Pac-12 Basketball Power Rankings: Arizona No. 1, Cal on the rise, Stanford falling
By Mason Duhon
Weird weekend for the top teams
. No. 6 Arizona Wildcats. No. 6 Arizona Wildcats. 1. player. UA. . Last week: 1. 511. 21-6, 12-4 in Pac-12
Arizona briefly lost hold of first place in the Pac-12 after the loss to Washington State — which is the main reason they moved back to No. 6 in the AP Poll — but Arizona State continued to sow the seeds of chaos and handed Washington State a loss to move them back into second place when Arizona handed Washington a loss. However, the 'Cats don't have eyes on being regular season conference champions; what matters more is being the Pac-12 Tournament champion. Make no mistake: despite the loss, Arizona is still the best team in the conference.
Arizona looked out of sorts in the Thursday night loss to Washington State when they were ranked No. 21. Caleb Love's 27 points and Oumar Ballo's sixth straight double-double were all for naught, and Arizona fell just short in the crushing 77-74 loss. They bounced back against Washington, though, with a similar 28-point performance from Love and a seventh consecutive double-double from Ballo. Despite losing some steam late in the second half, the 'Cats held on for the 91-75 win.
Next week: Arizona will be heading to Tempe to play rival Arizona State for a midweek showdown on Wednesday.
No. 19 Washington State Cougars. player. . . Last week: 2. WSU. 522. No. 19 Washington State Cougars. 21-7, 12-5 in Pac-12. 2
Washington State's time in first place in the Pac-12 was short-lived, but well-earned. The Cougars played well and got the gritty win against Arizona before the roll finally slowed in Tempe. However, it was a bigger win for Arizona State, and Washington State is still easily the second-best team in conference. They rose two spots to No. 19 in the AP Poll, and rightfully so.
In an extremely closely contested road showdown against top dog Arizona, the Cougs showed up in a big spot. Jaylen Wells led the way with 27 points, and none bigger than the final field goal and two free throws to seal the 77-74 win to extend the streak to eight straight. The cards weren't in their favor against Arizona State, though, and an Isaac Jones double-double (16 points, 11 rebounds) wasn't enough to stave off the Sun Devils in the 73-61 loss.
Next week: Washington State will play host to the SoCal schools when USC comes to Pullman on Thursday before UCLA does the same on Saturday.