History at Hec Ed for Washington? And what about those Beavers? A look at the Pac-12 basketball schedule

If Washington can pull off a weekend sweep of the Bay Area schools — Stanford on Thursday (6 p.m.) and Cal on Saturday (2 p.m.) — history will be made.

Hec Edmundson Pavilion will become the first collegiate arena in NCAA Division I history to reach 1,000 wins for the home. UW has won 998 games there, making it the winningest active facility.

The 10,000-seat arena has been home to two Final Fours and various concerts and speeches, highlighted by President John F. Kennedy’s 1961 commencement address.

The UW men’s basketball website has a link to a fantastic timeline of the arena:

All time, the Huskies are 49-21 vs. Stanford and 51-30 vs. California.

Something’s cooking in Corvallis

The Beavers are back.

After opening conference play with a win at Oregon, Oregon State swept UCLA and USC last weekend. At 3-0 and 11-4 overall, the Beavers are tied for second in the conference with UW and just a half a game behind Arizona (4-0).

I’m not saying they’ll win the Pac-12; that is a mess that will take a month to be sorted out. I’m saying you can’t count out the Beavers as being in the mix.

They have defense that travels and that gives them a chance to win every single night. Oregon State leads the conference in defense, allowing opponents to shoot just 39 percent from the field.

And they can shoot it, too. The Beavers’ offense is the Pac-12’s best in field-goal percentage at 49 percent.

The Beavers head south to Arizona for two games vs. Arizona and Arizona State this week, which will test them. Oregon State hasn’t won at ASU since 2007 and they haven’t beaten Arizona in Tucson since 2010.

Pac-12 Games to watch this week

Thursday

Oregon State at Arizona State (7 p.m. on FS1)

The Beavers played their first three conference games in their home state but hit the road to face a Sun Devils team that is coming off a loss to Stanford.

Arizona State, at 2-2 in Pac-12, has beaten Cal and Colorado, two of the conference’s weaker teams, while also losing to Utah. A win over Oregon State would be a good win for them. A loss probably means they’re closer to the NIT than the NCAAs.

Oregon at Arizona (6 p.m. on ESPN)

Before conference play, this looked like a matchup of two heavyweights. Arizona has held up its end of the deal as they’re atop the standings with a 4-0 start.

For the Ducks, the start to Pac-12 play has seen the carryover from a rough non-conference. Injuries to key players compounded by bad losses and a 1-3 record in Pac-12 play makes this weekend an early make or break game.

Beating Arizona, and following that up with a win over ASU, would allow the Ducks to get back into the thick of things. A split, or two losses, might be a hole to big to climb out of.

Saturday

UCLA at USC (1 p.m. on CBS)

Rivarly games are always fun ... especially when they actually mean something in the standings.

The Bruins are 3-1 under interim coach Murray Bartow and could be threat in the conference. The Trojans have been bitten hard by the injury bug and at 2-2, they need a win over their LA rivals.

The Trojans chances aren’t helped by the indefinite suspension of standout guard Kevin Porter Jr., who was suspended just before the Oregon game last Sunday.

Porter took to social media to reaffirm his commitment to the team and hopes to finish out the season with his teammates.