Predicting the Pac 12 Race

1. Stanford, 9-1, no need to say more, we all know how we’ve done thus far.

2. Cal, 9-3, played a decent schedule and while they have almost won big games, not quite. Still they have played well except for free throw shooting which may have cost them 11-1. No injuries and playing 10 people, so different than recent years. Gennifer Brandon is 2nd in the league in rebounding, 11 per game, after missing last season.

3. ASU, 8-2, new coach for this year and playing as they have the past few years, minutes distributed among 10 people. The have lost big to some good teams. No go to player, no one scoring more than 10 a game.

4. USC, 5-5, down to 8 players now with Jackie Gemelos out for the year. Still they have some very good players in Brianna Gilbreath, Cassie Harberts and Ashley Corral averaging 13, 12 and 11 points per game respectively. Rebounding is a weakness as Gemelos was leading the team.

5. Arizona, 10-1, they have a star in Davellyn Whyte averaging 19 points per game and hitting 2.5 threes per game at 44%, both stats very high in the Pac 12. Soph Erica Barnes is averaging 12 points and 9 rebounds and Shanita Arnold is averaging 5.4 assists per game, 2nd in the Pac 12. Arnold is 2nd to Stanford’s Toni Kokenis is assist to turnover ratio.

6. Utah, 6-4, 6-4 Michelle Plouffe is averaging 16 points and 9 rebounds per game. 6-3 Taryn Wicijowski is averaging 13 points and 7 rebounds per game. Janita Badon leads the Pac 12 with 5.5 assists per game. Yet Utah lost some games that there were expected to win. They are deep but some nice starters. Can they make an impact in their first Pac 12 season?

7. WSU, 6-6, tough schedule, and they have done well, almost beating ranked Louisville. They are playing team ball after several years of one on one. Ireti Amojo has 20 threes at a league leading 51 %.

8. UCLA, 5-6, has really been hurt by injuries , losing their top two players Jasmine Dixon at the start of the season and this past week Atonye Nyingifa. They have only 8 players now, one Sr and 2 Jrs are the only upper class players.

9. Colorado, 11-0, heck of a start but they have played no one of importance, a very weak schedule. Still they have the exciting Chucky Jeffery averaging 17 points and 8 rebounds per game from her guard position. Lexy Kresel is the league’s top scoring frosh at 12 per game and 3rd in the league scoring three’s.

10. Washington, 8-2, Regina Rogers is now living up to her promise averaging 18 points and 8 rebounds put game and leading the Pac 12 in shooting % at 71%. But the loss of Kristi Kingma before the season will be too much for Washington to overcome.

11. Oregon, 8-4, the league’s biggest disappointment as they had a week pre season schedule. Their best player Amanda Johnson did miss their last three of games, and she is 2nd in the league at scoring, 20 points per game and tied for 2nd in rebounding, 11 per game.

12. Oregon State, 9-2, is still recovering from the mess of a year and a half ago. Frosh Ali Gibson leads the league in steals, 3 per game. Gibson also is second on the team in scoring at 12 per game.