Much remains to be settled, but as we enter the weekend, the Pac-12 leaders included… Colorado and Arizona State? It’s clearly a different time in the conference, although a better one than the past couple of years, to be sure.
In a historic sense, this is surprising, but back before the season, only one of those teams would have been a surprise in this spot.
Colorado edged USC 70-66 in Boulder on Thursday night, and along with Oregon losing at Arizona State 77-72, the Buffaloes are in first place in the Pac-12. Arizona State is a half game back (even in the loss column) along with arch rival Arizona, who broke away from Oregon State 89-63 on Thursday night. UCLA is another surprise in the mix as they’re still a game back in the loss column after handling Utah 69-58 in Salt Lake City. And a team that was supposed to contend – Washington – fell to 2-12 after their ninth straight loss, a 72-64 home defeat against Stanford.
Colorado being here is only news for two reasons: they went through a period of irrelevance and they are hardly a traditional power in the conference. Tad Boyle had it going earlier in the decade, when the Buffaloes were winning consistently for a few years, then they faded. Last year was a good year for them in a forgettable year for the conference, but the biggest reason they were seen as being among the favorites is that they had the most returning talent and experience in the conference. They weren’t hit by transfers or early entrants to the NBA Draft like others were. The season has then followed what was expected to a large degree, although you never know how that will translate when a team like Arizona brings in great new talent, for example.
Arizona State has become relevant again in recent years, but this year’s team looked like a bit of a wild card with early defections in recent years. There was still good talent, led by the likes of Remy Martin and Rob Edwards (the latter of who had 24 points on 9-15 shooting on Thursday night), but just what to expect from this team was not known. They had a slump early in Pac-12 play as they started 1-3, but after holding off Oregon on Thursday night, have won six straight to get to 9-4 in Pac-12 play.
It’s not a surprise that Arizona, a traditional power, is in the mix at 9-4. UCLA is another traditional power that has fallen on harder times recently, but Mick Cronin is clearly making an impact right away as the Bruins are not far off as well. Oregon has more recently become a power, so the Ducks being contenders doesn’t surprise anyone. Colorado, not a traditional power and off a few years of less relevance, and an Arizona State team with unknowns from a personnel standpoint, are two teams not normally in this place. With a couple of weeks to go in the regular season, that’s where the Pac-12 stands with much to be determined as it’s a very close race.
Side Dishes
The Ohio Valley Conference had quite a night and with an unexpected shakeup in the standings. Austin Peay took out SIU-Edwardsville 78-60, Eastern Kentucky took care of Tennessee State 83-62 and Belmont handled Morehead State 80-67. The shocker was Murray State’s trip to Eastern Illinois, as the Racers led 50-23 with 11:30 left, then lost at the buzzer 63-60. Eastern Illinois outscored the Racers 46-28 in the second half and 40-10 in the final 11:30, and became the seventh Division I team to win a game in which it trailed by at least 27 points in the second half, with less time to rally than the previous six, according to NCAA Director of Statistics David Worlock. These results put Austin Peay all alone in first place.
Ohio State had a chance to get back above .500 in Big Ten play, but it was sure to be a tall order on the road in Iowa City. There, Iowa held them off 85-76, getting 24 points from Luke Garza as he continues his great year, and they shot nearly 56 percent from the field against a Buckeye team whose defense was top-notch earlier in the year to win despite being out-rebounded 38-29.
Other results of note: Hofstra beat Drexel 81-74 behind 26 points and six assists from Desure Buie, and they remain two up in the loss column in the CAA, with William & Mary (61-51 winners at Towson) and Delaware (70-48 winners over Northeastern) behind them; Indiana State edged Northern Iowa 67-64, knocking the Panthers back into a tie for first in the Missouri Valley with Loyola-Chicago; Southern Illinois got back on track with a 70-53 win over Evansville; Wichita State took care of South Florida 65-55; Liberty got 28 points and seven rebounds from Caleb Homesley to take sole possession of first in the Atlantic Sun by virtue of an 82-77 win over North Florida; Vermont clinched at least a tie of the America East regular season title with a 63-54 win at Stony Brook; the Sun Belt got a shakeup behind Little Rock as Texas State handled Georgia Southern 70-55 and UT Arlington rallied to beat Georgia State 70-62; Youngstown State surprised Horizon League leader Wright State 88-70 behind 41 points from Darius Quisenberry; BYU took care of Santa Clara 85-75 behind 28 points and nine assists from T.J. Haws; and Gonzaga pulled away from San Francisco 71-54.
Pittsburgh has been placed on three years’ probation, and former head coach Kevin Stallings has been hit with a three-year show-cause penalty as a result of violations during his tenure. This is a rare instance where the violations did not involve recruiting, but rather, Stallings instructing non-coaches to perform coaching duties. That put them in violation of the number of coaches on staff, and as if that’s not enough, Stallings tried to cover the violations through an alert system and deletion of video, as the administration was on to what he was doing and warned him about it, though he ignored warnings.
Tonight’s Menu
It’s a light night of action overall, and also a bit light on big matchups as we get ready for a big Saturday.
- The night gets going early with Merrimack hosting Sacred Heart (5 p.m.), then in later Northeast Conference action, Bryant visits St. Francis Brooklyn, Mount St. Mary’s travels to Robert Morris and Wagner hosts Central Connecticut (7:30 p.m.) before the night wraps up with LIU heading to Fairleigh Dickinson (8 p.m.)
- The Ivy League slate has a big one as Princeton visits Harvard, along Brown visiting Columbia, Yale going to Cornell and Dartmouth hosting Penn (7 p.m.)
- A full slate of MAAC action is highlighted by Manhattan hosting St. Peter’s, while Canisius visits Quinnipiac, Fairfield hosts Niagara, Iona hosts Rider and Monmouth visits Marist (7 p.m.)
- MAC action has Kent State hosting Buffalo (7 p.m.)
- In the Horizon League, Detroit Mercy hosts Green Bay (7 p.m.), then Oakland hosts Milwaukee (8 p.m.)
- The last game of the night comes in the Atlantic 10, where Saint Louis hosts VCU (9 p.m.)
