UCLA coach Mick Cronin was bitterly vocal late this season about a lack of respect for the Pac-12, particularly in how teams in higher-rated leagues kept staying in the Top 25 no matter how much they beat each other up.
Predictably, he was even more so Saturday after UCLA beat BYU to push the Pac-12's collective NCAA Tournament record to 5-0 while all of the conference's five teams made the Round of 32.
βYouβre finding out that the Pac-12 not being ranked all year was an absolute joke,β Cronin said, according to the Los Angeles Times. βAnd some people ought to be ashamed of themselves.β
As it was, regular-season champ Oregon didn't even get in the final AP Top 25, while only Colorado (22) and USC (tie for 23rd) made it at all.
But now, the Pac-12 enters Sunday as the only undefeated major conference (with an asterisk in Oregon's no-contest advance).
One of those wins was Colorado's easy romp over Georgetown, a team that 47% of Yahoo bracket entries picked despite the fact that Colorado was a Top 15 Kenpom team and Georgetown was 9-12 entering the Big East Tournament.
(Then again, all that may have served to put the Buffs in an underdog role they have thrived in).
The Pac-12 will have only one team playing for a Sweet 16 berth Sunday, with Oregon State trying to pull off yet another upset, this time against the "other" OSU (6:40 p.m., TBS).
On Monday, the conference will have a chance to make some gigantic statements.
Oregon will play Iowa at 9:10 a.m. (CBS), UCLA will face Abilene Christian at 2:15 p.m. (TBS), Colorado faces Florida State at 4:45 p.m. (TBS) and USC will play Kansas at 6:40 p.m. (CBS).
The L.A. Times' Bill Plaschke says it could be a bigΒ tournament showing for USC while Buffzone's Pat Rooney says Tad Boyle has a chance to take CU to another plateau.
(And if those two things happen, it could be of small consolation to Arizona, which beat the Trojans in Los Angeles on Feb. 20, beat Colorado at home on Dec. 28 and lost to the Buffs by only three points in mile-high Boulder).
