The Pac-12 suffered yet another miserable loss on Saturday.
Fresh off of beating No. 1 Kansas in Tempe exactly one week ago, the Sun Devils came out in their first game after Christmas and proceeded to lose to a Princeton team that has already lost to Lehigh and Fairleigh Dickinson this season.
The final score was 67-66, and the No. 17 Sun Devils had a chance to win at the buzzer. The ending was about as ugly as you would expect:
A game after No. 17 Arizona State beat No. 1 Kansas on this very floor, Princeton comes in and wins. Let Ted Robinson and Bill Walton P'01 give you the finish. pic.twitter.com/nkQyP9Xx7x
— Princeton Men’s Basketball (@PrincetonMBB) December 29, 2018
It’s hard to overstate just how bad this loss is for the Pac-12. We discussed this at length on the podcast with Sean Farnham on Thursday, but the biggest issue for the Pac-12 is that this horrid start to the season has created a situation where there are no quality wins available once league play starts. Arizona State was supposed to be that team, but they’ve now lost two of their last three games and enter conference play with OK computer numbers and three losses.
Think about it like this: If the tournament started today, no one in the Pac-12 save for Arizona State would have a shot at getting an at-large bid, and because of this, it is damn near impossible for anyone in the conference to build a strong enough resume to get an at-large bid.
We joked about this earlier this year, but it may actually happen: The Pac-12 is a one-bid league.