Ghosts of Pac-12 to hover around Phoenix doubleheader involving Arizona-SDSU

At a time when high-major Western college basketball teams are weaving themselves into the cultural fabric of other regions via conference realignment, the Basketball Hall of Fame is bringing four of them together for one night in Phoenix, at least.

Call them the ghosts of Pac-12 past and future.

In the opener Saturday at Mortgage Matchup Center, there’s Stanford and Colorado in the opener, then Arizona and San Diego State in the nightcap.

That’s one team, Colorado, that left the Big 12 to spend 13 seasons in the Pac-12, then reversed course when the Pac-12 imploded in 2024. With the same coach, Tad Boyle, who's been around since the Buffaloes’ first stint in what was a heartland-oriented conference.

Then another team, Stanford, that shrugged off 106 years of history in what became the Pac-12 — and any geographic common sense — by moving to the Atlantic Coast Conference. With a coach, Kyle Smith, who jumped ship at Washington State to take over the Cardinal in 2024 … just when WSU and Oregon State were left alone to fight off extinction.

Also, there’s Arizona, which traded a 46-year stay in the Pac-12 for the ability to harden against consistently stiffer competition and more engaged fan bases in the Big 12. With a coach, Tommy Lloyd, who spent two decades helping build a national power at Gonzaga … which will be moving to the Pac-12 next season.

Finally, there’s San Diego State, which aspired to join the Pac-12 for years but only received the chance after Arizona, Colorado, Stanford and seven other Pac-12 schools left for other conferences. With a coach, Brian Dutcher, who has spent 26 years at San Diego State as an assistant and head coach, helping the Aztecs play at a high-major level despite being in a mid-major conference.

Starting next year, SDSU and Mountain West counterparts Fresno State, Boise State and Colorado State will join OSU and WSU in the new Pac-12, while Gonzaga will come over from the WCC as a non-football member, and Texas State will join from the Sun Belt Conference.

“I'm sure it's exciting for all of them, and I hope it ends up being a great basketball conference,” Lloyd said. “I think that would be great for the West Coast to re-establish another strong basketball conference.”

Here’s a more detailed look at where the four programs playing Saturday in Phoenix have been, and where they’re going:

Colorado (10-1)

One of four teams that moved from the Pac-12 to the Big 12 along with Arizona, ASU and Utah, the Buffaloes had a miserable re-induction to the their new-old conference last season.

They dropped their first 13 conference games, including a 78-63 loss to the Wildcats at McKale Center, though they managed to beat UCF, Baylor and TCU at the mile-high CU Events Center toward the end of the season before winning two Big 12 Tournament games.

Picked to finish 15th ahead of only ASU in the mathematically challenged Big 12 this season, the Buffaloes have kept that momentum going. They lost only a five-point rivalry game at Colorado State while beating San Francisco and Washington in the Acrisure Series outside of Palm Springs over Thanksgiving.

Colorado is running the 38th most efficient offense in Division I and is an above-average rebounding team. While it hasn’t been playing with the efficiency of a vintage Boyle defense, the Buffaloes have one of the country’s top shot-blockers in 7-footer Bangot Dak.

Their 8-0 record heading into the Colorado State game was Colorado’s longest unbeaten start in 76 years, though Buffzone noted that the Buffs are averaging only 5,474 fans at home, putting them on their worst attendance pace in the Boyle era.

“I am very appreciative and thankful for the fans that are showing up,” Boyle said earlier this week. “And the feedback I’ve gotten to a person, unsolicited feedback, is this is a fun team to watch. This is a fun team to cheer for. I know it’s a fun team to coach."

Stanford (9-2)

While Smith led the Cardinal to 21 wins last season during its first run through the ACC, Stanford predictably struggled with away games in what it might call the WCC (Wrong Coast Conference). It was just 1-8 in ACC games away from Maples Pavilion, managing to win at North Carolina 72-71 but losing by double-digits in six others.

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The Cardinal has tried to mitigate the ACC schedule by staying entirely within California for its first 11 games, with Saturday’s game the only time they will go out of state in nonconference play.

After losing all-ACC first team center Maxime Raynaud, now of the Sacramento Kings, the Cardinal doesn't have a notable standout player or feature against a nonconference schedule that ranks just 267 so far. But Stanford is still playing well enough overall that it could push for an NCAA Tournament bid if it can better survive the ACC schedule this time.

While Stanford beat Minnesota and Saint Louis at the same Palm Springs event that Colorado played in, facing the Buffs in Phoenix could be their biggest challenge yet.

“They do a great job of recruiting, and they play the right way," Smith said of the Buffaloes. "I can pretty much tell you what they’re going to run. I don’t think Tad’s changing much. They’re a little new, but they’ve got great talent. So it’ll be like an ACC game but a throwback Pac-12 game.

Arizona (10-0)

It’s pretty well documented that the Wildcats have picked up five wins over ranked teams so far, including a 96-75 win on a semi-away court against Alabama last Saturday.

The challenge this time for the Wildcats might be in seeing through the fact that San Diego State is unranked — and realizing the Aztecs are stocked with experience, continuity and talent.

After Arizona beat Abilene Christian on Tuesday, Lloyd said he wanted to make sure the Wildcats “understand that just because they don't have a number next to their name doesn't mean they're not as good as the teams we've played already.”

Then, during a Zoom promotional news conference Wednesday, Lloyd continued praising the Aztecs, who reached the 2023 NCAA title game.

“They’ve just had such a long run of great teams and great success,” Lloyd said. “Obviously, it culminated in almost a national championship a few years ago, which feels like it was 10 years ago, but it really wasn't.

“So ton of credit to those guys for the program they've built. They have a really strong culture, and have done it the right way with player development, and a lot of local recruits. We understand Saturday we're in for a real challenge.”

San Diego State (6-3)

Despite having an unusual level of continuity, with six of their top nine players back, the Aztecs have performed below expectations so far this season. They lost a double-overtime home game to Troy on Nov. 18 while falling to Michigan and Baylor at the Players Era Festival.

That means Saturday’s game is their last chance at picking up a signature win that could keep them in the NCAA Tournament at-large conversation if they don’t dominate the Mountain West or win the conference tournament.

“I always say at the end of the day, our goal is to make the NCAA Tournament,” Dutcher said before SDSU beat Air Force on Wednesday to begin Mountain West play. “We put together a pretty good nonconference schedule. The loss of Troy hurt us, but now we have another opportunity (against Air Force) and then we go to Arizona and we have another opportunity.”

In the long term, maybe being a part of the new-look Pac-12 will lead to other opportunities for the Aztecs. While Utah State (30), Boise State (40), Colorado State (52) and San Diego State (82) all might have work to do in the Mountain West to land in NCAA Tournament at-large territory, those teams are joining a perennial no-brainer NCAA Tournament invitee in Gonzaga (3) in the Pac-12 next season.

“Basically, we're taking some of the best of the Mountain West with us to the new Pac-12 and I think that's a good thing,” Dutcher said earlier this week. “We'll join Oregon State, Washington State and obviously, any league that has Gonzaga in it is gonna be a darn good basketball league. So we're excited for that, but obviously our focus is on the here and now.”