Pac-12 is the best month of December with a major conference in 20 years, while five teams lose

With five defeats on Saturday's schedule, the university basketball season has gone downhill for the Pac-12, which is assured of the worst December ever by a major conference over the past 20 years.

After a winless tournament in the NCAA last March, the Pac-12 will be the first of the Power 5 conferences, as well as the Big East, to end in December with a win percentage below 0.60 over the past two decades.

Just after beating Kansas No. 1 last week, Arizona State – the only ranked team at the 17th ranked conference – fell at home against Princeton 67-66. Meanwhile, Utah was beaten at home by Nevada No. 6, the UCLA skid continued with a home defeat against Liberty, Santa Clara defeated Washington State at Pullman and Cal fell to Seattle.

Oregon was allied to win at Boise State, and the Oregon State pushed the Central Connecticut State to set the Pac-12 record above .500 vs. 37-36 for the month, Stanford still staying at Long Beach State Saturday and the USC in front of UC Davis Sunday.

Saturday was the third time this season that the Pac-12 had two days when his teams lost at least five games without a conference. In the previous 20 seasons, this has only happened twice.

The worst performance of a major conference over the last 20 years occurred in 2003, while the Big Ten was 46-30 (0.605). The Pac-12's previous record was 38-24 (0.613) in 2009, when it was still known as the Pac-10.

The Princeton win was the Ivy League's second win on a ranked team this month. Penn defeated defending NCAA champion Villanova on Dec. 11, and Arizona State coach Bobby Hurley said the playing field was becoming more equitable.

"There is nothing good about it," Hurley said after his team dropped to 9-3. "We've taken a step back, there's a lot of parity in college basketball, and if you're not ready to play, you're going to be beaten."

UCLA (7-6) lost four straight games against Belmont, Cincinnati, Ohio State and Liberty, with an average margin of 15 points. The Bruins have not dropped four straight games without a conference since the 2010-11 season.

"It could be one of the most disappointing games of my life," coach Steve Alford said after Liberty's defeat. "Trying to think in 28 years [as a coach], the word "disappointment" of our team and our performance – I do not know the last time I was disappointed by a team. It did not resemble us at any level. "