Pac-12 basketball power rankings, 1.29.14: UCLA up to second, Cal drops to third

1. Arizona (no change)

Will be here for the rest of the season. You can confidently skip down to #2 for the rest of the year.

2. UCLA (up one spot)

A fascinating gap between on-court talent and fan excitement/engagement. Lesson: don't hire a rape apologist to be your head coach.

3. California (down one spot)

Just a split would have been enough to keep our Bears clear of the Pac-12 peloton. Still an obvious top 4 contender, but conference title hopes are looking extremely unrealistic.

4. Stanford (up one spot)

One more year! One more year!

5. Arizona State (up one spot)

Got the home sweep they were supposed to get. Bay Area road trip is a litmus test for their tournament chances.

6. Washington (up four spots)

- On the one hand, they've taken advantage of a soft home schedule and pulled one road upset, so the record is probably flattering. On the other hand, if UW was as bad as the non-con record indicated, they wouldn't be 4-0 at home. Romar is doing something right.

7. Colorado (down three spots)

1-4 without Dinwiddie, but against a brutal, brutal stretch of games. Still, the benefit of the doubt won't last any longer.

8. Utah (down one spot)

There's no shame in losing two road games, and they gave both ASU and Arizona a tough time, but at some point Utah actually has to get a win away from Salt Lake City. Until then, skepticism.

9. Oregon State (down one spot)

Will pull occasional upsets the rest of the year.

10. Oregon (down two spots)

Loss to Washington was a killer with UCLA and the Arizona trip looming.

11. USC (no change)

Clearly better than Wazzu, still clearly the 2nd worst team in the conference. Alas for both USC, and for Cal.

Poor Cougs.