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Pac-12’s ugly season results in ugly NCAA tourney profiles, too

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Mike Miller

The Pac-12 didn’t do itself any favors this weekend.

Cal came up short vs. Stanford Sunday, giving Washington the outright league title. But this was a day after the Huskies couldn’t close against UCLA, giving them one of their worst RPI losses of the season. Meanwhile, Arizona dropped its only game of the weekend to lowly ASU and Colorado managed to get swept by the Oregon schools.

About the only team that won in an effort to help its cause was Oregon, but was a ways back of at-large consideration anyway. So the consensus after some quick bubble math was that the league would be lucky to get two teams into the NCAA tournament.

Then one of the sports’ bracketologists, Andy Glockner, tweeted this. Now what?

Our own Dave Ommen still has just two Pac-12 teams in his latest projections, but Oregon’s knocking on the door, Arizona’s still hanging around and UCLA seems to be picking up steam. The seeding committee will certainly consider them all, but should they?

Local observers will tell you teams such as Washington and Arizona improved drastically during Pac-12 play. Cal’s been steady. Oregon too. But when a conference is 1-31 during its non-conference schedule against teams in the RPI top 50, that’s no small thing.

It’s damming evidence.

Sure, everyone looked better during league play. It was playing teams that weren’t any good.

Washington should be in. Cal should be in. Barely. Beyond that, the league’s fate rests with committee members who might give it a pass based on past seasons and memories of when it wasn’t bad. And even that’s asking a lot.

You also can follow me on Twitter @MikeMillerNBC.