The cluster that is the men's Pac-12 basketball race may be playing out perfectly for the conference to maximize its NCAA tournament berths.
With both UCLA and Stanford on a late-season roll, seven Pac-12 teams are now projected to received NCAA Tournament bids in projections by both ESPN and CBS. The Bracket Matrix compilation also lists seven Pac-12 teams in the 4-12 seed range.
ESPN has Arizona as a No. 6 seed in the South while CBS has the Wildcats as a No. 8 seed in the Midwest, while both sites have Oregon as a No. 4 seed, the best of any conference team.
Colorado (5 ESPN, 7 CBS), USC (11 ESPN, 8 CBS), UCLA (12 ESPN, 11 CBS), Stanford (11 ESPN, 10 CBS) and ASU (10 ESPN, 9 CBS) are the other conference teams projected in the field.
The projections correlate with the major computer rankings, which all have loads of Pac-12 schools in the 30-50 range.
Arizona remains something of a puzzle, with the highest NET (10) and Kenpom (17) ratings, while Oregon (22) is the highest rated in Sagarin and the only Pac-12 team ranked in the AP Top 25 Poll (at No. 13).
All seven of the projected NCAA Tournament teams received votes in the AP Top 25. UCLA had the 27th most points while Colorado was 32, Arizona 34, Stanford and ASU tied for 38th and USC tied for 44th with one vote.
FWIW, here was the Top 25 ballot I sent the AP:
2-Mar
1 Kansas
2 Baylor
3 Gonzaga
4 San Diego State
5 Dayton
6 Kentucky
7 Maryland
8 Seton Hall
9 Florida State
10 Louisville
11 Duke
12 Oregon
13 BYU
14 Villanova
15 Creighton
16 Auburn
17 Michigan State
18 Iowa
19 Houston
20 Ohio State
21 Virginia
22 Penn State
23 Illinois
24 UCLA
25 Stephen F Austin
