[LuckE2Bhere]

Clearly this is not the Pac-12's most impressive men's hoops offering, and you may be right in your use of the term "deserves", burger, but by that standard, the NCAA tournament would never have 64 (or is it now 66?) teams!  The Pac-12 will obviously get a slot for this conference tournament winner (which could certainly be Stanford).  The question is, will it get 1, 2, or maybe 3 others? 

The other factor that seems to be missing from your "last night's winners will determine how the rest of the season goes"-type analysis is the fact that 5 of the 6 teams who won were  playing at HOME (including Oregon, Oregon St. and UCLA).  That's clearly a big factor in Pac-12 men's basketball. 

If Stanford can come close to "holding court" at Maples, and will a few (probably not even half) of it's remaining road games, I'm confident that they'll make the NCAA tournament, even if they don't win the conference tournament (though a first-round exit there could raise that bar a bit).

[LuckE2Bhere]

Clearly this is not the Pac-12's most impressive men's hoops offering, and you may be right in your use of the term "deserves", burger, but by that standard, the NCAA tournament would never have 64 (or is it now 66?) teams!  The Pac-12 will obviously get a slot for this conference tournament winner (which could certainly be Stanford).  The question is, will it get 1, 2, or maybe 3 others? 

The other factor that seems to be missing from your "last night's winners will determine how the rest of the season goes"-type analysis is the fact that 5 of the 6 teams who won were  playing at HOME (including Oregon, Oregon St. and UCLA).  That's clearly a big factor in Pac-12 men's basketball. 

If Stanford can come close to "holding court" at Maples, and will a few (probably not even half) of it's remaining road games, I'm confident that they'll make the NCAA tournament, even if they don't win the conference tournament (though a first-round exit there could raise that bar a bit).