Stung by upset losses to SWAC teams, Pac-12's power plummets

There are reasons why high-major college basketball teams almost never venture to a low-major home court.

For one thing, as expressed by Southern coach Sean Woods before his Jaguars lost to Arizona at McKale on Nov. 11, coaches and administrators of low-major programs generally prefer to play high-majors on the road, so they can float their athletic department by picking up a paycheck approaching $100,000 while giving their players a chance to dance on a bigger stage for a night.

It’s also a no-win situation for the high majors: Win, and you were expected to. Lose, and your power rating will plummet.

Oh, and you’ll be a laughingstock, too.

The Pac-12 just lost three games on the courts of low-major teams.

While the conference’s intentions were widely lauded for initiating the Pac-12/SWAC Legacy Series, an attempt to raise the platform of HBCUs and social justice issues, there was always that issue of the games themselves. Since both conferences agreed to play straight home-and-home series, that meant teams would be paired off for two-year sets, with each Pac-12 team hosting and being hosted by the same SWAC team in 2022-23 and 2023-24.

That created a trap for Pac-12 teams, who were forced to travel across the country to go into small, sometimes uncrowded gyms, and unsuspectingly face a team motivated to be play the game of its life.

“We played like we expected them to roll over and bow down to us,” Colorado coach Tad Boyle told Buffzone after his Buffaloes were shocked 83-74 at Grambling before an announced crowd of 837 fans. “I don’t know what our guys were thinking in that regard, but we weren’t good enough on either side of the ball.”

That was the Pac-12’s first Legacy Series loss. Two days later, ASU lost 67-66 at Texas Southern in what Sun Devils coach Bobby Hurley called “the perfect storm.”

And, on Tuesday, Washington State wrapped things up by losing 70-59 at Prairie View A&M after losing at Boise State three days earlier.

“We knew it was going to be a tough challenge the second game on the road against a team that doesn’t get a lot of opportunities like this,” WSU coach Kyle Smith said afterward via a school video. “They really out-competed us. I can’t put it any other way. I thought we should have a little more fight in us but we got humbled tonight.”

Total damage for the Pac-12: Three losses on the road to three predicable home wins (UA, Oregon and USC).

UA coach Tommy Lloyd said there were two ways to look at it.

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“There’s the side that says coaches and programs will be upset because they’re probably playing games they otherwise would have never played,” Lloyd said. But “the idea of the home at home with the SWAC schools is great. At some point, they deserve an opportunity, too.

“The other thing would be like, ‘Hey, you know what? If you’re a school in our conference, we need to be winning those games.’ I mean, that’s the bottom line. I know it’s easier said than done, but you need to go out and you gotta win some hard games.

“Obviously, those schools probably feel like they weren’t put in an advantageous situation, but at the end of the day, you still gotta get the result.”

The Pac-12 three SWAC losses — plus early stumbles by USC (in a 74-61 loss to Florida Gulf Coast), Oregon (in a 69-56 loss to UC Irvine) and Cal (0-3 so far) — are already threatening to pull down the conference’s collective power rating.

By extension, that could pull down UA’s power and NET ratings, ultimately costing a seed line or two in the NCAA Tournament for the Wildcats and, maybe, a bid or two for the rest of the conference.

But the Wildcats also have an opportunity to build up good rating by themselves. After hosting Utah Tech on Thursday, the Wildcats could face two ranked teams in the Maui Invitational next week, and in December will play Indiana in Las Vegas and host Tennessee at McKale Center.

That’s what Lloyd says he’s focusing on.

“I’m always gonna worry about doing my own work,” Lloyd said. “If we get propped up because other teams in our conference are doing well, that’s great. But I’m never gonna sit here and use how other teams in our conference are performing as an excuse. And at the end of the day, we’ve got to win our own games.”

That will probably include the Wildcats’ Nov. 13 date next season at Southern, when the Jaguars are likely to have a packed house inside their 7,500 seat “Mini-Dome” awaiting the Wildcats.

“We’ve got to go down there and do the best job we can to win a probably tough game,” Lloyd said. “I was fortunate to have a home game this year in that deal. But next year, the shoe’s on the other foot.”