by Matt Harrington

Saturday the Stanford Cardinal have a big test on their hands in their last game of the season in Arizona and the Pac 12 Championship confirms at this point that the Wildcats are the number one seed coming out of the Pac 12. Their going to be rolling onto the big tournament this month. They have a chance to take on the hardware in Las Vegas in the Pac 12.

It’s going to be a big test for Stanford and it comes at a very unfortunate time for the Cardinal, they’ve struggled in their last two games. Two games that were must wins in order to really have a chance in the NCAA Tournament and unfortunately they didn’t deliver on that. When you look at it how they did against Oregon falling short 73-70.

It was a little bit of an upset due to losing to Arizona State 67-62 on Thursday night that shot their chances of getting a bye in the Pac 12 Tournament and that definitely hurt there resume for the March Madness tournament it looks a little bit glum going into that game. One thing Stanford knows what their fate is going into the Pac 12 Tournament.

The Cardinal are looking at a silver lining here in this game against Arizona which for Stanford is really just a play game to go out and play your best game, doesn’t matter what the results are. Don’t feel the pressure that you have to win, Stanford already knows they fit in the Pac 12, they already know their going to be out of that first round bye for the tournament.

The Cardinal don’t have a lot of confidence for that the biggest consequences is just turning heads and pulling out an upset having the a victory over the number five team in the country would certainly help your chances. Stanford is very much on the wrong side of the bubble right now. It would take a win against Arizona and a pretty miraculous run through the Pac 12 Tournament especially if your looking ahead of what’s in store for Stanford in that first round.

After all that the Cardinal would match up against UCLA a team that really has had Stanford’s number, so tonight against Arizona is going to be a kind of a show me game, a players game, go out and do your game. See what happens and turn some heads but their isn’t a much of a consequence as there was for the last three or four games that Stanford was playing down the stretch.

Matt Harrington is a beat reporter covering Stanford basketball for http://www.sportsradioservice.com listen to Matt’s podcast below