ASU Basketball: Pac-12 Power Rankings

On Monday morning, the Arizona State Sun Devils entered the AP Top 25 poll coming into the 20th slot. The Pac-12 has had a rough non-conference performance, and the Sun Devils seem to be carrying the Pac so far.

No. 1 - Arizona State (7-0)

The Sun Devils are the only Pac-12 team still undefeated, with a combination of new contributors and returners from last season, ASU continues to be successful in non-conference play. They will be tested now with their next four games being against No. 6 Nevada, Georgia, Vanderbilt and No. 2 Kansas

No. 2 - Arizona (6-2)

The Wildcats received the most votes for a non-ranked Pac-12 team and are the second highest team in the conference in the NCAA’s new Net rankings at 19th. Sean Miller’s team only has two losses, both coming in the Maui Jim Maui Invitational to No. 1 Gonzaga and No. 8 Auburn. They’ve also collected solid wins over Iowa State and UCONN.

No. 3 - UCLA (6-2)

UCLA is much like Arizona, they’ve handled the games they should win, but couldn’t win against the top opponents. In Las Vegas, the Bruins lost to No. 10 Michigan State and No. 14 North Carolina.

No. 4 - Washington (6-2)

The Huskies have losses to No. 8 Auburn and a two-point loss to Minnesota at home. The Huskies slotted to be third in the conference from the preseason Pac-12 poll will be gauged at how good they are traveling to Spokane to face No. 1 Gonzaga on Wednesday.

No. 5 - Oregon (4-3)

The Pac-12 preseason favorite has been lackluster thus far. The talent is there, but it’s hard to justify being them this high after losing to Iowa, Texas Southern and Houston. Their win over Syracuse helps, but with Boise State twice and Baylor coming up Oregon can start to makeup for their beginning of the season.

No. 6 - USC (5-3)

USC hasn’t seen their full healthy squad, but have hung around in each of their three losses to No. 6 Nevada, No. 13 Texas Tech and Vanderbilt. Although, the Trojans can get more traction heading into conference play with games against TCU, Oklahoma and Santa Clara coming up.

No. 7 - Oregon State (6-1)

Wayne Tinkle’s team has gotten out to a hot start this season. Their only loss being a six-point defeat to Missouri and a solid road win over Long Beach State, things seem to be going well in Corvallis.

No. 8 - Colorado (5-1)

A road loss to San Diego isn’t the best for a resume, and Colorado doesn’t have that many impressive wins. The Buffalos have yet to have a win outside of the state, with their hardest opponent coming up being either UNLV or New Mexico, there’s not a lot of hard tests for CU.

No. 9 - Stanford (4-4)

This Stanford team is hard to judge. They’re coming off an impressive performance in Lawrence taking No. 2 Kansas to overtime before losing by six. However, in their two losses the Battle 4 Atlantis to Wisconsin and Florida, the Cardinal didn’t score a combined 100 points in those two games.

No. 10 - Utah (4-4)

Utah doesn’t have any solid, good wins. Their losses aren’t bad, but it’ll probably get worse for the Utes before it gets better. With BYU and Kentucky on the horizon for Utah they’ll be tested to see where they are.

No. 11 - Washington State (4-2)

The Cougars have been better than their Pac-12 last place preseason pick. Wazzu hasn’t been played a ton of tough non-conference teams and won’t until their Las Vegas trip during Christmas week.

No, 12 - Cal (2-4)

They’re the bad news Bears. And it’s not getting better.