The Student News Site of University of Arizona

The Daily Wildcat

98° Tucson, AZ

The Daily Wildcat

The Daily Wildcat

 

Pacific 10 Conference Power Rankings

While Sunday’s battle between Arizona and California solidified the top tier of the Pacific 10 Conference, the majority sits at a sub-par record. At the halfway point of Pac-10 play, it’s officially time to see the standouts emerge. Here’s a look at this week’s rankings.

1. Arizona (12-9, 6-3 Pac-10): In a statement sweep against the Bay Area schools, the Wildcats have established themselves as the target on top. Hostile crowds will wait to take down the leader of the Pac-10, beginning with a difficult trip to Seattle on Thursday.

2. California (14-7, 6-3): Clearly the Bears are talented, with enough senior leadership to make the NCAA Tournament. It’ll be difficult to prove themselves if the Pac-10 is a one-bid conference — which looks foreseeable at this point.

3. ASU (15-7, 5-4): Stanford should be embarrassed. At one point in the Sun Devil’s 88-70 win against the Cardinal, the score was 41-11.  And Herb Sendek even replaced Derek Glasser with a freshman in the starting lineup.

4. Washington (14-7, 4-5): There’s not much difference between Nos. 1 through 4 in these rankings — the Huskies round off the upper tier of teams after whipping Washington State 92-64, ignited by Quincy Pondexter’s 29 points.

5. UCLA (10-11, 5-4):  An overtime loss to Oregon keeps the Bruins mediocre at best. UCLA pulled through a late 12-2 run to come back against Oregon State on Saturday.

6. Stanford (10-11, 4-5): After shooting 25 percent in the first half against ASU, the Cardinal showed second-half resiliency, scoring 48 points in a game that was over shortly after it started. The same way teams are beginning to solve ASU’s zone defense, they’re beginning to understand Stanford’s two-man show of Jeremy Green and Landry Fields.

7. Oregon (12-9, 4-5): A win against the Trojans gave them the No. 7 spot — that’s how fragile the bottom half of the Pac-10 is. Bright spot: Jeremy Jacob scored a career-high 19 points and Malcolm Armstead had 18 of his own.

8. USC (12-9, 4-5): Here’s when you know things are getting bad: A Trojan student manager cost USC the game against Oregon when he was whistled for a technical foul. Kevin O’Neill released the manager on Sunday.

9. Washington State (14-7, 4-5): Would be seventh place in the Mountain West Conference.

10. Oregon State (9-12, 3-6): Would be eighth place in the Mountain West Conference.

 

More to Discover
Activate Search