The Arizona Wildcats were picked to win the Pac-12 basketball championship before the season began. They might still win the league, but only because the league has proven to be mediocre. The Pac-12 might get no more than four NCAA Tournament bids, and possibly only three. That’s a huge disappointment for a conference which expected at least five March Madness bids, possibly six or seven.
Despite the fact that the Pac-12 is going through a down cycle — with UCLA having a horrible year and Colorado struggling more than expected — Arizona is not dominating the conference. Some pundits felt there was a chance that Arizona might not lose more than two Pac-12 games all season long. That gap between Arizona and the rest of the league was viewed to be enormous one month ago, when conference play began.
Here we are in late January, however, and Arizona has already lost three conference games to teams not in the top tier of the conference. The U of A has lost to Stanford, Washington State, and now Oregon State on Thursday in Corvallis. None of those teams are NCAA Tournament teams. The people who cover Arizona basketball are saying that coach Tommy Lloyd’s methods are being exposed, and that opposing coaches are finding ways to exploit Arizona’s weaknesses.
USC didn’t come remotely close to exploiting those weaknesses. The Trojans got blown out by Arizona. Meanwhile, UCLA — though having just as bad a season as USC — was able to push Arizona for 40 full minutes before narrowly losing because Mick Cronin got a technical foul and a UCLA player missed an uncontested dunk late in the contest. Other Pac-12 teams are having bad seasons, but even they (such as Oregon State) are outplaying Arizona. The Wildcats are a good team, but they’re definitely not a great team. With three Pac-12 losses, Arizona is anything but a shoo-in to win a conference it frankly should have been able to obliterate.
All of this reflects very poorly on USC and Andy Enfield. The Trojans had obvious talent and potential. An elite coach probably has this team no worse than 6-2 in the Pac-12 right now, in position to win USC’s first regular-season conference title since 1985. An elite coach would have the Trojans in position to capitalize on a weak Pac-12.
Instead: USC is dead last in the conference at 2-6. The Trojans lost to 2-6 Oregon State, so they would be the No. 12 seed if the Pac-12 Tournament began today.
Andy Enfield has had a good 10-season run at USC, but this 11th season should be ample reason for him to find a new job, and for USC to find an elite coach. This year’s missed opportunity can’t — and shouldn’t — be easily shrugged off or hand-waved away.
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