The Guru PAC-12 Conference Tournament Report: No. 2 Stanford Escapes a Dent at Finish as Field Set For This Week

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

As solid and formidable as the PAC-12 was a year ago all the way up to two members playing for the national championship down in San Antonio at the Alamodome with Stanford winning over Arizona only No. 2 Stanford was solid more or less all year long with a perfect record into the conference tournament after escaping getting upended on the final day of the regular season on Saturday.

The league ended with three ranked teams going into the conference tournament this week at Las Vegas — the Associated Press women’s polling season has three more weeks counting this Monday — but Arizona took upsets, Oregon faded off injuries and Covid testing most of the way but came back to a tie for 25th at the last vote, and polling wise Oregon State, Colorado became also rans.

Yet with so many teams considered so close together, this week’s desert action looks to be quite exciting as teams try to enhance their at-large NCAA status.

But first, a look at Saturday’s action that wrapped it all up including the seeds.

On the verge of an upset all afternoon at home in Maples Pavilion in Palo Alto, of all places, Stanford reversed its fortunate back to the plus side as Anna Wilson stole an inbound pass with 1:05 left and scored for the go-ahead points and Stanford ended up with a perfect season in conference play off a 63-56 victory over visiting Washington.

“Fantastic steal,” said Hall of Fame Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer who extended her Division I women’s win record to 1,150, ten ahead of UConn’s Geno Auriemma, whose No. 7 Huskies will wrap up their regular season in the Big East on Sunday afternoon hosting Providence.

“To me, she’s the Defensive Player of the Year,” VanDerveer said of Wilson. “It’s usually her defending and forcing bad shots. That was a big steal and she made the layup.”

Cameron Bink scored 17 points and grabbed 11 rebounds for the Cardinal (25-3, 16-0 PAC-12), while Lexie Hull scored 15 points.

Washington (7-15, 2-12) got 16 points from Lauren Schwartz. 

“I’m proud of the way we kept battling,” said Washington coach Tina Langley, a former Maryland assistant who had success at Rice as a head coach and now is trying to turn around the Huskys’ fortunates. “This is about getting better every day and we’re committed to that.”

No. 12 Arizona, which shot up as high as fourth earlier in the season and then bounced in and out of the top 10 like a rubber band.

On Saturday, the Wildcats rode Taylor Chavez and her five three-pointers to a 68-59 win over Southern Cal at home in Tucson while Shaina Pellington scored 14, Lauren Ware had 12, witgh 11 rebounds and Sam Thomas scored 10 for Arizona (20-6, 10-6 PAC-12) while missing leading scorer Cate Reese with an injury.

She got her in last weekend in the loss to Washington State and her return has not been made known.

The Wildcats will get a first-round bye in the tournament.

Adia Barnes is the first coach in the program’s history to gain four straight 20-win seasons.

Alyson Miura scored 19 points for Southern Cal (12-15, 5-12).

Oregon, back in the poll with a tie for 25th last week surged in the fourth quarter for a 73-65 win on the road at Utah in Salt Lake City.

The Ducks (11-6) picked up the second seed and a first-round bye.

“We talked yesterday about how this game is hugely important to us,” said head coach Kelly Graves. “We knew that if we won we were a 2-seed. And you could tell by the way the team was on the bus and in film session that these kids were locked in.”

Sydney Parrish had 18 points for Oregon, leading four other starters who also scored in double figures.

Elsewhere finishing up ahead of the tournament Colorado at home cruised over Oregon State 60-45, UCLA upset host Arizona State 59-52, and Washington State won at California 73-67.

PAC-12 Field Set

The pairings are set for the PAC-12 tourney to begin Wednesday at Michelob ULTRA Arena (Mandalay Bay Events Center) in Las Vegas.

Stanford’s unbeaten 16-0conference record gave the No. 2 Cardinal the top seed and a bye while Oregon (11-6) and Washington State (11-6)  tied for second but the Ducks got the two seed off a sweep in the season series. The No. 3 Cougars earned a program record with 12 conference wins. Their 19-9 mark set an overall win mark for the squad in the NCAA era.

Arizona (10-6) got the other first-round bye.

All the rounds through the semifinals will air on the PAC-12 network with the title game Sunday on ESPN2.

Wednesday, March 2

First Round

No. 5 Colorado vs. No. 12 Washington at 3 p.m.; No. 8 Oregon State vs. No. 9 Arizona State at 5:30 p.m.; No. 7 UCLA vs. No. 10 Southern Cal at 9 p.m.; and No. 6 Utah vs. No. 11 California at 11:30 p.m.

Thursday, March 3

Quarterfinals

No. 4 Arizona vs. (5-12) Colorado-Washington winner at 3 p.m.; No. 1 Stanford vs. (8-9) Oregon State-Arizona State winner at 5:30 p.m.; No. 2 Oregon vs. (7-10) UCLA-Southern Cal winner at 9 p.m.; No. 3 Washington State vs. (6-11) Utah-California winner at 11:30 p.m.

Friday, March 4

Semifinals

(4-5-12) Arizona-Colorado-Washington winner vs. (1-8-9) Stanford-Oregon State-Arizona State winner at 9 p.m.; (2-7-10) Oregon-UCLA-Southern Cal winner vs; (3-6-11) Washington State-Utah-California winner at 11:30 p.m.

Saturday, March 5

Championship on ESPN2 at 6 p.m.

(4-5-12-1-8-9) Arizona-Colorado-Washington-Stanford-Oregon State-Arizona State winner vs. (2-7-10-3-6-11) Oregon-UCLA-Southern Cal-Washington State-Utah-California winner.

Other Tournament Fields to Be Decided for This Week

The Big Ten will be decided Sunday after locals Penn State hosts Minnesota at 2 p.m. in the Bryce Jordan Center and Rutgers travels to Illinois while No. 6 Michigan goes to No. 21 Iowa; and several other games are played.

Villanova is at Xavier at 2 p.m. in the Big East while DePaul is at Creighton at noon. If Villanova wins or loses and Creighton wins, then Villanova is a three-seed but if DePaul and ‘Nova wins, the Wildcats are a two-seed. Elsewhere No. 7 Connecticut in the Big East hosts Providence in another test for Paige Bueckers.

With No. 17 North Carolina playing Duke; No. 4 Louisville playing Nationally-ranked Notre Dame; N.C. State playing Virginia Tech, the ACC will also be set.

The SEC also gets set following such games as No. 1 South Carolina at Ole Miss; Tennessee vs. LSU; Florida hosting Virginia.

On Tuesday the Big South and Horizon begin; as do on Wednesday the the Sun Belt, Atlantic Sun and Ohio Valley. The West Coast begins Thursday. The Patriot and Summit League begin Saturday.

And that’s the PAC-12 Report with some additions to keep things together.