Tough road to date as Pac-12 Men's Basketball hits midpoint this week
The Inside Pac-12 Men's Basketball Podcast hosted by Mike Yam provides a new level of detail and nuanced insight into all things Pac-12 hoops, deep-diving into current conference play, Pac-12 alumni in the NBA, professional potential of current Pac-12 student-athletes, and much more. All-time Pac-12 scoring leader Don MacLean offers a unique perspective on the collegiate and professional basketball landscapes, stories from his career, and projections on student-athletes around the conference.
4 x NET 25 - As of Jan. 28, the Pac-12 boasts four teams ranked inside the top 25 - ARIZONA, OREGON, COLORADO, STANFORD - of the NCAA Evaluation Tool (NET) - tied for the second-most in the nation.
• The Pac-12 also has six top-50 NET teams, the third-most nationally, and eight top-75 NET teams.
• Based on current NET rankings, Pac-12 programs have a combined 68 Quadrant 1 and 37 Quadrant 2 opportunities remaining in the regular season, including 12 Q1 and eight Q2 chances this week.
• No. 11 OREGON has appeared in all 13 polls this season, one shy of the second-most in program history (14 - 2006-07; 19 - 2016-17).
• There have been six overtime games (seven total OT periods) through 42-of-108 league contests. The league’s single-season record is 13 OT games.
• Tinkle is also tied for 66th on the Conference’s career rebounds list (808) and is on pace to become only the fifth member of the league’s 2,000-point, 900-rebound club (Lew Alcindor-UCLA, Don MacLean-UCLA, Adam Keefe-STAN, Chris Welp-WASH).
PAC-12 TIPOFF:
ALL 12 WITH 2: It marks the earliest point in a season in a decade that all league teams have at least two Conference wins (1/14/10). This after the league saw all 12 teams secure a Conference win at the earliest point since expansion to an 18-game schedule in 1978-79 (1/9/20).
DISHING DUCK: OREGON senior and Wooden Award Midseason Watch List member Payton Pritchard enters the week with 609 career assists, 13th-most in Conference history and 27 shy of entering the league’s all-time top 10.
• Pritchard is the first player in Pac-12 men’s basketball history to reach 1,500 points (1,717), 600 assists and 500 rebounds (507) in a career.
REMY MARTIN 20: ARIZONA STATE’s Remy Martin is tied for the nation’s longest streak of 20-point games at seven, most recently 24 in the Sun Devils’ 22-point comeback victory over ARIZONA last week.
• Martin is the first Conference player to open league play with six 20-point games since at least 1996-97.
A TROJAN ODYSSEY: USC opened league play 5-2 with five of its opening seven games on the road. Since Christmas, the Trojans have climbed 36 spots to No. 40 in the latest NET rankings.
• USC is 1-of-4 major conference teams with 5-or-more true road victories (Baylor, Kansas, Seton Hall) and subsequently ranks highly in results-based metrics ESPN Strength of Record (21) and KPI (22).
GETTING DEFENSIVE: As of Jan. 28, the Pac-12 has six teams ranked inside the top 50 in KenPom’s Adjusted Defensive Efficiency, tied for the second-most of any conference.
• In the KenPom Era dating back to 2001-02, the league has only once finished a season with six top-50 teams in AdjD (2013-14).
ROAD SWEEPS: As the opening weeks of Conference play have illustrated, road sweeps have proven difficult - none so far in 2019-20 and just 52 in total in 402 tries since the Pac-12 expanded for 2011-12.
• For the first time since expansion to the Pac-12, there were no January road sweeps in league play.
TRACKING LEAGUE PLAY: Through 42 league games as of Jan. 28, the average scoring margin is 12.4 points.
• 20 games have been decided by single digits
• 7 games has been decided by one possession (3 pts. or less)
• 6 overtime games (7 total OT periods)
CONFERENCE STANDINGS (Expanded Standings)
Teams | Pac-12 Record | Overall Record |
Oregon | 6-2 | 17-4 |
Colorado | 5-2 | 16-4 |
USC | 5-2 | 16-4 |
Stanford | 4-2 | 15-4 |
Arizona | 3-3 | 13-6 |
Arizona State | 3-3 | 12-7 |
California | 3-3 | 9-10 |
Utah | 3-4 | 12-7 |
UCLA | 3-4 | 10-10 |
Washington State | 3-5 | 12-9 |
Oregon State | 2-6 | 12-8 |
Washington | 2-6 | 12-9 |
UPCOMING SCHEDULE (All Time Pacific - Expanded Schedule)
Wednesday, Jan. 29 | ||
Arizona State at Washington State | ESPNU | 8:00 p.m. PT |
Thursday, Jan. 30 | ||
#11 Oregon at California | PAC12 | 6:00 p.m. PT |
Arizona at Washington | ESPN2 | 6:00 p.m. PT |
Utah at USC | FS1 | 6:30 p.m. PT |
Oregon State at Stanford | PAC12 | 8:00 p.m. PT |
#20 Colorado at UCLA | ESPN2 | 8:00 p.m. PT |
Saturday, Feb. 1 | ||
Oregon State at California | PAC12 | 1:00 p.m. PT |
#11 Oregon at Stanford | PAC12 | 3:00 p.m. PT |
Arizona at Washington State | PAC12 | 5:00 p.m. PT |
#20 Colorado at USC | FS1 | 7:30 p.m. PT |
Arizona State at Washington | PAC12 | 7:30 p.m. PT |
Sunday, Feb. 2 | ||
Utah at UCLA | FS1 | 12:00 p.m. PT |
PAC-12 PLAYERS OF THE WEEK
NATIONAL HONORS