Well, I ordered my Dawg Pack tickets today making me realize how close the season is to starting and that means getting this blog back up in running order again. What better place to start than with a final standings prediction?
This year we have Colorado and Utah joining the fray and, in my opinion, Colorado is the stronger addition as opposed to football where Utah is clearly a superior team. For those who don't know, Colorado is from the Big 12 and Utah from the MWC.
Last season Colorado was a 1 seed in the NIT tournament, losing by 1 point in the semi-finals to also 1 seeded Alabama of the SEC. They finished with a record of 24-14 (8-8 in conference). Their star, Alec Burks, led the team in scoring (20.1) and assists (2.9) as well as being second in rebounding (6.4). He was taken in the first round with the 12th pick by the Utah Jazz. Their second leading scorer, Cory Higgins, was a senior and has graduated as has their third leading scorer, Levi Knutson. This leaves SLU transfer, Marcus Relphorde, as the returning leading scorer with 11.5 points per game. Andre Roberson returns as the leading rebounder with 7.8 boards per game. Nate Tomlinson has the highest assists per game returning with 2.4 assists per game.
Utah finished 13-18 (6-10 in conference), losing in the quarter finals of the conference tournament to Nationally ranked San Diego State. Will Clyburn returns as the leading scorer with 17.1 ppg. Josh Watkins returns as the number 2 scorer at 14.5 ppg. Clyburn also lead the team in rebounding with 7.8 rpg. Josh Watkins returns as the leading assist member with 3.5 apg.
Colorado appears to be entering a rebuilding year after losing so much scoring, but the Huskies are in a similar situation and I feel like we are a much stronger team. Some might look at the above stats and argue that Utah will be a better contender in the Pac-12, but the Big 12 is much stiffer competition than the MWC.
I'll cover each of the Pac-12 teams in more detail in separate posts, but I thought a quick introduction would help make understanding my placement of each team more reasonable.
In reverse order:
12. Utah
11. ASU
10. WSU
9. OSU
8. Stanford
7. Colorado
6. USC
5. UO
4. Cal
3. UA
2. UW
1. UCLA
Right now, I think UCLA has a lot of size and skill that will be tough to beat. I believe we will split the series with each team winning at home. UW will hopefully make the competition a close and fun one.
I may amend this list as I go through the team stats, incoming players, etc., but at a first glance this was my gut instinct. The top 5 I'm pretty confident about. USC and Colorado could be flipped around. The bottom 5 are a mess in my opinion and could be tossed about in a few arrangements with Stanford nearer the top than the other 4.
