-7 overall, 8-1 on road)
    • Best overall start since 1990-91 (16-7)
    • Best road start in program history

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 (.803, 94-23), SEC (.791, 144-38), Big Ten (.760, 117-37) and Big East (.755, 80-26).
• 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).

THE CONFERENCE OF TRIPLE-DOUBLES

• Stanford’s Cameron Brink put together the Pac- 12’s 56th all-time triple-double, and just second with blocks, going for 16 points, 11 rebounds and a Stanford single-game record 10 rejections in a 62-54 home win over Oregon on Jan. 29.
• Per ESPN Stats & Info, a Pac-12 player has now had a triple-double in 12 consecutive seasons, the longest streak by a conference in DI history.

FRESHMAN DOUBLE-DOUBLES

• Oregon State’s Raegan Beers has 10 double-doubles in her first 23 career games and is second among the country’s freshmen in that category (Gracie Merkle, Bellarmine - 16).
• 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 16 40-point performances in the country this season, the Pac-12 is one of two leagues to have multiple players among the 16 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).

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).
• Rosters for the 2023 McDonald’s All American Games were revealed 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.

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 (1,179 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.

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