As the losses mount, the outlook darkens and the urge to assign blame soars, it’s easy … so, so easy … to point all fingers and toes at the commissioner.

Larry Scott is to blame for the dumpster fire that is Pac-12 basketball, right?

Actually, wrong.

Wrong, wrong, wrong.

Responsibility for the current mess lies, almost entirely, with the head coaches.

They aren’t getting it done, folks.

Some are performing better than others. But collectively, the coaches have failed to maximize what each particular program has to offer.

We’re not suggesting, for example, that Oregon State be judged by UCLA’s standards.

Each program has a ceiling set by its own tradition, resources and recruiting base. Not one is close to its ceiling, and that’s on the coaches.

They aren’t getting it done with non-conference schedules and recruiting evaluations (Chandler Hutchison, d’oh!).

They aren’t getting it done with the skill development and teaching.

They aren’t getting it done with scheme and execution.

They don’t have the wins, they don’t have the moral high ground (FBI, d’oh!), and they look very, very bad when compared to Nevada’s Eric Musselman, who has turned the Wolf Pack into a top-10 team in four years.

Gonzaga and Nevada aren’t merely the best teams in the west. They’re the best teams in the west by six or eight seed lines.

UCLA is grossly underperforming its potential under Steve Alford; compare the Bruins to programs with similar tradition and recruiting prowess, and UCLA might as well be UCSB.

(Since the Bruins’ last appearance in the Final Four, in 2008, Kansas, Duke, North Carolina and Kentucky have all made multiple trips … as have Wisconsin, Michigan and Butler.)

Arizona has significant problems on the court and potentially far worse problems off it. That the Wildcats and Bruins are outside the top 25, much less the top 10, causes untold damage nationally to the Pac-12 brand.

(Imagine what the Pac-12’s football image would be like if its marquee program, USC, ever went 5-7. Err ….)

Washington returned 95 percent of its scoring, yet the Huskies’ best result is a loss.

Cal is dreadful; second-year coach Wyking Jones has given no indication that he’s up to the task.

Washington State is dreadful; coach Ernie Kent has given no indication he can lead the Cougars out of their morass.

USC is underachieving on the court and in trouble off it. Andy Enfield, who won two NCAA Tournament games in 2013 with Florida Gulf Coast, has won two in five years with USC.

Stanford is 38-37 under Jerod Haase after wallowing under Johnny Dawkins … after being one of the top programs in the west in the 15 years prior to their arrivals.

Oregon State has regressed under Wayne Tinkle.

Utah and Colorado don’t have the players.

Oregon has the players but not the cohesion.

Arizona State has some of everything but not enough of anything.

So we stand here, two weeks from the start of conference play, knowing that the best team, ASU, is merely mediocre …

That the teams with the greatest potential, Oregon and UCLA, are playing their way out of the NCAAs …

That everybody else is essentially a nobody when it comes to the Selection Sunday discussion …

And that the primary fault for this mess lies not with the commissioner but with the head coaches.

The conference stinks, and it’s on them.

1. Arizona State (8-2)

Last week: 1

Results: Won at Georgia 76-74, lost at Vanderbilt 81-65

Next up: vs. Kansas (Saturday)

Comment: To put ASU’s at-large prospects in medical terms: The Sun Devils must remain healthy for two months while locked in a room with 11 carriers of Bubonic plague.

2. Vacant

Comment: Nobody worthy.

3. Vacant

Comment: Nobody even close to worthy.

4. Vacant

Comment: You try finding somebody.

5. Oregon (7-3)

Last week: 5

Results: Beat San Diego 65-55 and Boise State 66-54

Next up: vs. Florida A&M (Tuesday)

Comment: Best of bad options.

6. Washington (7-4)

Last week: 4

Results: Lost to Virginia Tech 73-61

Next up: vs. Sacramento State (Friday)

Comment: Problem with the VaTech showing wasn’t the final score but the late-first half score: UW trailed by 21 and simply wasn’t competitive.

7. UCLA (7-3)

Last week: 2

Results: Lost to Belmont 74-72

Next up: at Cincinnati (Wednesday)

Comment: Breakdowns late in the Belmont loss are perhaps the most incriminating evidence yet in the case against Alford sticking beyond this season.

8. Arizona (7-4)

Last week: 4

Results: Lost to Baylor 58-49

Next up: vs. Montana (Wednesday)

Comment: What do Arizona, Southern, Prairie View, Nicholls State, George Mason and South Dakota have in common? They are Baylor’s only conquests thus far.

9. Colorado (8-1)

Last week: 6

Results: None

Next up: vs. Indiana State (Saturday)

Comment: Buffaloes looking better and better relative to Pac-12 competition simply by not taking the floor.

10. Stanford

Last week: 7

Results: Beat Eastern Washington 78-62

Next up: vs. San Jose State (Tuesday)

Comment: Cardinal looking better and better relative to Pac-12 competition simply by playing a cellar-dwelling Big Sky opponent.

11. Oregon State (7-3)

Last week: 8

Results: Lost to Texas A&M 67-64, beat Pepperdine 82-67

Next up: vs. Kent State (Friday)

Comment: Problem with being a three-man team is that when one of them goes 2-for-11 from the field, you’re more likely to lose to a sub-.500 team like, oh, Texas A&M.

12. Utah (5-5)

Last week: 9

Results: Lost at Kentucky 88-61, beat Florida A&M 93-64

Next up: vs. Northern Arizona (Friday)

Comment: Kentucky had more trouble with VMI than it did with Utah. Also had more trouble with Tennessee State, Winthrop and UNC Greensboro than it had with Utah.

13. USC (5-5)

Last week: 12 (tie)

Results: Lost at Oklahoma 81-70

Next up: at Santa Clara (Tuesday)

Comment: Trojans are winless against the opponents that matter (power conferences, at-large candidates, etc.) and have no games of consequence left on the non-conference schedule.

14. Washington State (6-3)

Last week: 12 (tie)

Results: Beat Rider 94-80

Next up: vs. Southern Illinois-Edwardsville

Comment: Bad as they are, Cougars will have plenty of opportunities for victory once conference play begins.

15. Cal (4-5)

Last week: 12 (tie)

Results: Beat Cal Poly 67-66

Next up: at Fresno State (Wednesday)

Comment: Needed a last-second shot to survive at home against a 2-6 team from the Big West. Sounds about right.

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