February 14, 2010 –
by Brendon
After two years in which the best Pac-10 players were also the best players in the nation, everyone knows the struggles the league has suffered this season. There’s no reason to post the litany of embarrassments the Pac-10 has suffered this season, as the conference has become a national punchline. Lost, though, in all of the giggles and putdowns are the California Bears.
Mike Montgomery’s team completed a home sweep of the Washington schools with a 16-point win over Washington State on Saturday. Two nights earlier, the Bears were even more impressive, never allowing UW in the game in a 12-point victory featured on ESPN’s “Duke plays UNC for the first time” Week. That win avenged a 15-point loss in Seattle, a Jan. 16 game that wasn’t even that close.
Now 9-4 in conference and 17-8 overall, the Bears are on their way to a Pac-10 regular-season title and a 20-win season despite playing one of the dozen toughest schedules in the nation. Cal’s problem in getting into the NCAA Tournament is partly its own fault. The Bears have yet to beat a likely NCAA Tournament team, going 0-4 against Syracuse, Ohio State, New Mexico and Kansas outside of conference. And, since the Pac-10 is down this season, Cal’s nine wins against eight different league members may fail to sway the Selection Committee. Read More »
Posted in Pac-10
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Tagged Arizona, Arizona State, California, Demetri McCamey, Duke, Evan Turner, Illinois, Jacob Pullen, Jamal Boykin, Jerome Randle, Kalin Lucas, Kansas, Kansas State, Lorenzo Romar, Markhuri Sanders-Frison, Max Zhang, Michigan State, Mike Montgomery, New Mexico, Ohio State, Omondi Amoke, Oregon State, Pac-10, Patrick Christopher, Scottie Reynolds, Syracuse, UCLA, UNC, USC, Villanova, Washington, Washington State
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January 18, 2010 –
by Brendon
The NFL sells parity to its fans to convince supporters of poor or mediocre teams that the gap between their team and the league’s best isn’t that large. With NFL teams now challenging for perfect records deep into November every year, the promise of parity isn’t really being kept, but it was always a hollow one. That’s something Pac-10 fans are learning this season.
Take a look at the Pac-10 standings and you’ll see a lot of the same numbers — twos and threes mainly. Despite every team having played either five or six games, only Arizona State has a zero, one, four, five or six next to either its wins or losses. Herb Sendek’s Sun Devils are 4-2 in conference after sweeping the Oregon schools this weekend, and they sit atop the Pac-10. A single game separates second and 10th. Read More »
Posted in Pac-10
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Tagged Arizona, Arizona State, Baylor, Ben Howland, BTI, California, Herb Sendek, Kevin O'Neill, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Oregon, Oregon State, Pac-10, Seattle, Southern Cal, Stanford, Tennessee, Texas Tech, UCLA, Washington, Washington State
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November 19, 2009 –
by Brendon
I spent some time in Monday’s Pac-10 Week in Review detailing Oregon State’s slow start last weekend in Lubbock, Texas, but the folks in Corvallis have some company in woe 600 miles to the south. With three starters gone and another injured from his first team in Palo Alto, Johnny Dawkins’ Cardinal has started 1-2 after a two-point loss to Oral Roberts on Wednesday night.
Stanford started the season with a difficult roadtrip to San Diego on Friday, where the Cardinal lost, 77-64. After returning home with a 70-53 win over Cal Poly, Dawkins’ men lost, 83-81, to perennial Summit League contender Oral Roberts. Considering what Stanford lost, this start was not unexpected, but Cardinal fans had hoped for better, even in a transitional season.
To understand the slow start, let’s gain some perspective. The Cardinal was built to win last season. Even after Robin and Brook Lopez went pro in the wake of Stanford’s Sweet 16 run and Trent Johnson’s departure to LSU, Stanford still returned three starters plus emerging Landry Fields. A 10-0 start against a mediocre non-conference disintegrated thanks to a 6-12 Pac-10 record. This was a team with fringe NCAA Tournament talent that wasn’t in the discussion in March.
