Pac-12 Conference
March 9-12. All games at Las Vegas.
kPOY: Jakob Poeltl, Utah.

The Pac-12 tournament gets underway with four first-round games on Wednesday at the MGM Grand Garden Arena.

The Pac-12 provides one of the most compelling tournaments in 2016 with each of the top four seeds having a healthy chance of winning the tournament. Arizona and Oregon have been fairly steady all season, but Cal and Utah are hot, hot, hot.

Cal went 8-1 over the last half of the Pac-12 schedule and the Bears posted the best defensive efficiency in the conference. Meanwhile, Utah went 12-2 over the closing stretch. So while Arizona is a slight favorite here, there’s good reason for fan bases of the top four teams to feel excessively optimistic. Especially since alcohol is served at the MGM Grand Arena.

On the other side, USC has lost six of its past eight as its defense has imploded. But the Trojans are safely in the field of 68, because in the RPI, the Pac-12 is the big winner this season.

                   Qtrs Semis Final Champ
 4 Arizona          100  76.8  43.6  26.1
 1 Oregon           100  76.8  42.2  25.0
 3 California       100  71.9  41.7  20.5
 2 Utah             100  66.4  35.7  16.8
 5 Colorado        80.8  21.7   7.4   2.7
 7 USC             54.1  19.1   7.4   2.5
 6 Oregon St.      59.0  18.2   7.0   2.2
10 UCLA            45.9  14.4   5.1   1.5
 8 Washington      55.3  13.8   4.1   1.3
11 Arizona St.     41.0   9.9   3.1   0.7
 9 Stanford        44.7   9.4   2.5   0.7
12 Washington St.  19.2   1.5   0.2   0.02

Pac 12 tourney records (since 1999)

Colorado       8- 3
Oregon        19-10
Arizona       18-12
UCLA          16-11
Washington    14-10
USC           12-11
Utah           4- 4
Stanford      12-14
California    11-14
Oregon St.     6-12
Washington St. 3-12
Arizona St.    3-13