Week 3 of Pac-12 play is in the books, and it was a wild one. Last week was the week of the upset, with six teams in the top 10 of the AP Poll dropping games to unranked foes. This list includes Arizona Basketball, but with so many upsets in the top portion of the poll, it can almost be considered a wash.
A few of the lower-tier teams in the conference were able to stun this weekend, with Cal, Stanford, and UCLA all pulling off pleasantly surprising victories. Meanwhile, upper-tier teams with postseason hopes like Utah and Colorado faced some setbacks. Let's dive into the second Pac-12 Basketball Power Rankings.
Locked up
With Washington State being the only matchup of the week for Arizona, the Wildcats were stunned when they were sent out of Pullman with a 73-70 defeat. The Wildcats join a group of top-10 teams to face tough losses against unranked opponents largely due to uncharacteristically bad shooting. Caleb Love was the only one who had any scoring touch today, finishing with 28 points. However, this came on 10-for-25 shooting, which is more shot attempts than Pelle Larsson, Oumar Ballo, and KJ Lewis combined.
Though it isn't the worst loss in the world and not nearly as bad as the Stanford loss, the abysmal shooting (34.7% from the field) and 3-point margin of defeat makes this a tough pill to swallow. The Wildcats will need to keep finding ways to score early on, much like the games against Colorado and Utah.
Next week: The Wildcats will be returning home to host USC on Wednesday before playing against UCLA in McKale Center on Saturday. Playing two of the three worst teams in the conference right as the Wildcats are stepping right back into their stride should lead to a 2-0 week.