As we enter February you look at the standings and get the feeling of Groundhog Day as not much has changed since January. The Oregon Ducks remain in the pole position entering the second half of conference play as they sit on top the Pac-12 standings at 7-2.
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However, the lead is just a game with Southern Cal, Utah, Colorado and Washington are logjammed in second place at 6-3. Arizona is alone at 5-4 before our next jam is with California, UCLA and Stanford at 4-5 which make up the second half of the league.
The bottom three teams are Oregon State at 3-6, Arizona State 2-7 and last but not least Washington State 1-8. Even at four games out don’t count out the Beavers making life rough for those above them in the standings, the Sun Devils can also serve as a menace this month as they’ve shown flashes under Bobby Hurley at times.
Back to Oregon, they’re at 18-4 and haven’t lost at Matthew Knight Arena this season (loss in Portland to Baylor then lost at Boise State, Oregon State and Colorado). They’ll hope that streak continues as the Rocky Mountain schools come to Eugene this week and both the Utes and Buffaloes are in second place currently.
USC plays UCLA this week in their lone game which will be big for both Los Angeles schools who either need the win to stay in second place or try and make a late season move in the standings.
Both Washington schools host their counterparts from Arizona as the Huskies look to stay in that aforementioned group trying to keep up with Oregon. Arizona is two games behind the Ducks and one behind the Dogs so getting a win Saturday in Seattle will go a long way.
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In terms of who might be in the NCAA tournament if things were decided today I’d say locks are Oregon, Southern California, Utah and Arizona. Bubble teams in my opinion are Colorado, Washington, UCLA and Stanford with all these teams needing to add a little more to their resumes before March.
Oregon hosts Colorado on Thursday at 6pm at Matthew Knight Arena. The game will be broadcast on the Pac-12 Network.