Starting on Wednesday, the Pac-12 Tournament will commence at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. The field of 12 teams will compete for the conference tournament championship and an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.
With all regular season games completed in the conference, the full seeding is now set in stone.
The top four seeds, Oregon (1), Arizona (2), UCLA (3) and Utah (4), will all have first round byes and will play their first games on Thursday. Oregon will kickoff the second round on Thursday at 12 p.m. against the winner of the Arizona State (8) vs Stanford (9) matchup.
Arizona will face either Washington State (10) or Colorado (7) in the 6 p.m. game, while UCLA will play either Washington (11) or USC (6) at 8:30 p.m. Finally, Utah — who will play after Oregon on Thursday — has the winner of the Cal (5) vs Oregon State (12) game.
Oregon’s win over Oregon State on Saturday was more than the just the cherry on top to the best season in school history. The win also secured the No.1 seed for them in the conference tournament. Despite finishing with the same record as Arizona, and sharing the outright conference title with them, the Ducks held the tiebreaker thanks to their 85-58 win over the Wildcats in Feb. It was the only meeting between the two teams this season.
Because Oregon is the No.1 seed, their side of the bracket does not include either UCLA or Arizona. The only place they will face one of those two would be in the final, assuming all parties go that far.
The Ducks will enter the tournament as favorites to repeat as tournament champions. Last year, also as the No.1 seed, they obliterated No.2 seed Utah in the finals 88-57.
While this Oregon roster is not much different than last season’s, the players it lost were key contributors. Guard Elgin Cook — the 2016 tournament’s Most Outstanding Player — and forward Dwayne Benjamin both graduated. Cook especially was key for Oregon’s late season push. He averaged 17.3 points and 5.3 rebounds per game during the tournament and was arguably the Ducks’ best player down the stretch.
Despite the loss of Cook and Benjiman, this year’s Oregon squad may be head coach Dana Altman’s best yet.
This team features both the Pac-12 player of the year, Dillon Brooks, and the Pac-12 Defensive player of the year, Jordan Bell. The two have helped Oregon become the only team in the league to rank in the top three in both offense and defense.
The Ducks aren’t playing for their NCAA Tournament lives; they’re a lock for the Big Dance. But seeding implications are still at play. Oregon is projected as the No. 2 seed in the West bracket, according to ESPN’s bracketology. If the Ducks come away with the tournament title, it would strengthen their case for the No. 1 seed. A bad loss, however, could cost them a seed rank or two.
Altman, like any good coach, is still not entirely satisfied with how his team is playing.
“We can’t worry about and try to change our game,” Altman said after their title-clinching win on Saturday. “We are who we are. We are going to try and tighten some things up. We didn’t rebound the ball very well and we need to shoot our free throws better. There’s some areas we’ve got to tighten up.”
Still, Altman knows that this team understands what’s on the line. He just wants his team to play how they’ve played all season.
“We’re not gonna change anything,” he said. “We’re gonna go down there and just swing away. Whatever happens, happens.”
The full tournament bracket can be found here.