From that team, guards Anthony Goods and Mitch Johnson graduated as did forward Lawrence Hill and reserve guard Kenny Brown. Big forward Josh Owens was supposed to return alongside Fields, but he remains out with an undisclosed medical condition. Owens hasn’t been cleared for practice, and it’s unclear whether he will play at all this season. Read More »
Posted in Pac-10
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Tagged Andrew Zimmermann, Anthony Brown, Anthony Goods, Brook Lopez, Cal Poly, Central Florida, Davidson, Drew Shiller, Dwight Powell, Foothill College, Jack Trotter, Jarrett Mann, Jeremy Green, Jermaine Taylor, Johnny Dawkins, Josh Owens, Kenny Brown, Landry Fields, Lester Hudson, LSU, Mitch Johnson, Oral Roberts, Oregon State, Pac-10, Robin Lopez, San Diego, Santa Clara, Sisyphus, Stanford, Stephen Curry, Tennessee-Martin, Trent Johnson
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November 17, 2009 –
by Brendon
UCLA tipped off ESPN’s now-annual college basketball marathon at midnight ET late Monday night, so very few people east of the Rockie Mountains were around for the conclusion, which came after two overtimes. The Bruins’ 68-65 loss to Cal State-Fullerton, a team picked seventh in the nine-team Big West, was a sobering reminder of how much UCLA has lost over the last two years.
Kevin Love, Luc Richard Mbah a Moute, Russell Westbrook, Lorenzo Mata-Real, Josh Shipp, Darren Collison, Jrue Holliday, Alfred Aboya. That is a lot of talent to replace — five first-round picks — and UCLA looks a bit short right now. Against the Titans on Monday night, only seven players played more than a single minute.
Three of those seven were from Ben Howland’s heralded 2009 recruiting class — Malcolm Lee, Drew Gordon and Jerime Anderson. This was the class that was supposed to limit the dropoff once the Collison-Shipp-Mbah a Moute-Aboya class had departed. The first problem was that the class’ best player, Holliday, went pro after a year. That wasn’t an unexpected development, but suddenly Collison didn’t have a fit heir apparent. Anderson saw limited action last year, and it was not always at the point. When he did play, he turned the ball over too much. Read More »
Posted in Game of the Night, Pac-10
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Tagged Alfred Aboya, Arizona, Arizona State, B.J. Mullens, Ben Howland, Big West, Cal State-Fullerton, Concordia, Darren Collison, Drew Gordon, Florida, Georgetown, Georgia State, Henry Sims, J'Mison Morgan, James Keefe, Jeff Withey, Jerime Anderson, Josh Shipp, Jrue Holliday, Kenny Kadji, Kevin Love, Lorenzo Mata-Real, Luc Richard Mbah a Moute, Malcolm Lee, Michael Dunigan, Michael Roll, Nicola Dragovic, Ohio State, Oregon, Pac-10, Rashanti Harris, Russell Westbrook, Southern Cal, Stanford, Ty Walker, Tyler Honeycutt, UCLA, Wake Forest, Washington State
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November 16, 2009 –
by Brendon
In sum: The other five major conferences combined for the number of losses the Pac-10 suffered alone last week — three. Oregon State’s offense looked terrible at the start of Craig Robinson’s second season, and Stanford was overmatched on the road at San Diego. On the positive side, Washington and Oregon were dominant in tournaments that they hosted, and Arizona State had the most dominant statistical performance of any team in its 87-35 win over Western Illinois.
Team of the week: Oregon. After a terrible season last year, Ernie Kent took the next step toward moving on with a 3-0 weekend to start 2009-10. The Ducks were dominant, especially on defense where they forced turnovers on 28 percent of opponents’ possession and dominated the defensive glass. Defense hasn’t been a strength for Oregon in the Kent Era, so we’ll see if this continues once the competition improves. Tajuan Porter hit 5-of-10 3-pointers in the last two wins. Read More »
Posted in Pac-10, Reviews/Previews
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Tagged Arizona State, California, Craig Robinson, Ernie Kent, Mike Montgomery, North Carolina, Ohio State, Oral Roberts, Oregon, Oregon State, Pac-10, Portland, Roeland Schaftenaar, San Diego, Seth Tarver, Southland, Stanford, Syracuse, Tajuan Porter, Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, Washington, Western Illinois
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March 19, 2009 –
by Lukas
In my East and South regional previews, I noted that I considered Wisconsin the bracket-buster in that section of the bracket. I did this a bit tongue-in-cheek as bracket-busters tend to be teams from small conferences and combine very low national exposure with double-digit seeds. I went back and researched all the non-power-conference teams seeded No. 12 or worse that won in the last five years to see if I could glean any insight into what characteristics, if any, these bracket-busters or the teams they defeeated had in common.
