It was a wild final day of 2023 in Pac-12 basketball. Utah and Arizona State both faced double-digit deficits and played poorly for a majority of their respective games, but they both stormed down the stretch to defeat their opponents. Utah rallied to top Washington, 95-90, while ASU scrambled to beat Cal, 71-69. Utah solidified its place as an NCAA Tournament at-large team. The Utes are in increasingly good shape for a March Madness ticket. Arizona State moved to 2-0 in the league and is trying to get into the at-large picture. On most days, those comebacks would have been the main headlines in the Pac-12. Not on this final Sunday of 2023.
The big story did not belong to Utah or ASU erasing big deficits to win. The headliner came from Maples Pavilion on the campus of Stanford University. The Cardinal, for the second straight year, defeated Tommy Lloyd’s Arizona Wildcats in the Bay Area. They did so last season. They replicated the feat on Sunday. They won in a shockingly lopsided 100-82 game.
Stanford lost at home to Arizona State on Friday. The Cardinal had not yet beaten a team — any team — from a Power Five conference heading into this game against an Arizona team which is chasing a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament. No one saw this coming, but Stanford — which has been one of the worst teams in the Pac-12 over the past several years under beleaguered coach Jerod Haase — somehow finds its best form against the U of A. It’s a big shakeup in the Pac-12 season. We will see how Arizona responds.
Colorado also beat Washington State to round out the Pac-12 slate on Sunday.
Visit our friends at Fighting Irish Wire, Buffaloes Wire, and Ducks Wire.