The unsettled Pac-12 hierarchy is no closer to being solidified following Oregon’s 89-81 defeat of USC on Thursday at Matthew Knight Arena. It appears that it could be a good thing for the conference too.
The No. 21 Trojans (15-4, 4-2 Pac-12) came into Thursday’s game as only one of two ranked Pac-12 teams — No. 12 Arizona is the other, who USC upset on Jan. 9. In years past, the absence of a top 10 team almost certainly would’ve hurt the conference.
Not this season.
ESPN’s Joe Lunardi projected eight of the 12 conference teams making the NCAA tournament in his latest bracketology released on Monday. Only three games separate one through 10 in the Pac-12 standings. Washington, the current leader of the conference with a 5-1 record, was picked by the media to finish 11th.
The Pac-12 is deep, and not just because of the standings. Seemingly any team can knock off another on any given night. Such was the case Thursday.
USC was starting to look like a conference contender, having won four of five, while Oregon had just lost a head-scratcher at Colorado. And it wasn’t as if USC laid an egg. They put up 40 points in both halves, had four players reach double digits and had four less turnovers than Oregon. The Ducks (15-4, 4-2) simply outplayed them.
“That’s a good basketball team,” head coach Dana Altman said. “They’re very athletic, very talented… I thought we played really hard and that was what we needed to do.”
The Trojans started hot, making their first five baskets. But the Ducks responded, tying the game 12-12 only three and a half minutes into the game.
The Ducks didn’t have their first lead until Elgin Cook found Chris Boucher for an alley-oop dunk to pull ahead 27-26 with 8:56 left in the first half. Five lead changes followed in the remaining eight minutes, before the Ducks took a 46-41 lead into halftime. They didn’t trail for the remainder of the game.
Yet Oregon was the overlooked team coming into this game, while USC and Washington commanded much of the conference’s attention.
“We don’t care,” Dwayne Benjamin said. “We just worry about the people in the locker room, trying to get better every game. We don’t worry about none of that.”
Oregon’s win moves them into a tie for second in the the Pac-12 with USC. However, Oregon and USC’s first matchup of the season came at only the one-third mark of conference play. 12 games still remain and Altman insists it’s too early to judge the depth of the conference.
“I don’t know if you really know where the conference is at until you get through nine games,” Altman said. “Halfway through I think is the first time you can really say who’s in good shape and who isn’t.”
Through six conference games, the Ducks should consider themselves in good shape. So should USC, and pretty much any team in the conference not named Arizona State or Washington State.
“It is a deep conference, we’re much deeper,” Altman said. “I’m not sure we’ve got an Arizona who’s dominating the league like they have the last two years, but I think the balance is much better… It’s going to be a very competitive year, no doubt.”
Follow Will Denner on Twitter @Will_Denner