Pac-12 title still very much up for grabs

SALT LAKE CITY — The Pac-12 basketball season is nearly two-thirds complete, but the race for the title is wide open with half of the league's teams possessing a legitimate chance of winning the regular-season title.

Washington has emerged from the pack of what most folks are saying is the most mediocre bunch of Pac-12 basketball teams in years, as the season lurches toward the home stretch.

The Huskies improved to 9-2 last week, extending their winning streak to five with home wins over UCLA and USC. They are a game ahead of Cal and Colorado at 8-3 and two games ahead of Arizona and Oregon at 7-4.

However, the Huskies are perhaps no better off than UCLA, which is three games behind them at 6-5. That's because the Huskies have played seven of their 11 games at home, while the Bruins have played just four home games out of 11.

With 12 schools, Pac-12 teams play an unbalanced league schedule of 18 games, meaning every team in the league plays seven schools twice and four schools just once. So far, everyone has played anywhere from four to seven home games.

Looking at "plus-minus standings" — road wins vs. home losses — it's a four-way tie right now between Washington, Arizona, Oregon and UCLA, which are all plus-2.

UCLA is just 6-5 in league play, but the Bruins have played just four home games and seven on the road, while Washington has played seven home games and just four on the road.

Stanford is also 6-5, but is even in the plus-minus standings with one road win and one home loss. Oregon State (5-6) is actually in better shape at plus-1 with two road wins and one home loss. Those two schools are a longshot to win the regular-season title.

As for the rest of the league, Arizona State is minus-1, Washington State minus-2 and Utah and USC bring up the rear at minus-4.

It's hard to figure which team has the easiest schedule from here on out.

Washington doesn't have to play at Cal, which doesn't have to play at Arizona. The Wildcats avoid the two Oregon schools, which don't have to play at UCLA, but get the almost gimme win at USC. We likely won't know until the first weekend of March, which team will win the title.

NCAA BIDS: With such a mediocre league this year, the Pac-12 is unlikely to get more than a couple of NCAA bids and could end up with only one.