Stanford hasn’t lost a conference game in a while, so let’s imagine they’ll earn one of the double byes in the tournament.
Who gets the other?
Colorado (probably joining the top 25 Monday), #10 Utah, #14 Arizona, and #21 Oregon are within one game of each other in places 2-5.
Arizona and Utah tip off in 10.5 hours at the Huntsman Center. Utah is one-half game behind Colorado in 2nd place, but if UCLA wins vs. Cal, and Utah loses to Zona, the Utes could drop to 6th.
The Pac-12 Network talking heads will tell you this morning that the keys of the game are: play defense, get rebounds, protect the ball. Also, the team that shoots a higher field goal percentage wins a lot.
They pay people for that.
I’m not getting paid, so I’ll add this: Arizona believes their weakside defenders are quick or prescient enough to drop inside when needed. The Wildcats are an outstanding defensive team for being right about that, but I don’t think UCLA tried to prove them wrong.
That is, I thought Arizona’s weakside defenders were too far out, gambling they could recover in time. I’ll be looking for Utah to beat them with ball movement, attacking the seams more efficiently than the help can defend them.