Arizona

Pac-12 men’s basketball power rankings: Oregon, Arizona trade places as USC extends slump

Published

2 years ago

January 22, 2024

Pac-12 men’s basketball power rankings: Oregon, Arizona trade places as USC extends slump

Oregon’s time atop the Pac-12 men’s basketball power rankings was short lived after the Ducks were swept on their road trip through Colorado and Utah.

However, they still remain tied for the lead in the conference standings with Arizona State and Arizona — their next two opponents — as the Pac-12 season begins to heat up.

Six teams will start the week with five victories in conference play and within one win of first place.

With that, here are the latest Pac-12 power rankings.

1. Arizona

Last week: 2

What to know: The Wildcats still aren’t as sharp as they were earlier in the season. They did enough to get a pair of wins over the weekend against USC and UCLA, though they needed to overcome a 19-point deficit to beat the Bruins.

2. Oregon

Last week: 1

What to know: The Ducks were the hottest team in the conference a week ago with six-straight wins. Now they’ll attempt to get back on track with home games against the Arizona schools after losing two straight.

3. Arizona State

Last week: 4

What to know: The Sun Devils’ offense has performed better during the conference season. In seven Pac-12 games, they’re scoring 74.3 per game and with a scoring margin of plus-2.57. Overall, they’re averaging 69.8 with a scoring margin of minus-0.61.

4. Colorado

Last week: 5

What to know: The Buffaloes are healthy again and it’s showing. They’ve won three straight — all by double-digits and by an average margin of 19.7 points as they improved to 12-0 at home. But they’re also 0-4 on the road this season heading into games at Washington and Washington State.

5. Utah

Last week: 6

What to know: In Sunday’s win against Oregon, reserve point guard Deivon Smith got his third-straight start in place of the injured Rollie Worster and nearly came away with his second triple-double in eight days with 24 points, nine rebounds and nine assists.

6. Stanford

Last week: 3

What to know: The surprising Cardinal, one of those six teams with five wins, are the best 3-point shooting team in the Pac-12. They lead the conference with an average 9.5 made 3-pointers per game, and are shooting a conference-best 40.0% from deep (171 for 427).

7. Washington State

Last week: 7

What to know: The Cougars are 4-2 in January and so close to being 6-0 and in the Pac-12 lead. They’ve lost by five points to Oregon at home and then on Sunday dropped a game in overtime to California in Berkeley.

8. Washington

Last week: 10

What to know: The Huskies have been a perplexing team. Despite having one of the best players in the Pac-12 in Keion Brooks Jr. and a legit playmaker in point guard Sahvir Wheeler, Washington just can’t get any momentum, with three wins and three losses in their last six games.

9. California

Last week: 8

What to know: No team in the bottom half of the Pac-12 standings has the ability to play spoiler like the Golden Bears. So far this season they’ve defeated UCLA in LA, Colorado and Washington State. They’ve also lost by just two points to Arizona State and Washington.

10. Southern California

Last week: 9

What to know: The Trojans have lost four straight by an average of 12 points and are just one of three teams in the conference who have a losing record overall. Hard to believe this is the same team that opened the season at No. 21 in the Associated Press top 25.

11. UCLA

Last week: 11

What to know: Don’t look now, but the Bruins are beginning to play better. In their last three games, they’ve beaten Washington and Arizona State and had a 19-point lead on Arizona before losing by six.

12. Oregon State

Last week: 12

What to know: The Beavers have the longest losing streak in the Pac-12 at five games and they looked especially bad this past week when they lost 74-47 to Utah and 90-57 to Colorado.

Follow Chris Hansen on Twitter @chansen_RG or email at chansen@registerguard.com.

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Arizona

HIGHLIGHTS: Rams WR Puka Nacua with a one-handed touchdown catch against the Cardinals

Published

49 minutes ago

January 4, 2026

Press Room

HIGHLIGHTS: Rams WR Puka Nacua with a one-handed touchdown catch against the Cardinals

On today’s Digital Pregame Show presented by Little Caesars, J.B Long, D’Marco Farr, and Maurice Jones-Drew preview the Los Angeles Rams’ Week 18 matchup against the Arizona Cardinals at SoFi Stadium. The trio discuss key players to watch, game predictions, and more. Tune in for kickoff at 1:25pm PT on FOX.

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Arizona

QB Cutter Boley lands with ASU after Kentucky transfer

Published

13 hours ago

January 4, 2026

Press Room

QB Cutter Boley lands with ASU after Kentucky transfer

Arizona State is bringing in Kentucky transfer quarterback Cutter Boley after he played 10 full games as a redshirt freshman in 2025, FootballScoop’s John Brice first reported with SunDevilSource’s Chris Karpman confirming.

He gives the Sun Devils a signal-caller with three years of eligibility who had major flashes as a young starter in the SEC, including a career-high 330 yards and five touchdown passes on 74.3% passing against Tennessee on Oct. 25.

