Pac-12 basketball a disastrous 2-5 in NCAA Tournament Round 1: Only Oregon & Utah win

The conference of champions had one of their worst showings in a long time. Let's get to the good.

The Oregon Ducks got a pretty easy 91-52 win over Holy Cross, rolling to victory from the start. It was your usual 1 seed over 16 seed victory: Oregon's offense was in high octane mode and didn't stop going for most of the first half. Oregon moves onto face St. Joseph's in the second round, who are coming off an intense

But for everyone else, Pac-12 suffering remained eternal.

Oregon State lost Tres Tinkle a few weeks ago, and they never really recovered from his absence. The Beavers had amazing moments from Gary Payton II and Derrick Bruce came on late, but Oregon State struggled after that and VCU was quick to punch back and get the win.

Cal lost Tyrone Wallace and Jabari Bird in a 48 hour span, and with Jaylen Brown stuck in an eternal funk, the Bears could never recover. Hawaii pounced on them early, led for most of the game, widened it in the second half, and Cal got nothing from their replacements.

Oregon State and Cal join an ingominous group in Arizona, Colorado and USC as Pac-12 teams that exit this tournament early. A few of them suffered bad luck. Arizona got a rough draw in facing Wichita, Cal and Oregon State struggled to cope with injuries, Colorado and USC were in perilous 8/9 matchups, and USC lost at the buzzer.

That leaves Oregon and Utah to salvage Pac-12 pride. Thankfully it's the two strongest teams left from the conference and they have very favorable roads to get to the Elite 8, particularly with potential contenders like Michigan State and Baylor falling to the wayside. But it's pretty much all or nothing for the conference to salvage what has been a very forgettable tournament insofar.