Post by mhbruin on Dec 11, 2023 9:40:32 GMT -8
NOTE: I believe it takes around 15 games before preseason KenPom rankings don't affect his current rankings. So some teams still have high KenPom rankings in spite of poor performance such as St Mary's being #65 in spite of a 3-5 record.
"Duke (5-3) [17]" means they have five wins, three losses, and are #17 in KenPom.
So far the Pac-12 has three quality wins: Two by Arizona and USC's win over KSU. Except for Stanford and Cal, the league doesn't have any terrible losses.
There are a bunch of teams in the Pac-12 with no good wins and no bad losses: Colorado, Utah, USC (their two best players were out for Irvine), UCLA, Washington, Washington St, ASU, and Oregon State. That makes us the Conference of Mediocrity.
It is hard to know what to make of Santa Clara with wins over Oregon and Stanford and a bad loss to Cal. I have no idea if they are any good.
At this point Arizona and Washington have been better than I expected, Oregon State has been better than expected, but my expectations were EXTREMELY low.
As a league, the Pac-12 desperately needs quality OOC wins, or the conference schedule will provide few opportunities for good wins and lots of chances for bad losses.
The Pac-12 has a few chances for good wins this week, headlined by UCLA at Villanova. Others include Wisconsin at Arizona, BYU at Utah, and Gonzaga at Washington.
Colorado at Miami
Ohio State at UCLA
Arizona at Purdue
Cal at Mississippi
Arizona State at TCU
Oregon at Syracuse
USC at Auburn
Northwestern at Arizona St
Alabama at Arizona
Stanford at SDSU
Maryland at UCLA (Maryland isn't very good, however.)
Arizona at FAU
"Duke (5-3) [17]" means they have five wins, three losses, and are #17 in KenPom.
So far the Pac-12 has three quality wins: Two by Arizona and USC's win over KSU. Except for Stanford and Cal, the league doesn't have any terrible losses.
There are a bunch of teams in the Pac-12 with no good wins and no bad losses: Colorado, Utah, USC (their two best players were out for Irvine), UCLA, Washington, Washington St, ASU, and Oregon State. That makes us the Conference of Mediocrity.
It is hard to know what to make of Santa Clara with wins over Oregon and Stanford and a bad loss to Cal. I have no idea if they are any good.
At this point Arizona and Washington have been better than I expected, Oregon State has been better than expected, but my expectations were EXTREMELY low.
| NET | KenPom | Record | Schedule (Rank) | Best Win(s) | Worst Loss(es) | Comments | |
| Arizona | 1 | 2 | 8-0 | Duke(5-3) [17], Michigan St (4-3) [19] | -- | 2 Quad 1 wins, but neither the Duke nor Michigan State win looks quite as great as it did a little earlier in the season. Still BY FAR the best resume in the Pac-12. | |
| Colorado | 37 | 21 | 7-2 | Richmond (5-3) [86] | Florida St (4-3) [71] | Colorado | |
| Utah | 32 | 37 | 7-2 | Saint Mary's (3-5) [65] Wake Forest (4-3) [74] | St John's (5-2) [60] | Utah has been pretty good. Their other loss was to Houston by 10. | |
| USC | 92 | 40 | 5-4 | Kanas St (6-2) [53], Seton Hall (5-2), [62] | UC Irvine (6-3) [75] | Boogie Ellis and Kobe Johnson didn't play in the Irvine loss | |
| UCLA | 122 | 44 | 5-3 | UC Riverside (4-5) [ 221] | Gonzaga (6-1) [9] | 2 Quad losses. 4 Quad 4 wins. One D2 win. | |
| Oregon | 62 | 39 | 6-2 | Michigan (4-4) [49], Georgia (5-3) [82] | Santa Clara (7-2) [137] | Oregon has been decimated by injuries again. Both Dante and Bittle just had surgery. However, without them, the Ducks only lost to Alabama by 10. Santa Clara has wins over Stanford and Oregon, but got obliterated by Ohio State and lost badly to Cal. | |
| Washington | 55 | 51 | 6-3 | Xavier (4-4) [40] | Nevada (6-0) [42] | Their three losses are to undefeated Nevada by 7, undfeated Colorado State by 5, and 7-1 SDSU in OT. Washington looks like a dangerous team. | |
| Washington St | 26 | 48 | 8-1 | Portland State (6-2) [152] | Mississippi St (6-2) [38] | The Cougars lost to the only OOC team with a pulse they will play all season. Don't let the 6-1 record fool you. | |
| Arizona St | 108 | 87 | 5-2 | San Francisco (5-3) [72] | Mississippi St (6-2) [38] | ASU was lucky to beat UMass Lowell by 2, and they also lost to BYU by 28. BYU is undefeated and has the only win over SDSU, so they are REALLY good this year. | |
| Stanford | 181 | 94 | 4-4 | EWU (1-6) [207] | Santa Clara (7-2) [137], Nothern Iowa (2-6) [135] | Stanford has no good wins, but has played Arkansas and Michigan close. | |
| California | 243 | 166 | 3-6 | Santa Clara (7-2) [173] | Pacific (4-5) [311], Montana St (260) [3-4] | Cal looks like a terrible team, but they somehow took SDSU to overtime. | |
| Oregon St | 192 | 184 | 6-3 | App State (6-2) [83] | Nebraska (7-1) [] | App State is a good team with a win over Auburn. Cal's 3 losses are to Nebraska (7-1) , Pitt (5-3), and Baylor (8-0). OTOH, it took 2 OTs to beat 4-4 Troy. Oregon State may be a little better than expected. |
As a league, the Pac-12 desperately needs quality OOC wins, or the conference schedule will provide few opportunities for good wins and lots of chances for bad losses.
The Pac-12 has a few chances for good wins this week, headlined by UCLA at Villanova. Others include Wisconsin at Arizona, BYU at Utah, and Gonzaga at Washington.
Colorado at Miami
Ohio State at UCLA
Arizona at Purdue
Cal at Mississippi
Arizona State at TCU
Oregon at Syracuse
USC at Auburn
Northwestern at Arizona St
Alabama at Arizona
Stanford at SDSU
Maryland at UCLA (Maryland isn't very good, however.)
Arizona at FAU