USC and UCLA battle for one big goal as March Madness gets closer
The USC women’s basketball team defeated Arizona State on Friday night, as you probably know by now. Elsewhere in the Pac-12, the outlook improved for the Trojans in their attempt to secure one of several goals for the remainder of the Pac-12 regular season. One such goal relates to UCLA.
Friday night in the Pac-12 provided a number of noteworthy results. Stanford and Colorado won to remain tied for first place. UCLA held off Arizona. Cal defeated injury-hampered Washington State.
The other especially big result in the conference was Oregon State going into Salt Lake City and beating Utah. That result shook up the top half of the 12-team conference. Let’s take a brief look at the top six of the Pac-12 in women’s basketball, going from the sixth-place team to the first-place team:
6 - UTAH (7-5 PAC-12)
Utah is a really good team, but the brutal Pac-12 has knocked the Utes around. The loss to Oregon State puts the Utes in sixth place in the conference standings. We’ll have more on the Utes in a little bit.
TIE 4 -- USC (7-4 PAC-12)
Utah’s loss enabled USC to rise above the Utes in the standings. Keep in mind that USC lost to Utah, so the Trojans need to finish ahead of the Utes in order to avoid losing a head-to-head tiebreaker.
TIE 4 -- UCLA (7-4 PAC-12)
UCLA and USC split the season series with each other. They’re both 7-4 in the Pac-12, half a game ahead of Utah. These teams are tied for fourth place in the conference. If both the Bruins and Trojans remain ahead of Utah, they will battle for a top-four seed in the Pac-12 Tournament. The team which gets a top-four seed receives a first-round bye and a valuable day of rest heading into that tournament. The team with a bye has a much better chance of winning or at least reaching the final. Keep an eye on that plot point.
3 -- OREGON STATE (8-3 PAC-12)
Oregon State is a defensive machine. USC beat the Beavers earlier this season, but the Beavers host the Trojans later this month. If USC can win that game in Corvallis and finish tied with OSU in the standings, the Trojans would own the tiebreaker. OSU is 1.5 games behind the top two teams in the standings.
2 - STANFORD (10-2 PAC-12)
Stanford lost to Colorado, so the Cardinal don’t have the head-to-head tiebreaker and are second in the standings. Stanford did win at Washington on Friday night to maintain a No. 1 national seed position in NCAA Tournament bracketology.
1 - COLORADO (10-2 PAC-12)
Colorado has the head-to-head tiebreaker against Stanford. We mentioned that we would talk a little more about Utah. Here’s that reference: Utah and Colorado come to Los Angeles on Friday, February 23, and Sunday, February 25. Those games between the L.A. schools and the Mountain schools will have a lot to do with the final Pac-12 standings and the seedings for the Pac-12 Tournament. That will be must-see viewing at the Galen Center and Pauley Pavilion.
