Arizona Wildcats Basketball Gets Interesting As UCLA Bruins and Oregon Ducks Lose

Home » Cat Chat » Arizona Wildcats Basketball Gets Interesting As UCLA Bruins and Oregon Ducks Lose

January 30, 2013; Stanford, CA, USA; Stanford Cardinal forward Dwight Powell (33, left) celebrates with a fan after the game against the Oregon Ducks at Maples Pavilion. The Cardinal defeated the Ducks 76-52. Mandatory Credit: Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports

The Arizona Wildcats received some help on Wednesday night from some unlikely teams. The USC Trojans and Stanford Cardinal, two teams in the bottom half of the Pac-12, upset UCLA and #10 Oregon, putting Arizona one game back from first place and taking UCLA out of second place.

USC upset UCLA in overtime 75-71 at Pauley Pavilion. The Bruins shot only 38% from the field and a pitiful 2-19 from three point range. Though USC was out-rebounded, coughed up 17 turnovers and got to the free throw line for 12 less attempts than the Bruins, the Trojans simply outshot UCLA. Thinking this game would be a shoo in victory, UCLA chose this night to retire Reggie Miller’s jersey. Oi vey.

An hour later, #10 Oregon suffered their first loss of in the Pac-12 by getting blown out by Stanford 76-52 on the road. Simply put, Oregon was outshot, out-rebounded, out-assisted, out-stolen, out-blocked, out-turnovered, out-played, out-coahced and out-everythinged by a subpar basketball team. It was just plain ugly.

This puts Arizona in a great position moving forward, as it was not expected in the slightest that UCLA AND Oregon both would fall tonight.