This might be the most meaningful tournament amongst the Tier 1 conferences from the standpoint that if the NCAA Tournament started today California might be the only team invited from the Pac 10. This tournament should give them an excellent shot at adding a second team to the Big Dance and maybe even a third. How can the league go from one invite to three you ask? Cal should be in on the basis of winning the regular season title. If Arizona State and Washington meet in the semifinals, the winner of that game would have a legit shot of being team number two. If the Arizona/UCLA winner beats Cal and goes on to win the automatic bid that would be team three. It is interesting to note that the higher seeded teams are 12-0 vs. the lower seeded teams in the opening round matchups (Cal swept both Oregon and Washington State).
With USC imposing a postseason ban due to NCAA rules violations, the conference had to change its bracket formatting. Only nine teams will compete in the tournament with bottom two seeds playing for the right to advance to take on the Cal, the number one seed.
Schedule (All times EST)
Wednesday, March 10
Game 1: #8 Oregon (15-15, 7-11) vs. #9 Washington State (16-14, 6-12) at 11:00 PM
Thursday, March 11
Game 2: #4 Arizona (16-14, 10-8) vs. #5 UCLA (13-17, 8-10) at 3:00 PM
Game 3: #1 Cal (21-9, 13-5) vs. Game 1 Winner at 5:30 PM
Game 4: #3 Washington (21-9, 11-7) vs. #6 Oregon State (14-16, 8-10) at 9:00 PM
Game 5: #2 Arizona State (22-9, 12-6) vs. #7 Stanford (13-17, 7-11) at 11:30 PM
Friday, March 12
Game 6: Game 2 Winner vs. Game 3 Winner 9:00 PM
Game 7: Game 4 Winner vs. Game 5 Winner 11:30 PM
Saturday, March 13
Championship: Game 6 Winner vs. Game 7 Winner 6:00 PM, CBS
Sleeper Team - Washington Huskies
Picking a three seed might be cheating but there are only nine teams in the tournament. The Huskies are 21-9 and their resume is probably a little short of being in the field of 65 for the NCAA Tournament so they qualify as a sleeper in my book. If you can remember way back to November the Huskies were ranked as high as tenth in the polls. This team has talent led by Quincy Pondexter (20.2 points), Isaiah Thomas (17.2 points) and the emerging Matthew Bryan-Amaning. In fact, The Huskies lead the Pac 10 in scoring (80.5), point differential (10.0) and rebounding (38.8). They have won 9 of their last 11 games and conquered their road woes by closing the season with 4 straight wins away from Seattle. They won't be intimidated by any of their possible opponents because they have beaten everyone in the tournament already (they went 0-2 against USC).
Potential Bust - UCLA Bruins
The Bruins enter the tournament on a three-game slide and losers of six of their last 8 games overall. They may be without freshman forward Reeves Nelson who has missed the last four games after having eye surgery to repair a torn retina. They weren't a deep team to begin (three starters averaging over 32 mpg) and depth is always an issue in tournaments. They have struggled to score all year finishing eighth in the conference in scoring (66.4), last in free throw percentage (62%) and last in point differential (-1.6). The defense hasn't been much better and they even had to abandon Coach Ben Howland's physical man-to-man style because their players weren't good at it. To make matters worse, they got swept by first round opponent Arizona in the regular season. Opponents better relish beating the Bruins while they are down because it doesn't happen too often.
Players to Watch:
Matthew Bryan-Amaning, F, Washington Huskies
The Huskies are sizzling right now and a lot of that has to do with the play of Bryan-Amaning. The 6-foot-9 junior from London was benched earlier this season because he wasn't providing the team with a presence in the paint. He responded and over his last eight games he is averaging 13.4 points and 8.1 rebounds while shooting 62% from the floor. He enters the Pac 10 tournament with three straight games of 10 or more rebounds. If he keeps playing this well, the Huskies should find themselves dancing on Selection Sunday.
Jerome Randle, G, California Bears
Randle finished fourth in the Pac 10 in scoring (18.7) and second in assists (4.5). He is the best player on the best team in conference. Cal is deep offensively as Patrick Christopher, Theo Robertson, and Jamal Boykin can get 20 points on any given night as well. Randle is 33 points away from becoming the all-time leading scorer in school history. Will he continue to set up his teammates and keep Cal in an offensive rhythm or will he be looking for his own shot too much? Only time will tell.
Nic Wise, G, Arizona Wildcats
He hit a game-winning layup with 0.2 seconds on Senior Day last Saturday to beat USC and hopefully that has awoken the player that many expected him to be this year. He has had a disappointing season, especially with shooting, but he can make all that go away by securing the Pac 10's automatic bid. As the only senior on the team, a lot will be riding on his shoulders this week. The Wildcats have played in 25 straight NCAA Tournaments and he doesn't want that streak to end on his watch. At some point the Wildcats will need him to score 25-30 points to find themselves as the last team standing in the Staples Center. We shall see if he is up to the task.
Ty Abbott, G, Arizona State Sun Devils
The Sun Devils are a very balanced team as evidenced by Abbott's team leading 12.0 points per game. This balance has helped them win six of their last seven games despite his recent struggles (8.8 points, 3.8 rebounds and shooting 31.6% from the floor in the last four games). As they get deeper into the tournament they will need him to return to his January form (18.6 points, 7.0 rebounds, 3.5 threes, 51% shooting) to keep up offensively with Washington and Cal.
Landry Fields, F, Stanford Cardinal
It is going to be a sad day in fantasyland when Stanford loses their next game. That game will be the last time Fields put on a Cardinal uniform unless Stanford wins the conference tournament (at 13-17 they don't project to the N.I.T.). He blossomed as a senior into the best all-around player in the conference averaging 22.2 points, 8.7 rebounds, 2.8 assists, and 1.6 steals. He will be missed by numerous fantasy players next year and proves that adage that great fantasy players can be found on bad teams.