If it's any consolation for the Arizona Wildcats, their biggest problem won the Pac-12 regular-season title Sunday evening.
Oregon rebounded from two COVID pauses to go on a late-season tear and win the Pac-12 regular-season title outright Sunday with an 80-67 win at Oregon State. The Ducks won 11 of their 12 final games, including two wins over Arizona.
Oregon's win Sunday also put the Wildcats alone in fifth place, exactly where they were picked to finish in the Pac-12's preseason media poll, since OSU dropped to sixth with the loss.
The Ducks' win gives a boost to Chris Duarte's chances of winning the Pac-12 Player of the Year award over USC's Evan Mobley and Colorado's McKinley Wright. Duarte had 10 points and six assists Sunday while Will Richardson had 22 points and Eugene Omoruyi had 18 points for the Ducks.
Sometimes you. Sometimes me. Always Us. #GoDucks pic.twitter.com/PCwo7lBWAC
— Oregon Men's Basketball (@OregonMBB) March 8, 2021
If the Wildcats were eligible for the conference tournament, they would have played last-place Cal in a 5-12 first-round game on Wednesday, with the winner of that game facing UCLA in a quarterfinal game on Thursday.
Instead, OSU picks up the fifth seed and what is now a first-round bye since there are only 11 teams in the tournament. The Beavers, who tied for sixth place with Stanford but won the tiebreaker because they beat Oregon at Eugene, will instead open against UCLA in a quarterfinal game on Thursday.
As it is, the Pac-12 Tournament schedule looks like this (a PDF of the bracket is attached below):
(All times Arizona/MST)
Wednesday, March 10
Game 1: No. 8 ASU vs. No. 9 WSU, 2 p.m. (Pac-12 Network)
Game 2: No. 7 Utah vs. No. 10 Washington, 5 p.m. (Pac-12 Network)
Game 3: No. 6 Stanford vs. No. 11 California, 8 p.m. (Pac-12 Network)
Thursday, March 11
Game 4: No. 1 Oregon vs. Game 1 winner, 12:30 p.m. (Pac-12 Network)
Game 5: No. 4 UCLA vs. No. 5 Oregon State, 3:30 p.m. (Pac-12 Network)
Game 6: No. 2 USC vs. Game 2 winner, 6:30 p.m. (Pac-12 Network)
Game 7: No. 3 Colorado vs. Game 3 winner, 9:30 p.m. (ESPN)
Friday, March 12
Game 8: Semifinal 1, 6:30 p.m. (Pac-12 Network)
Game 9: Semifinal 2, 9:30 p.m. (ESPN)
Saturday, March 13
Game 10: Championship, 8:30 p.m. (ESPN)
