We continue our tour of who is hot and who is not with the Pac 12. It would be easy just to label the entire conference as “not” but that wouldn’t reward those that are at least trying to improve the league’s reputation. The temperatures in this conference change on a weekly basis, but here are the players and teams that are heating up and those that are cooling off.
Hot
Oregon Ducks
The Ducks swept the Los Angeles schools last week in Eugene and woke up Sunday morning tied for first place with a 6-2 conference mark. They have won four straight and nine of their last 11 games to improve their overall record to 15-5. While they don’t have a dominant offensive player to carry them on a nightly basis, they do have a pretty efficient three-headed monster in Devoe Joseph (14.6 points), E.J. Singler (12.8 points) and Garrett Sim (12.6 points) that will keep them in most games. They lead the conference with three wins away from Eugene during league play and if they continue to be road warriors, expect them to be dancing in March.
Faisal Aden, guard, Washington State Cougars
Entering last week the Cougars were 1-4 in league play and appeared to be headed for two more losses with Stanford and Cal headed to the Palouse. Aden helped the Cougs pull off the sweep of the Bay Area schools thanks to a career-high 33 points vs. Stanford and 24 more against Cal. The 6-foot-4 senior finally looks comfortable in the sixth-man role and he has really started to pick it up over the last four games. During that span he has averaged 21.2 points and shot 57% from the floor while making 27-for-28 free throw attempts. If the game is tight down the stretch, look for the Cougars to feed Aden as he has become one of the best closers in the conference.
Terrence Ross, guard, Washington Huskies
When C.J. Wilcox went down with a hip injury, it gave Ross the green light to fire away at will. In the first 16 games with Wilcox in the lineup, Ross averaged 11.6 shots. In the last three contests with Wilcox sidelined, he has hoisted up 17.7 shots. While he is only shooting 40% over that span, the extra attempts have allowed him to average 21.0 points. He isn’t just a scoring machine as he has grabbed 26 rebounds during that stretch. In this case, quantity definitely wins out over quality. Look for him to continue to post monster numbers as long as Wilcox is in street clothes.
Travis Wear, forward, UCLA Bruins
Who would have thought before the season that he would have been the most valuable Bruin frontcourt player to own? The 6-foot-10 sophomore must have had becoming a beast in the post as one of his New Year’s Resolutions. Since the calendar turned to 2012, he has scored at least 16 points in all five games. Over that period, he has averaged 17.6 points and 6.4 rebounds while shooting a ridiculous 69% from the floor. And if that wasn’t enough, he also has shot 20-for-23 from the charity stripe. If he is available in your league, grab him immediately.
Not
USC Trojans
It looked like a foregone conclusion that Utah would be by far the worst team in the conference earlier in the season. After the first seven games of league play, the Utes have managed to win two games while the Trojans are desperately seeking their first victory. They have lost eight straight games and 11 of their last 12. How bad has it been? They scored less than 50 points on seven occasions during the 12-game stretch and rank in the 300’s in most offensive categories. In fact, Scott Machado of Iona and Kendall Marshall of North Carolina average more assists than the entire Trojan team. With starting forward Aaron Fuller (shoulder surgery) now out for the season, don’t expect it to get any better in Trojanland.
Stanford Cardinal
The Cardinal (15-5, 5-3) were tied for first place before last week’s meltdown in the Evergreen State. They lost by 12 to Washington State and then by 13 to Washington. They are quickly losing their grip on a potential NCAA bid and find themselves in fifth place in a down conference. One way to get back on track would be to take down rival Cal this Sunday. The only problem is that the game is in Berkeley and the Cardinal are only 1-3 on the road in conference play. Still, if they win that game they will be right back in the hunt for the regular season conference title. Lose it and they will need to make a serious late season run to avoid the NIT.
Solomon Hill, forward, Arizona Wildcats
The key to Hill’s emergence as a fantasy player was his ability to contribute in points, rebounds and assists. Frontcourt players that can dish are always fantasy commodities. In the Wildcats first 14 games, Hill recorded at least three assists in 12 of them. Over his last six games though, he has only reached that number once. While he is still crashing the boards, he appears to have lost confidence in his offensive game. In two of his last four games, he only managed to make one field goal. His five-point performance against Utah can be explained by his early ejection in the second half. However, against Oregon State he only attempted two shots in 38 minutes. The Wildcats are going to need him to return to his early season form if they are going to play important games in March.
Josh Smith, center, UCLA Bruins
I couldn’t end this article without officially stating I’m off the Smith bandwagon (if there still was one). I got some grief from above when I had him on top of my preseason Pac 12 player rankings but I thought he had a chance to be a dominant center. It’s time I admit my mistake. The talent is there, but he just doesn’t seem interested in improving his conditioning. Despite having a huge size advantage on a nightly basis, he just can’t stay on the court. His season-high in minutes is 22 and he has failed to reach 20 in 11 of 18 games. His per minute numbers are off the charts, but it doesn’t matter if he spends the majority of the game on the bench. Hopefully, the light turns on this offseason and he puts in the work to become the player his talent will allow him to be.