Pac-12 women’s basketball power rankings: Beavers surge, WSU shocks UCLA, Oregon plummets

Let the chaos continue in the Pac-12’s final season.

Four of the six ranked teams in the Pac-12 lost a game last weekend, highlighted by Washington State’s shocking upset over No. 2 UCLA, and No. 25 Oregon State’s home sweep of No. 16 Utah and No. 3 Colorado. The Beavers are big winners in this week’s power rankings.

Here's the latest Pac-12 women's basketball power rankings.

1. Stanford

Last week: 3

What to know: The Cardinal continue to beat up on the unranked teams in the conference and rise to the top of the rankings by virtue of their one-loss record in conference play after a sweep of the Arizona schools.

2. Oregon State

Last week: 6

What to know: Maybe the hottest team in the Pac-12, the Beavers had an electric home weekend against the mountain schools, defeating No. 3 Colorado on Friday before obliterating No. 16 Utah, 91-66, on Sunday. Those were Oregon State’s first ranked wins of the season, and a massive statement to the rest of the Pac-12 that the Beavs are for real.

3. UCLA

Last week: 1

What to know: The Bruins escaped a defensive-minded battle with Washington at home, before falling to Washington State in a Sunday shocker. It’s the third conference loss for UCLA, with two coming in the last week. The once-dominant Bruins seem to not be immune to Pac-12 parity as many once suspected.

4. Colorado

Last week: 2

What to know: Riding high as the last unbeaten team in conference play in the Pac-12 at one point, the Buffaloes lost their first conference game to UCLA two weeks ago and fell again to Oregon State on Friday. Two ranked losses won’t drop the Buffs far.

5. Utah

Last week: 4

What to know: A huge win over UCLA was immediately overshadowed by a shaky performance against Oregon, and an absolute clobbering at the hands of Oregon State on Sunday. That’s going to be life in the Pac-12 for the rest of the season, where one week you might hand a top-5 team a loss, and another you lose by nearly 30 to No. 25.

6. USC

Last week: 5

What to know: The Trojans stabilized after getting swept by the mountain schools two weeks ago, defeating Washington State before falling to the Huskies on Sunday. After a consistent nonconference season, USC has been anything but through Pac-12 play.

7. Washington State

Last week: 7

What to know: Though the Cougars picked up perhaps their best win in program history over No. 2 UCLA Sunday on the road, a loss to USC on Friday keeps them near the top of the second tier of teams in the Pac-12 at No. 7.

8. Washington

Last week: 10

What to know: The Huskies were in a bit of a tailspin after losing to Arizona State two weeks ago but responded with a hard-fought loss to UCLA and an upset of USC on Sunday. Don’t count out UW late in the year: they’re one of the top defensive teams in the conference.

9. Arizona

Last week: 11

What to know: The Wildcats broke up their short losing skid with a big win over Cal. Though Arizona lost to Stanford in its next game, a win against the Golden Bears was exactly what they needed to move up the conference ladder.

10. Arizona State

Last week: 12

What to know: How about the Sun Devils? A week after upsetting Washington on the road, ASU repeated the feat and defeated Cal to shake up the lower half of the Pac-12 standings even more.

11. Cal

Last week: 8

What to know: The Golden Bears had a great weekend the week before, barely losing to Oregon State before defeating Oregon in a must-win but got swept by the Arizona schools last weekend. Against two teams either at or below the Bears’ level, Cal needed to at least split the weekend.

12. Oregon

Last week: 9

What to know: It feels like much longer than a few weeks since the Ducks' home sweep of the Arizona schools. Since those wins, Oregon has dropped its last four games, and have had the injury bug as well, with Sofia Bell out for potentially an extended period and Kennedi Williams still hobbled. The road doesn’t get much easier for the Ducks, either: Oregon plays five ranked foes in a row after getting swept at home at the hands of the mountain schools.

Alec Dietz covers University of Oregon football, volleyball, women’s basketball and baseball for The Register-Guard. You may reach him at adietz@registerguard.com and you can follow him on Twitter @AlecDietz.

This article originally appeared on Register-Guard: Pac-12 women’s basketball power rankings: Oregon State continues rise