We seem to have a similar problem in football. Because there is not one dominant team, and seemingly some balance, the conference gets the not good label. Not sure that's what it is, but you're right, we'll see some separation over the second half of the conference season. I tend to think that Stanford comes back to earth a little, and ASU will probably end up in the top four, but Stanford seems like a team built to make a run in the conference tourney.
Games this week:
Utah/Colorado @ Arizona/ASU
Cal/Stanford @ USC/UCLA
Wazzu @ Washington
OSU @ Oregon