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Pac-12 This Week: Bitter Rivals Await Last Meeting
Washington State made things interesting in the race for the Pac-12 regular-season title with a win over Arizona, the second victory for the Cougars against an Arizona team that was listed by NCAA basketball predictions as the favorite to win the conference title when the season began. However, the Cougars promptly fell to Arizona State in the next game.
This week will mark the final Pac-12 regular-season game in the Arizona-Arizona State and Oregon-Oregon State series thanks to the ever-changing world of conference realignment.
By the end of Sunday’s Stanford-Colorado matchup, each conference team will have just two games left in the regular season.
Arizona is sixth in the Associated Press poll and seventh in the USA Today coaches poll. Washington State, 19th in the AP poll and 21st in the coaches poll, is the only other Pac-12 team in the top 25 in the national polls.
The Wildcats are third in the NCAA NET rankings despite having a Quad 2 and a Quad 3 loss. The next Pac-12 team in the NCAA NET rankings is Colorado at No. 32 while Washington State is 36th.
When looking at the college basketball futures odds, Arizona is tied for fourth with +1200 odds of winning the national championship. Washington State is priced at +8000, with Utah, Colorado, and Oregon having +15000 odds to win March Madness.
Keep on reading for more on the games to watch on this week’s Pac-12 schedule.
1. Arizona (21-6 SU, 17-10 ATS) at Arizona State (14-14 SU, 13-15 ATS)
- Date/Time: Wednesday, Feb. 28, 10 p.m. ET
- Arizona vs Arizona State Live Stream: Pac-12
Barring a meeting in the Pac-12 tournament, this will be the final time that the Wildcats and the Sun Devils will meet as Pac-12 rivals. Both will be playing in the Big 12 beginning next season.
Arizona is a half-game ahead of Washington State in the Pac-12 standings with four games left to play while Arizona State is seventh in the conference standings.
Ten of Arizona State’s 14 wins have come at home. It will be a challenge to add to the win total at home facing an Arizona team that topped the Sun Devils by 45 points on Feb. 17.
Arizona has won seven of the last eight games against the Sun Devils. The Wildcats go for their fourth consecutive win in Tempe.
𝙒𝙞𝙡𝙙𝙘𝙖𝙩 𝙒𝙖𝙡𝙠-𝙏𝙝𝙧𝙪: Catching you up on everything Arizona Basketball ahead of tomorrow’s rivalry matchup on the road against ASU 🐻⬇️ pic.twitter.com/Q2ZmPeb1fh
— Arizona Basketball (@ArizonaMBB) February 28, 2024
Arizona bounced back from a loss to Washington State with a 16-point win over Washington as Caleb Love had 28 points.
Arizona State is coming off an upset of Washington State with Jose Perez leading the way with 16 points.
Arizona has covered in five of its eight road games while Arizona State is 8-6 ATS at home. The Wildcats lead the Pac-12 with six of their eight road games going over the total.
2. Oregon (18-9 SU, 14-13 ATS) at Arizona (21-6, 17-10 ATS)
- Date/Time: Saturday, March 2, 2 p.m. ET
- Oregon vs Arizona Live Stream: TBS.com
Another interesting matchup for the Wildcats with Arizona looking to sweep the regular-season series against Oregon for the first time since the 2014-15 season.
Oregon had won 10 of 12 against the Wildcats before Arizona took three of the last four meetings. The Wildcats won 87-78 at Oregon as a four-point favorite on Jan. 27 with Caleb Love erupting for 36 points. Since that game, Oregon is 4-3 and Arizona is 6-1.
Each of the last five games between the Ducks and the Wildcats has finished over the total.
N’Faly Dante is averaging 16.5 points and 8.2 rebounds over the last 10 games for Oregon while Arizona’s Oumar Bello has seven straight double-doubles.
Arizona is 10-5 against the NCAA basketball lines at home and that is tied with Colorado for the best mark in the Pac-12. Oregon is 5-5 ATS on the road.
3. UCLA (14-13 SU, 12-13-2 ATS) at Washington State (21-7 SU, 15-13 ATS)
- Date/Time: Saturday, March 2, 7 p.m. ET
- UCLA vs Washington State Live Stream: Pac-12 Network
Quick, a show of hands: How many people had Washington State with a chance to secure the Pac-12 regular-season title with two weeks left before the start of the Pac-12 tournament? We didn’t think so.
Washington State’s recent win over Arizona kept the Cougars very much in the hunt to be the top seed in the conference tournament. This is one of the games that the Cougars need to take care of for that to happen.
The Cougars are 13-1 at home this season with the only loss coming to Oregon.
Just when it looked like UCLA was figuring things out, the Bruins dropped back-to-back games to Utan and Southern California. It could have been even worse as UCLA barely topped California and Colorado. Otherwise, the Bruins would be heading into this week on a four-game losing streak.
UCLA has won four games in a row against Washington State after its 76-52 win on Feb. 4 as the 11½-point favorite.
The last time the teams met in Pullman, UCLA won 67-66 with Washington State covering as the 8½-point home underdog. UCLA has been favored against Washington State in each of the last 22 meetings.
UCLA leads the Pac-12 with a 6-2-1 against the college basketball spread on the road.
Questions of the Day
Which Pac-12 team has had the most games go over the total?
Oregon State has seen 18 games go over with Colorado, USC, and California all having 17 games land over the total.
Who has the best odds of winning March Madness among Pac-12 teams?
Arizona was tied for second with +1000 championship odds when the season began and those odds have moved to +1200. That is still the best mark among Pac-12 teams.
The odds and predictions in the article are based on the time of writing and publication. They may differ as to when the actual event takes place.