The nine major upsets were as follows:
2008 – No. 13 Siena over No. 4 Vanderbilt
2008 – No. 13 San Diego over No. 4 UConn
2006 – No. 14 Northwestern State over No. 3 Iowa (not the Northwestern Wildcats as was the call)
2006 – No. 13 Bradley over No. 4 Kansas
2005 – No. 14 Bucknell over No. 3 Kansas
2005 – No. 13 Vermont over No. 4 Syracuse
2005 – No. 12 UW Milwaukee over No. 5 Alabama
2004 – No. 12 Manhattan over No. 5 Florida
2004 – No. 12 Pacific over No. 5 Providence Read More »
Posted in Mid-Majors, Pac-10, Reviews/Previews, SEC
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Tagged Alabama, Bracket Buster, Bradley, Bucknell, Cleveland State, Connecticut, Florida, Iowa, Kansas, Manhattan, March, Michigan State, Morgan State, NCAA Tournament, North Dakota State, Northwestern State, Oklahoma, Pacific, Portland State, Providence, Robert Morris, San Diego, Siena, Stephen F. Austin, Syracuse, UW Milwaukee, Vanderbilt, Vermont, Wake Forest, Xavier
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March 11, 2009 –
by Brendon
The Pac-10 may be the most underrated conference in the NCAA this season. It’s a young league that went through typical struggles early in the season, but it has improved as the season has progressed, and that gave the fan compelling conference action. The RPI, however, lags far behind the actual quality of the competition, because all those non-conference games came early. Teams like Washington State, Oregon State and Arizona played by far their best ball in conference play after up-and-down — or in OSU’s case, mainly down — performances in pre-conference action.
Without a truly elite team and without any terrible teams — excepting Oregon, which is unlikely to make it to Thursday and which has actually won two straight — the Pac-10 should be among the most competitive conference tournaments this week. Read More »
Posted in Pac-10, Reviews/Previews
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Tagged Arizona, Arizona State, California, Oregon, Oregon State, Pac-10, Southern Cal, Stanford, UCLA, Washington, Washington State
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February 1, 2009 –
by Brendon
I’ve watched more Pac-10 basketball this season than in any other. The cynic would snark that I picked a poor year to get involved with this conference, that last season was the golden year of this decade for the conference. But I am thoroughly pleased with my decision to devote more time to following the Pac-10. I enjoy the league’s balance, its unlikely results, the way the schedule flows predictably and how everyone plays everyone else home-and-home. I love the travel partners and how all the games or on Thursday and the weekend. And with all I’ve been watching and loving, I have a lot to write about the league, which is now at exactly the halfway mark of the conference schedule.
Since everyone’s played everyone else once each, it’s fair to compare the teams’ efficiencies and draw sweeping conclusions based on them:
| Team |
W |
L |
Off Eff |
Def Eff |
Diff. |
| UCLA |
7 |
2 |
1.190 |
1.025 |
+.165 |
| Washington |
7 |
2 |
1.159 |
1.017 |
+.142 |
| Arizona State |
5 |
4 |
1.090 |
1.006 |
+.083 |
| Southern Cal |
6 |
3 |
1.052 |
0.992 |
+.060 |
| California |
5 |
4 |
1.054 |
1.040 |
+.014 |
| Arizona |
4 |
5 |
1.027 |
1.039 |
-.012 |
| Washington State |
4 |
5 |
0.990 |
1.020 |
-.029 |
| Stanford |
3 |
6 |
1.038 |
1.100 |
-.061 |
| Oregon State |
4 |
5 |
0.968 |
1.122 |
-.154 |
| Oregon |
0 |
9 |
0.939 |
1.146 |
-.207 |
Read More »
Posted in Pac-10
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Tagged Alfred Aboya, Arizona, Arizona State, Barack Obama, Ben Howland, California, Chase Budinger, Craig Robinson, Darren Collison, Demar DeRozan, Derek Glasser, Dick Bennett, Ernie Kent, Herb Sendek, Isaiah Thomas, James Harden, Jeff Pendergraph, Joevan Catron, Johnny Dawkins, Jon Brockman, Josh Shipp, Jrue Holliday, Klay Thompson, Lorenzo Romar, Malik Hairston, Marcus Johnson, Matthew Bryan-Amaning, Michael Dunigan, Mike Montgomery, Oregon, Oregon State, Quincy Pondexter, Rihards Kuksiks, Russ Pennell, Southern Cal, Stanford, Taj Gibson, Tajuan Porter, Tim Floyd, Tony Bennett, UCLA, Washington, Washington State
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