Pac-12 Basketball: Arizona Loses to Stanford? USC Loses to Oregon State?

Logic disappeared in th Pac-12 on Saturday, so let’s take a look at some of the bizarre occurrences that day.

Stanford 88, Arizona 79

Arizona was ranked fourth in the country, was in the hunt for a Pac-12 title and No. 1 NCAA tournament seed and had won seven games in row, the last four by an average margin of 31 points. Stanford was 4-9 in the conference and had lost two in a row, including a loss to Arizona State two days earlier when it had blown a four-point lead with 2 ½ minutes left.

No way Arizona would lose this one, right?

Well, Arizona lost, but it was the way Arizona lost that made the result particularly puzzling. Arizona led by three points with 8:31 left, and you would expect the talented Wildcats to assert their superiority and dominate play down the stretch. Instead Stanford outscored Arizona 17-3 over the next five minutes.

Stanford took away Arizona’s inside game and the Wildcats attempted 35 three-pointers, missing 21 of them.

“We shot 35 threes, and I don't know if that's a winning formula for us,” Arizona coach Tommy Lloyd said.

That’s the formula for beating the Wildcats: Take away their inside game and hope they don’t make enough three-pointers. Arizona usually makes enough of them, but there are games when they don’t. The Wildcats attempted 28 three-pointers in a 15-point loss to Utah, 28 in a 13-point loss to Washington State and 25 in a 19-point loss to Oregon. Include the Stanford game, and that’s four losses to unranked teams, all by decisive margins, when the Wildcats attempt 25 three-pointers or more. That perimeter inconsistency is a bad trait for any team that hopes to win six consecutive games to win the NCAA Tournament.

Oregon State 61, USC 58

USC entered the game with a 17-7 record, on the cusp of being in the NCAA tournament field, so the Trojans were motivated to a win against a young Oregon State team that was 3-11 in the conference and had lost three straight games, all by double-digit margins.

The Beavers were far from perfect. They shot just 31.3% from the field, were outrebounded by seven boards, had just five assists and shot seven fewer free throws, with USC making 80.8% of its foul shots. USC got a career-high 19 points from 7-foot-1 freshman Vincent Iwuchukwu held the lead with a minute left.

Yet somehow the Trojans lost a game they desperately needed to win.

Look to the three-point line again. USC was 1-for-14 from deep.

UCLA 70, Oregon 63

Like USC, Oregon desperately needed a win against UCLA to improve its NCAA tournament resume, which seemed to leave the Ducks just barely out of the 68-team field. Oregon had won four of its last four games and was coming off a convincing 18-point win over USC, and UCLA coach Mick Cronin was 0-3 in road games against the Ducks, who are particularly tough at home.

The fact that UCLA won was not surprising, but the way in which they did it was. The final score was not indicative of how dominant UCLA was in the second half, UCLA outscored Oregon 36-15 over the first 15 minutes of the second half and led by 18 with four minutes left before coasting home.

Washington State Shoots Poorly, but Who Cares?

Washington State shot a season-low 29.3% from the field against Washington, and it’s nearly impossible to win a college basketball game shooting under 30%. But the Cougars pulled it off, winning 56-51.

Tubelis Disappears

Azuolas Tubelis had been virtually unstoppable in recent games, scoring 40 points the previous week against Oregon and averaging 26.9 points over his prior four games and 11.4 rebounds over his last seven games. He figured to have a big game against Stanford, which ranked near the bottom of the Pac-12 in field-goal percentage defense and scoring defense.

We figured wrong. Limited to 17 minutes because of foul trouble, Tubelis took just two shots and scored just four points, which was eight fewer than his previous season low of 12. More surprising was that Tubelis had zero rebounds. ZERO. He had had at least six rebounds in every game this season and had never had zero rebounds in his three years at Arizona before Saturday. He had twice as many fouls (four) as shot attempts, free throws and rebounds combined (two), and he spent the final three minutes of the game on the bench.

Expect future Arizona opponents to put all their defensive focus on Tubelis and see what happens.

Da Silva's Run Halted

Colorado’s Tristan da Silva had scored 20 points or more in five straight games coming into Saturday’s game against Utah, hitting 58.7% of his shot and 14 of 23 three-pointers (60.9%) in that five-game span. But against the Utes he scored just six points on 3-for-12 shooting, including 0-for-2 from distance, while collecting just two rebounds in 36 minutes on the floor.

Credit Marco Anthony’s defense for shutting down da Silva.

“To hold da Silva to six points on the tear he’s been on was outstanding,” Utah head coach Craig Smith said, according to the Deseret News.

Not surprisingly, Colorado lost by 11 points.

Spencer Jones Suddenly Appears

Stanford's Spencer Jones went scoreless on 0-for-2 shooting in the first half against Arizona, so you figure he'll be a non-factor in this game. But he scored all 18 of his points in the second half, including a six-minute stretch in which he scored all 13 of Stanford's points, taking the Cardinal from a three-point deficit to a one-point lead.

Top Five Pac-12 Teams (at the Moment)

1. UCLA (21-4, 12-2 Pac-12) NET ranking: 5 – The Bruins have a two-game lead in the loss column with six games left as they seek their first regular-season conference title in 10 years.

2. Arizona (22-4, 11-4 Pac-12) NET ranking: 10 – The perimeter inconsistencies could doom the Wildcats in the postseason.

3. USC (17-8, 9-5 Pac-12) NET ranking: 62 – The Trojans need to beef up their resume at home against Cal and Stanford this week.

4. Oregon (15-11, 9-6 Pac-12) NET ranking: 50 – I still think the Ducks have a good shot to make the NCAA tournament.

5. Utah (17-9, 10-5 Pac-12) NET ranking: 52 – I know the Utes are in third place, but they won’t be there for long without Gabe Madsen and with their next four games being against Arizona, Arizona State, UCLA and USC.

Pac-12 Player of the Year Standings

1. Azuolas Tubelis, Arizona (20.2 points, 9.3 rebounds) – He’s not the overwhelming favorite he was a week ago.

2. Jaime Jaquez, UCLA (16.3 points, 8.0 rebounds) – Jaquez is averaging 11.0 rebounds over the past nine games.

3. Branden Carlson, Utah (16.5 points, 7.6 rebounds, 2.2 blocks) – He needs to come up big this week against Arizona and Arizona State.

4. Drew Peterson, USC (13.9 points, 6.4 rebounds, 4.5 assists) – Teammate Boogie Ellis could occupy this spot, but Peterson contributes in more ways.

5. Tristan da Silva, Colorado (16.5 points, 5.1 rebounds) – Admittedly Colorado’s 6-9 conference record makes this choice questionable.

Cover photo of Stanford's Spencer Jones is by John Hefti, USA TODAY Sports

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