The 6-foot-5, 220-pound Boley had 2,160 yards (65.8%), 15 touchdown passes and 12 interceptions on the season with 85 rushing yards and two scores on the ground.

He was expected to take a two-day visit beginning on Saturday, but he committed before getting to the second day.

ASU head coach Kenny Dillingham extended an offer to Boley as a high school junior while he was the 24th quarterback in the 2024 class and the coach was serving as offensive coordinator at Oregon.

Dillingham took more of an active role in the offense during the Sun Bowl on Wednesday, and he said postgame recent changes in administration have allowed him to focus more on football. It would make sense the active role carries over to the development of Boley.

He gets to ASU after the departure of Sam Leavitt, who has fittingly been linked to Kentucky in what could be a 1-for-1 transfer swap of quarterbacks.

More about ASU transfer QB addition Cutter Boley

The youngest SEC quarterback to get substantial time this season, Boley played mostly as a game manager with quick passes behind or near the line of scrimmage.

His six big-time throws — tracked by PFF as passes with “excellent ball location and timing, generally thrown further down the field and/or into a tight window” — were tied for last among 15 qualified SEC passers.

His 18 turnover-worthy plays, another PFF-tracked stat, were tied for fourth out of 15.

Comparing the stats to ASU’s quarterbacks this season, Leavitt had 18 big-time throws and 12 turnover-worthy plays in seven games. Jeff Sims had eight big-time throws and nine turnover-worthy plays in eight contests.

Because he has three years of eligibility remaining, Boley could eventually have to compete with young ASU quarterbacks Cam Dyer and Jake Fette, who will be redshirt and true freshmen, respectively, in 2026.

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Arizona

Arizona men’s basketball cruises to win at Utah in Big 12 opener

Published

1 day ago

January 3, 2026

Press Room

Arizona men’s basketball cruises to win at Utah in Big 12 opener

Weird things have happened to Arizona in Salt Lake City in recent years. In 2022, an unbeaten Wildcats squad fresh off a dominant performance at the Maui Invitational laid an egg against Utah, and two years later the UA needed triple overtime to get past the Utes.

No such drama this time around.

Top-ranked Arizona jumped out to a 17-point lead before the second media timeout and then coasted to a 97-78 win at Utah on Saturday afternoon to open Big 12 play.

The Wildcats (14-0, 1-0) saw their streak of wins by at least 20 points end at eight, tying the school record set in 1928-29. But the victory was no less dominant than the previous seven, with the UA shooting 53.6 percent, finishing plus-13 on the boards and again getting five scorers in double figures.

Tobe Awaka and Jaden Bradley led the way with 18 points apiece, Awaka going 6 of 7 from the field and 2 for 2 from 3 while adding 12 rebounds for his third double-double of the season. Bradley was 7 of 11 from the field and added five assists.

Brayden Burries and Koa Peat each scored 17 and Ivan Kharchenkov added 13 for Arizona, which scored in the 90s for the 10^th time this season including eight of the last nine games.

Utah (8-6, 0-1) got 26 points from Terrence Brown and 15 each from Keanu Dawes and Don McHenry but shot 44.3 percent overall and just 5 of 17 from 3. The Utes turned it over 12 times, leading to 18 points for the Wildcats, who had 11 steals for their seventh game with at least 10 swipes.

The UA led 58-39 at halftime, its most points in the first half of a conference game since dropping 63 on ASU in 1998. That offensive explosion did not immediately carry over to the second half, though, as Arizona didn’t make its first post-halftime field goal until 17:06 left.

But then things went back to normal, with an 8-0 run to extend the lead to 70-46 with 13:56 to go. Utah followed with a 12-3 run to get within 15 but that was the closest it would get.

The only real drama down the stretch was if Arizona would again win by 20. It led by 21 after a Burries basket with 51 seconds remaining but Bradley fouled Utah’s Brown with 49.8 seconds to go in order to let backups come in and Brown made two free throws.

Utah scored the game’s opening basket and then Arizona followed with 14 in a row, which included a few baskets off Ute turnovers. Six of those points were byKharchenkov, who scored twice off steals.

The rout appeared to be on early, withAwakanailing a 3 to put the Wildcats up 27-10 with 12:16 left in the first half. But the UA went three minutes without a field goal, allowing Utah to cut the deficit to single digits.

A second-chance 3 by Brown got the Utes within 34-26 with 7:49 left in the half. But Arizona righted the ship on both ends, using a 10-0 run (with another Awaka 3) to build a 46-28 advantage. The Wildcats made their final six shots before the break, shooting 61.1 percent overall in the first half.

The UA plays its Big 12 home opener Wednesday against Kansas State. K-State (9-5, 0-1) fell 83-73 at home to No. 10 BYU on Saturday.

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