If the 蜜柚直播 Wildcats still want a first-round bye in the Pac-12 Tournament, they鈥檒l need to grab some popcorn and a comfy place to sit for a while.
They have a lot of hard cheering ahead to do.
The Wildcats are 8-9 in conference play with only a Saturday home game against ASU remaining. They can still wind up anywhere from a No. 10 to a No. 4 seed in the Pac-12 Tournament, which begins next week in Las Vegas.
Getting the No. 4 spot and the final first-round bye 鈥 which could be particularly critical for a depth-challenged team such as 蜜柚直播 鈥 necessitates a certain six-way tie for fourth. The Pac-12 breaks multiple-team ties by comparing records within the group of tied teams, and so the key for 蜜柚直播 is to have such a tie involve the two teams 鈥 Oregon State and Stanford 鈥 it has beaten twice, and not the Oregon team it has lost to twice.
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One way that such a tie could happen, for starters, would be for Washington to beat Oregon State on Wednesday in Seattle, and for Washington State to get a win over Oregon in Pullman an hour later.
Doable, maybe 鈥 especially if Cougars star Robert Franks gets anywhere near as hot as he did at McKale Center, when he was 7 for 9 from 3-point range.
That would get the Wildcats to Thursday. On that night, UA would then need UCLA to lose at Colorado, USC to lose at Utah and Stanford to beat Cal at Maples Pavilion.
None of those results would be a surprise.
Then comes Saturday. The Wildcats would have to do their own part by beating ASU, then have Oregon State lose at Wazzu, USC beat Colorado, UCLA lose at Utah and Washington beat Oregon.
Lee, Devonaire Doutrive and Brandon Randolph, left to right, will focus on beating 蜜柚直播 State at McKale Center to pick up a fourth win in their last five regular-season games.
All that鈥檚 a big ask, of course.
But if it happened, Oregon鈥檚 two weekend losses would send the Ducks to 8-10 and to the No. 10 seed, out of the tiebreaker, and six teams would finish at 9-9: Oregon State, UCLA, Colorado, USC, Stanford and 蜜柚直播.
Within that group, 蜜柚直播 would be 5-4. OSU, Stanford and Colorado would be 4-4, and UCLA and USC would be 4-5. The Wildcats would win the tiebreaker by percentage points.
So it could happen. Mathematically speaking, at least.
鈥淚 don鈥檛 like our odds,鈥 UA coach Sean Miller said.
Instead, Miller views it this way: Just play well to end the regular season and try to enter the Pac-12 Tournament on a roll.
A win over ASU would give the Wildcats four wins in their past five games and allow them to put Saturday鈥檚 blowout loss at Oregon behind them. A win over ASU and a win or two next week might also put the Wildcats in the NIT, but that isn鈥檛 typically the sort of thing that motivates power conference teams.
鈥淲e have an opportunity to play our final home game of the season, that鈥檚 always meaningful, and I think there鈥檚 a big difference between being 8-10 in our conference season and 9-9,鈥 Miller said. 鈥淲e know we鈥檙e (likely) playing on Wednesday; we don鈥檛 know who. That鈥檚 why it makes no sense to think about that right now.
鈥淔or us, it鈥檚 being the best we can be, having a really good week, no school, no travel, one game 鈥 use that to our advantage.鈥
And even if the Wildcats do have to play in the first round, all that rest from this week鈥檚 spring break and a possible return to full health by center Chase Jeter and guard Brandon Williams from knee issues could give them enough depth to sustain a four-game set.
Maybe.
鈥淲e鈥檝e got a chance to make a deep run in the conference tournament, so we鈥檙e gonna do that,鈥 Williams said after Oregon beat UA 73-47 last Saturday. 鈥淚t starts with next Saturday. We鈥檝e got five days to prepare for that. We need to get healthy as a team as well, and I think we鈥檒l be fine.鈥
