We haven’t discussed the possibility that USC women’s basketball could win the Pac-12 title for one simple reason: It didn’t look remotely possible. USC entered this weekend two games behind Stanford in the Pac-12 race. While USC keeps winning, Stanford faced undermanned Arizona on Friday before facing bottom-rung Arizona State on Sunday and then a weak Oregon team next weekend. Yes, Stanford has the very tough assignment of facing Oregon State on February 29, but the Cardinal needed to lose two games, not just one, to give USC any chance of winning the Pac-12 title. That didn’t seem likely.
Guess what? Stanford, up by nine late in the fourth quarter, unraveled in the final minutes and lost 68-61 at home to Arizona. USC just got the result it needed to make a run at the Pac-12 title. Let’s take you through the details of a suddenly more cluttered and dramatic Pac-12 race: