Pac-12 basketball: The Good, the bad & the unknown week two: Washington and Cal make major statements

The Good

Washington & C.J. Wilcox - The Huskies proved that their blow out of Arizona State and challenge of Arizona to start out Pac-12 play wasn't a fluke by grinding out a close one over Utah and running away from Colorado once Spencer Dinwiddie went down. The Huskies made a major statement about possibly being the best team in the conference after the Wildcats and showing that they have a shot at the NCAA Tournament. Wilcox had one of the best game a player has had in this young season thus far against Colorado, dropping 31 with seven threes.

Arizona - The Wildcats held onto their undefeated season and top spot in the national rankings by winning what might be their most challenging in-conference game, at UCLA. The Wildcats simply look like a well-oiled machine that has all of the pieces to compete for a national championship and be the best Pac-12 team in a long, long time.

Cal - There may be no bigger mystery in Pac-12 basketball than why Cal plays Oregon so unbelievably well, but they do and the Bears made a huge statement in the state of Oregon last week - taking down the Ducks and adding a win over the Beavers just for good measure. The Bears look like they could be the best team in the Pac-12 after Arizona and can solidify that by beating Washington in Berkeley Wednesday night.

The Bad

Oregon - Whoa. That was a bad week for the Ducks as they lost at home to both Bay Area schools and now could easily be 0-4 in conference play if they hadn't won a tight one at Utah. It is still very early in conference, play and it could actually be argued that the Ducks could be 3-1 in conference with a few bounces, but in the end, 1-3 is a very ugly start for such a talented team.

Spencer Dinwiddie's injury - Dinwiddie left Colorado's loss to Washington yesterday with a knee injury and it doesn't look good. There has been nothing official yet, but it sounds like Dinwiddie might be out for a long time and that's not only bad for Colorado, but fans of the conference who will miss out on getting to watch him play before he goes to the NBA.

USC - The Trojans have gotten off to the worst start of any Pac-12 team this season. Getting beaten by Arizona by 20 is one thing, but the Trojans weren't nearly as competitive against Arizona State as they should have been.

The Unknown

How good are Cal and Washington? As mentioned earlier, it was a big, big week for the Bears and Huskies, but we have seen starts like theirs from similar teams in the Pac-12 that have ended up being fool's gold. It will probably take a few more impressive and consistent performances from each before I fully trust either of them, but they will get the chance to prove that they are at least better than the other when they play Wednesday in Berkeley.

Can anyone beat Arizona? It is very, very early, but the Wildcats may have already won the toughest game on the Pac-12 schedule, handling UCLA in Westwood and with Colorado and Oregon sliding back, there just might not be many teams tough enough to challenge them this season. It seems implausible, but could the Wildcats possibly run the table this year?

Who is the second-best team in the Pac-12? Just when Oregon and Colorado looked to be the two teams that would fight it out for the designation - UCLA, Washington and Cal look like they will be in the hunt.