Late night magic

Leave it to the Pac-12 to have a final season with what would be an historic champion.

Let's get to it.

1. Washington State is all alone atop the Pac-12

Washington State entered the AP poll this week for the first time since 2008. The Cougars hadn’t lost since Jan. 20, and were right on Arizona’s heels in the Pac-12 race.

That changed on Thursday night.

No. 21 Wazzu earned an incredible 77-74 win over No. 4 Arizona, in a game where neither team had more than a six-point lead. The final minute featured clutch shot-making on both sides, but Jaylen Wells’ 4-point play topped them all.

“Honestly, I caught the ball, I shot it, I didn't see the rim,” Wells said. “Then I was laying on the ground, a dude was sitting on me, I look up and hear someone in the crowd say, ‘Yeah, dog!’”

Caleb Love, who led Zona with a team-high 27 points, wasn’t able to respond on the other end.

Wells was huge all night, finishing with a career-high 27 points, including the final eight for Wazzu (21-6, 12-4 Pac-12), which now leads the Pac-12.

"This is big," Wells said. "There's a lot of moments we could have folded. But we stayed poised, kept fighting back. I think it's a big win for us, just because people thought we were the underdogs. People saying 'Oh, you've got to play Arizona.'

'No, they've got to play us.'"

A road win in Tucson is as good of a Quad 1 win as you can get, which means the Cougars should be a lock for their first NCAA Tournament appearance since 2008.

With the newfound respect that Wazzu now has, it’s hard to ding Tommy Lloyd and Arizona (20-6, 11-4). They’re still in the mix for a No. 1 seed, though questions about their ultimate upside — are they truly much better than the past two Zona teams who lost early in the Big Dance? — remain.

That’s for another day. Washington State deserves the spotlight. It’s the last season of the Pac-12 before the Cougars have to go to the WCC. Wouldn’t it be something for the final season of Pac-12 Basketball to end with Wazzu doing something it never was able to do before… win a regular-season title.

2. Grand Canyon’s bubble may have popped

Grand Canyon entered Thursday with a sparkling 24-2 record a top-50 NET ranking and zero bad losses.

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