Stanford loss costly to Arizona Wildcats in Pac-12 race — and possibly beyond

If Arizona could choose any out-of-state city for making another Final Four run, it probably would be Las Vegas.

The Wildcats are undefeated in six games there under second-year coach Tommy Lloyd, winning an early-season multi-team event and the Pac-12 Tournament title last season while beating 13th-ranked Indiana there earlier this season. The city is easily accessible to UA alums and fans in Arizona and Southern California.

But even though Las Vegas is scheduled to host its first-ever NCAA West Regional this season, the Wildcats’ loss at Stanford on Saturday makes it less likely they’ll have a chance to be there even if they do win their first-weekend NCAA Tournament games.

Historically, the Pac-12 regular-season champion often stays in the West Region while the runners-up fan out elsewhere, though the No. 1-seeded Wildcats were sent to the South last season after winning the conference because Gonzaga was a higher-rated No. 1 seed.

As of now in the Pac-12 race, Arizona (11-4) stands two games behind UCLA (12-2) in the loss column — and just a game ahead of its Thursday-night opponent, Utah (10-5).

That means the Wildcats might need to win the rest of their regular-season games — including a sweep at USC and UCLA during the final weekend of the regular season — while also needing some help to capture the conference title and accompanying edge in NCAA Tournament seeding and placement.

Then again, according to CBS’ updated bracket projection Monday, neither UCLA nor UA would have a path to Las Vegas.

CBS projected Arizona as a No. 3 in the East Region, starting in Denver but with a chance to advance to New York for the East Regionals, while UCLA was made a No. 2 seed in the Midwest, with first-weekend games in Sacramento and the chance to advance to Kansas City.

Over the rest of the regular season, Arizona has one fewer game to play than UCLA. But after hosting Utah, Colorado and ASU, the Wildcats must finish the season in Los Angeles. The Bruins have home games remaining with Stanford, Cal, ASU and UA while they will play at Utah and Colorado next week.

If the Wildcats win out — and UCLA also drops one other game — Arizona would tie UCLA for the championship and earn the Pac-12 Tournament’s No. 1 seed based on a season sweep of the Bruins.

But the way UCLA played over the weekend, sweeping Oregon State and Oregon, it won’t be easy to catch the Bruins.

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Oregon, aching for a big victory to get in the NCAA Tournament picture, led the Bruins 33-30 at halftime before standout forward Jaime Jaquez helped them take the game over. UCLA started the second half on a 17-4 run, while Jaquez scored 18 of his 25 points in the second half, including a breakaway dunk off a late steal.

For Oregon “it’s UCLA’s coming to town, like the candles were lit for the party today,” UCLA coach Mick Cronin said, according to the Los Angeles Times, “and it’s hard to win those types of games.”

Jaquez’s performance earned him Pac-12 Player of the Week honors, while Amari Bailey was named Freshman of the Week after scoring 24 points two days earlier at OSU. Arizona had nominated Courtney Ramey, who hit 8 of 16 3s at Stanford, and freshman Kylan Boswell.

After UCLA’s sweep in Oregon, Cronin called Jaquez an NBA player — “You know when you got one,” he said — and complimented his team’s toughness.

“If it was as easy to play as hard as the kids are playing, everybody would do it,” Cronin said. “With this team, we thought if we could become a great defensive team, we had enough firepower to win and win big.”

The sweep helped UCLA jump into Arizona’s former No. 4 spot in the Associated Press Top 25 poll while the Wildcats dropped four spots to No. 8.

The Wildcats also stand behind the Bruins in the computer metrics. UA is ranked No. 10 in the NET and Sagarin, and No. 13 in Kenpom. UCLA is No. 3 in Kenpom and Sagarin, and No. 5 in the NET.

The Wildcats have avenged losses to Washington State and Oregon already, and they’ll get a chance to do the same on Thursday against Utah, which handed UA its first loss of the season back on Dec. 1 in Salt Lake City.

“The one thing I’ll say about this team is, every time we’ve stubbed our toe, we’ve really responded,” UA coach Tommy Lloyd said. “So that’s what I’m looking forward to — rolling up our sleeves, getting back to work and getting back out on that court Thursday.”