ESPN analyst: Arizona, Pac-12 down but not out

California is currently on top of the conference with a 17-5 (7-2) record, and traditional powers Washington, UCLA and Arizona have all had their share of struggles.

ESPN NCAA Hoops analyst Jay Bilas, as a guest on Arizona Sports 620's Burns and Gambo, said the teams are not as bad as many think.

"They're not going to get just one team in," he said of the NCAA Tournament.

Bilas said both Cal and Washington should get in, and that Arizona and Stanford are also in the discussion.

Still, the Pac-12 has its work cut out for it, and the reason is simply because of a lack of talent throughout the 12 teams.

"I do think that losing so many players to the NBA has really hurt the league," Bilas said. "If you look just at the All-Conference team, everybody's gone from that, and all the underclassmen are gone. Just about every other conference, their underclassmen came back that were all conference players."

That issue can be seen in Tucson with the Arizona Wildcats, who are 14-8 (5-4) after losing two starters from last year's Elite 8 team when Derrick Williams declared for the NBA Draft and Momo Jones transferred to Iona. Their departures left Sean Miller with a good-but- not-great team that has struggled in close games.

Bilas got a close look at the Wildcats last Saturday when Arizona fell to Washington 69-67 in front of a soldout McKale Center crowd, since he was on-hand as part of ESPN's NCAA College Gameday programming.

"They looked good, they're just small," he said of the 'Cats. "They're good and they played well in the game."

Arizona, like many other teams in the Pac-12, has not been bad, but has not been good, either. There's still time left in the regular season, but the conference's struggles could be an issue on selection Sunday.