The HoyoScale Pac-12 Basketball Rankings

January 29, 2014; Stanford, CA, USA; Golden State Warriors guard Andre Iguodala (left) celebrates with Arizona Wildcats guard Nick Johnson (13) after the game against the Stanford Cardinal at Maples Pavilion. The Wildcats defeated the Cardinal 60-57. Mandatory Credit: Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports

First let me start with a quick note about the story from yesterday about the Red Zone Stores closing.  The Larry H. Miller Group Social Media people were out in force denying they had anything to do with it.  I’ll say for the record I do not believe that but I thought it was important to point out their denial.  A smart friend on twitter pointed out, the audit was too specific, it had to be triggered by something more than a BYU loving legislator.  But that’s where we are.

So let’s get to the task at hand.

It seems all the rage these days to make up your own statistic about sports to prove you know something.  If you follow the twitter account of the voice of the Utah Jazz, David Locke, 80% of his life must be devoted to making up new statistics.  Quite frankly, I felt left out.  And since I haven’t done an ounce of math since getting that 5 on the AP Calculus test in high school, I didn’t know where to begin.

So I thought I’d steal something and call it my own.

Essentially I’m going to rank the Pac-12 Basketball teams based on road wins and home losses.  You get +1 for a road win and a -1 for a home loss.  Then each Friday and Monday for the rest of the season, I’ll bring you the standings.  And I’m calling them the HoyoScale.

Now to be clear.  I know I didn’t invent this.  The first person I knew who talked about this was former Wyoming basketball coach Jim Brandenburg.  In fact, Wyoming bloggers will call this the Brandy Scale, but screw them, they should have patented it.  In fact, I’m quite sure it came long before him.  But screw it, it’s mine now.  Brandenburg felt this was an important measure because basketball road trips were so long in the old WAC, it made them extra valuable and along with that, protecting your home court.

Seems fitting for the Pac-12.

And I present the current HoyoScale Pac-12 Standings…

1. Arizona             +4
2. Arizona St.       +2
3. Cal                    +2
4. Washington     +1
5. Oregon St.        +1
6. UCLA                +1
7. Colorado             0
8. Stanford              0
9. Utah                    -1
10. Oregon               -2
11. USC                    -2
12. Washington St. -3

First, sorry for the number alignment, the blogging software doesn’t allow for columns

But what does it mean.  If Arizona wins on Saturday, I’d think it would be nearly impossible for them to lose the regular season title.  Also it looks like ASU and Cal are in good positions.  And who would have thought that Oregon St. would be where they are nearing the half way point.

And what does it mean for Utah.  I think it shows how unpredictable this team is.  Utah has wins over teams tied for fourth, Oregon St. and UCLA.  But it also has losses against two of the three worst teams.  The Oregon loss is looking worse by the day and the Wazzu loss is extra concerning because it seems everyone is getting a road breakthrough in Pullman.

The conclusion almost has to be this.  For Utah to continue to think NIT, a win at Colorado is a near must now.  It looks like USC will be the only other realistic opportunity to get one.  On the other side, the Utes also MUST protect home court against Arizona St. and Washington since another home loss to Arizona is likely. Utah will probably need 18-19 D-1 wins for the NIT and we have 12 right now.

So buckle in Ute fans.  We’ve got work to do and it starts Saturday in Boulder.

The HoyoScale says so.  And it’s never wrong.