Pac-12 women's basketball features rivalry matchups this week
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• In what has become one of the biggest rivalries in women’s basketball, No. 4/4 OREGON and No. 7/7 OREGON STATE go head-to-head on each other’s court in front of sold-out arenas this weekend. The home-and-home series opens on Friday, Jan. 24 in Eugene and on Pac-12 Network, then wraps up in Corvallis on Sunday, Jan. 26 on ESPN2. It will be just the second and third times both teams are ranked in the top 10 of the Associated Press poll at the time of the meeting.
• Also highly anticipated is the second installment of this season’s No. 18/19 ARIZONA-No. 16/16 ARIZONA STATE rivalry. This week’s meeting in Tucson marks the first time in the history of the rivalry both teams are ranked in the AP poll at the time of the meeting. The game will be televised on Pac-12 Network.
• For the second-straight week, the Pac-12 has six teams ranked in the polls, all of them appearing in the top 20 of the AP and USA Today/WBCA Coaches polls. It also marks the seventh-straight week four teams have been in the top 10. No. 6/6 STANFORD and No. 10/10 UCLA join the Ducks and Beavers in the top 10, and the Arizona schools rounding out the Conference’s ranked teams.
• ASU’s longtime head coach Charli Turner Thorne is also going for her 500th-career victory. She has been in Tempe for 23 years but career spans 26 years, spending three season at Northern Arizona from 1994-1996. She looks to join Stanford’s Tara VanDerveer, Oregon’s Kelly Graves and Oregon State’s Scott Rueck in the 500 club (wins spanning all divisions).
• Oregon’s Sabrina Ionescu was selected ESPNW’s National Player of the Week for the second time this season. It is the second-straight week a Pac-12 student-athlete has earned the honor and the fifth time this season. Ionescu was also named USBWA National Player of the Week and voted Pac-12 Player of the Week with USC’s Alissa Pili earning Pac-12 Freshman of the Week honors after leading the Trojans to an upset of UCLA in the first-ever overtime game between the rivals.
• Ionescu looks to make more history this week. At 938 career assists, she is tied with former OSU Beaver and NBA great Gary Payton for the Pac-12’s all-time record for both men’s and women’s. She is also one assist away from moving up to No. 8 on the NCAA all-time women’s list. She is looking to become the first player in NCAA history with 2,000 points, 1,000 rebounds and 1,000 assists.
UPCOMING SCHEDULE
| Friday, January 24 | Watch | Time |
| Utah at California* | P12N | 12 p.m. PT |
| #16/16 Arizona State at #18/19 Arizona* | P1N | 5 p.m. PT |
| Colorado at #6/6 Stanford* | P12N | 7 p.m. PT |
| #7/7 Oregon State at #4/4 Oregon* | P12N | 7 p.m. PT |
| Washington State at USC* | P12WA | 7 p.m. PT |
| Washington at #10/10 UCLA* | P12LA | 7 p.m. PT |
| Sunday, January 26 | Watch | Time |
| Colorado at California* | P12MT | 12 p.m. PT |
| Utah at #6/6 Stanford* | P12BAY | 12 p.m. PT |
| Washington State at #10/10 UCLA* | P12LA | 12 p.m. PT |
| Washington at USC* | P12WA | 12 p.m. PT |
| #4/4 Oregon at #7/7 Oregon State* | ESPN2 | 1 p.m. PT |
* game times local to site; P12N indicates Pac-12 Networks; Live stream of games is available at pac-12.com.
ROAD TO NEW ORLEANS
Teams across the country will be focused on getting to New Orleans this season, the site of the 2020 NCAA Women’s Final Four on April 3 and 5. To get to New Orleans, teams will have to go through regional sites in Greenville, S.C., Fort Wayne, Ind., Portland, Ore., and Dallas, Texas. Oregon State hosts the Portland Regional for the second year in a row from March 27-March 30, 2020, with specific dates to be announced. The first and second round of the tournament will take place on 16 campus sites with the top-16 seeds hosting, March 19-22, 2020. The top 64 teams will learn their fates in the broadcast of the annual selection show on Monday, March 16, 2020.