Weekly Pac-12 Rankings

It's (just about) time for conference play to start. Some teams are peaking; some teams are slumping. I'm bullish on the Top-5 and Washington State. As for the rest ... they'll have to establish themselves and build their post-season resumes during conference play.

1		Arizona (12-0) | Last week: #1: Reaffirmed its place in this ranking and the national polls with its Christmas Day victory over San Diego State.
2		Oregon (10-2) | Last week: #3: Took the week off in preparation for its final non-conference bout against Nevada.
3		Arizona State (11-2) | Last week: #4: The Sun Devils must feel good about their record and three-game win streak. We'll now see how that translates against the Pac-12.
4		Colorado (10-2) | Last week: #6: The big game this week at Arizona will be Colorado's first chance since the Kansas game to get back on the national radar.
5		UCLA (10-3) | Last week: #7: The Bruins are clearly back on track after beating Missouri; just in time for Pac-12 play.
6		Oregon State (9-3) | Last week: #2: The Beavers, despite their solid record, simply could not afford to lose to Towson.
7		Stanford (9-4) | Last week: #8: I haven't detected a lot of change in Stanford since the season began ... which isn't entirely a bad thing. But they definitely need to step it up if they want to be a force in the conference or get into the NCAA tournament.
8		Washington State (9-4) | Last week: #9: The Cougars have reason to be optimistic, having won seven of their last eight. And their first conference game is a winnable match versus Washington.
9		California (8-4) | Last week: #5: After a perfect November, Cal goes 2-4 in December. The loss to Harvard on Saturday leaves the Bears at the low point of their season.
10		Utah (8-4) | Last week: #10: The loss to Northridge still stings. Beating the College of Idaho doesn't change much.
11		Washington (8-5) | Last week: #11: They played well on the road against UConn, but came up short. Not a bad loss, but the Huskies (and the conference) really could have used a win there.
12		Southern Cal (5-8) | Last week: #12: Treated us to an exciting overtime finish against Dayton. It was a quality win to finish a rough non-conference slate.