Women's Basketball Pac-12 Power Rankings
Published: Friday, January 11, 2013
Updated: Friday, January 11, 2013 02:01
1. No. 5 Stanford (14-1, 3-0): It’s hard not to put Stanford in the top spot. The only loss of the season for the Cardinal was to No. 3 Connecticut. Since then they’ve rattled off wins against Colorado, Utah and an impressive victory over No. 7 California.
2. No. 14 UCLA (11-2, 2-0): Although they didn’t play particularly well in the first half of their game in Corvallis, the Bruins have won four in a row, and that includes a sweep of both Oregon colleges.
3. No. 7 California (12-2, 2-1): The Golden Bears went 2-1 in their opening conference games, and the loss came to Stanford. This is still an incredibly talented team, and one that will look for revenge in a rematch against the Cardinal on Jan. 13.
4. Washington (10-3, 2-0): In the midst of a three-game winning streak, the Huskies notched two gritty wins against Arizona State (77-74) and Arizona (76-65), both of which are potential heavyweights in the conference.
5. No. 23 Colorado (12-2, 1-2): They may have only come away with one victory out of their three games last week, but the Buffaloes were undefeated through their first 11 games, and the games they lost were to powerhouses Stanford and California. Colorado rebounded by defeating Utah on Sunday.
6. USC (5-8, 2-0): Okay, I have no idea where USC came from. One minute the Trojans are losing six games in a row, and the next they’re sweeping the Oregon colleges just like UCLA did. I don’t know which part of that was a fluke, but they played efficiently on offense and eked out a couple wins, so here we are.
7. Arizona (9-4, 1-1): The Wildcats split their first conference games, first defeating Washington State, and then falling to Washington. Their next game is on Friday Jan. 11, when they host the Beavers.
8. Washington State (5-8, 1-1): Washington State has won two of its last three games, and notched a notable nonconference win against No. 20 Ohio State earlier in the season.
9. Arizona State (8-6, 0-2): There are several good teams that have gotten off to rocky starts in conference play. Arizona State is one of those teams. Heading into conference play on a five game-winning streak, the Sun Devils dropped both of their games in Washington.
10. Utah (9-5, 0-3): Utah is another good team that has hit a bit of a rough patch. They’ve lost the last four games, but all of them were to talented teams (Notre Dame, California, Stanford, and Colorado), and all but the game against Stanford were winnable in the final minutes.
11. Oregon State (6-8, 0-2): Not a whole lot has gone well for the Beavers. Injuries have taken their toll, and they’ve lost their last five games. USC downed the Beavers on a buzzer-beater, and UCLA came from behind in the closing minutes of the second half to give the Beavers a record of 0-2 in Pac-12 play.
12. Oregon (2-12, 0-2): Maybe it’s just me, but I could get used to the Ducks at the bottom of this list. They give up a whopping 73 points a game and have not won a game since Dec. 18.
Mitch Mahoney, sports reporter
is a member of the 
