TLS Conference Championship 2018: Pac 12

On Sunday, the Big 10 conference crowned Michigan as their champion, and this week, we have a whole week of championships. The PAC 12 starts their conference tournament on Today.

Tournament Preview

Usually its only the Big 10 that cannibalizes itself during the season. But this season the Pac 12 showed otherwise, and not because of it was the conference was good. The Pac-12 was actually below average this year.  Arizona is the best team in the conference but has a defense ranked 95th in the country and the PAC 12’s only ranked team. USC has no good wins, except for a win against Middle Tennessee.

Under investigation by the FBI and now at full strength, Arizona is favored to win. Washington, Arizona State, Oregon, USC and UCLA are all above the 20 point threshold and should be shoe ins for the dance if they win a game or two. Stanford and Utah are two schools that need this tournament to make it into the bracket. So this could make for some interesting games to watch.

Games to Watch

Stanford vs. Cal

The series is always fun, and even if Cal is terrible at basketball, the series was split in the season with neither team winning by more than 4 points. Stanford needs this win to make it to the tournament and break the 20 win threshold. A win here will put Stanford in a game with UCLA, which will be another exiting game to watch.

Bottom Half of the Bracket

There could be a combination of 9 games that could be but Utah is ranked 4th and needs this conference championship to earn a trip to the dance. Oregon, Washington and USC all need this to improve their position in the final bracket. There will be a lot of competitive basketball played in the bottom half. Only issue, the games may not start till 10:30 pm CST, so you’ll have to stay up to watch them.

Predictions

Round 1

Colorado beats Arizona State

Stanford beats Cal

Washington beats Oregon State

Oregon beats Washington

Quarterfinal

Arizona beats Colorado

Stanford beats UCLA

Washington beats USC

Utah beats Oregon

Semifinal

Arizona beats Stanford

Utah beats Washington

Final

Utah beats Arizona