2021 Pac-12 Basketball Tournament Preview

What To Know

The Pac-12 men’s basketball tournament is set to tip-off this Wednesday (March 10th) at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas and run through Saturday (March 13th), when the winner from the field will receive the Pac-12’s automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. Eleven of the league’s twelve teams will partake in the tournament, excluding Arizona, who is currently ineligible for post-season play.

The Oregon Ducks are the #1 overall seed in the field, after posting a 14-4 record against league opponents, while the USC Trojans enter as the #2 seed with a 15-5 mark. They are followed by Colorado, UCLA, Oregon State, Stanford, Utah, Arizona State, Washington State and Washington in seeded order respectively.

The tournament will conclude on Saturday night at 7:30 PM PT in a game that will be televised nationally on ESPN. All other tournament games, excluding the second semifinal on Friday night and the last quarterfinal game on Thursday night - both of which will be on ESPN as well - will be televised on the Pac-12 Networks.

Due to the tournament being cancelled last season by the COVID-19 pandemic, Oregon remains the reigning champions of the Pac-12 Tournament from 20219, when guard Payton Pritchard helped the Ducks to a controlling win over Washington.

The Bracket

Pac-12.com

What’s At Stake

According to ESPN’s Joe Lunardi as of Sunday night (March 7th), four Pac-12 teams are slated to be in the field of 68, headlined by a projected #5 seed Colorado squad, a pair of #6 seeds in Oregon and USC and a #10 seed UCLA group. With the first three teams being virtual locks for the bracket, UCLA is the one that could make things interesting, especially with a first-round loss to Oregon State.

In general though, it is expected that the Conference of Champions will place four teams in the field, pending the league’s automatic bid doesn’t go to a team not already projected into the field.