A look at the updated 2016 Pac-12 Tournament bracket after the first round games
The first round of the Pac-12 Tournament is officially over and the second round matchups are set in stone, as the teams left remaining become one step closer to achieving conference glory. The tournament isn’t just about winning the conference for some, it’s also about compiling as many wins as possible to strengthen a resume before the selection committee ultimately decides which teams will be going dancing in the NCAA Tournament.
On Wednesday, there were four games to decide who would go on and meet the four top teams from the conference in the quarterfinals. The first battle of the day took place between the Washington Huskies and Stanford Cardinal. The Huskies rolled through the Cardinal behind Dejounte Murray’s 25 points and will now face the Oregon Ducks on Thursday.
The second matchup of the day featured the Colorado Buffaloes against the Washington State Cougars. Much like their matchups in the regular season, the Buffaloes had no problems dispatching Washington State and will now go on to face the team that won the Pac-12 Tournament last year, the Arizona Wildcats.
The third contest of the night was between crosstown rivals, when the UCLA Bruins took on the USC Trojans. Behind a balanced attack, the Trojans would blow out the Bruins and punch their ticket to face the Utah Utes on Thursday.
The final game of the night was between the Oregon State Beavers and Arizona State Sun Devils. Like the rest of the games on the day, this one wasn’t really all that close either and Oregon State would set themselves up with a date with the California Golden Bears.
The matchups for the second round are officially set and there should be some good battles between the best eight teams remaining in the Pac-12 Tournament.