SAN FRANCISCO — Thanks to the FBI, picking the Pac-12 basketball race isn’t quite as simple as it seemed a few weeks ago.
Even if you want to move a loaded Arizona team off the top line because of uncertainty created around the allegations raised in the Sept. 26 federal complaint, the natural team to turn to at No. 2, USC … also had a coach arrested.
So, should you drop down to UCLA, which is deep with veterans and incoming talent alike, or Oregon, the team you can never count out even if the Ducks lost all but one starter from their Final Four team?
Behind that top group, there’s Stanford and Oregon State and maybe ASU, all with enough talent and experience to hang with anybody in the conference, while the bottom half has a cluster of comparable teams, with Cal likely in the toughest spot because of its decimated roster.
But since there’s no way to know now if the federal allegations will become a costly distraction for Arizona and USC — or an us-against-the-world type of rallying cry — I stuck with my original picks when submitting my vote for the league’s preseason media poll (it will be released Thursday before the league’s men’s media day).
Here goes:
(Newcomers are freshmen unless noted otherwise)
