The Pac 10 season showed that there is more talent in this conference than last year. It is nice that the two blueblood teams (Arizona and UCLA) in the conference are going be in the NCAA field. Four others (Washington, USC, Cal, and Washington State) need a strong showing in the Pac 10 Tournament to be considered as one of the last teams to get an invitation to the Big Dance. None of the bottom four teams have enough talent or depth to win four games in four days against the top six.
Schedule (All times EST)
Wednesday, March 9
Game 1: #8 Stanford (15-15, 7-11) vs #9 Oregon State (10-19, 5-13) at 9:00 pm
Game 2: #7 Oregon (14-16, 7-11) vs #10 Arizona State (12-18, 4-14) at 11:30 pm
Thursday, March 10
Game 3: #4 USC (18-13, 10-8) vs #5 Cal (17-13, 10-8) at 3:00 pm
Game 4: #1 Arizona (25-6, 14-4) vs Game 1 winner at 5:30 pm
Game 5: #2 UCLA (22-9, 13-5) vs Game 2 winner at 9:00 pm
Game 6: #3 Washington (20-10, 11-7) vs #6 Washington State (19-11, 9-9) at 11:30 pm
Friday, March 11
Game 7: Game 3 winner vs Game 4 winner at 9:00 pm
Game 8: Game 5 winner vs Game 6 winner at 11:30 pm
Saturday, March 12
Championship: Game 7 winner vs Game 8 winner at 6:00 pm
Sleeper Team – USC Trojans
The Trojans enter the Pac 10 Tournament winners of five of their last six and could make some serious noise next week. They currently sit at 18-13 with some nice wins over Arizona, UCLA, Washington, Texas, and Tennessee but they probably still need to win at least two games to be considered for March Madness. The positives for the Trojans are that they are the best defensive team in the conference allowing only 62.9 points, Nikola Vucevic is playing the best basketball in the conference right now, and they are playing in their backyard this week. The negatives are that they aren’t a high scoring team (66.9 points) and they lack depth. It will be hard for them to reel off three wins in three days with the limited roster but they will be motivated to make a deep run as they were unable to participate in last year’s Pac 10 Tournament due to NCAA sanctions.
Potential Bust – Washington Huskies
The Huskies are talented enough to rip off three straight wins and capture the Pac 10 Tournament championship like they did last year but it will be much tougher this year. They aren’t playing great basketball lately having lost six of their last 11 games to put them squarely on the bubble. The pairings didn’t help as they open the tournament against a Washington State team that has beat them twice already this season. The Huskies need to figure out how to master a 2-3 zone look that they have repeatedly been unable to solve over the last month. The Cougars are playing for their Tournament lives as well so it won’t be easy for the Huskies. They will need to get off to a fast start on Thursday or they could be headed to the NIT.
Players to Watch:
Nikola Vucevic, F, USC
He might be the best player that no one back East knows about. The 6-foot-10 junior led the Pac 10 in rebounding (10.3) for a second consecutive year and finished third in scoring (17.7). He is currently the only player in a major conference to average 17 points and 10 rebounds. He finished the regular season with eight consecutive double-doubles and collected 20 in 31 games. You can pretty much put him down for 20 and 10 right now and if the Trojans had won a couple of more games he might have won the Pac 10 Player of the Year Award. He can’t afford to have an off-night if the Trojans are going to run the table this week and secure the Pac 10’s automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.
Klay Thompson, G, Washington State
He will return from a one-game suspension after being arrested for possession of marijuana. It must have been tough for Thompson to sit and watch his team lose a game that could have put them into serious consideration for a NCAA invitation. The entire school will be counting on him to beat Washington for the third time this season and put this team into the NCAA Tournament field of 68. He led the conference in scoring (21.4) this season and will need to go on a major scoring spree to catapult this team to the Pac 10 finals. Hopefully he worked on his shot during his suspension because he shot only 39% (49-for-127) over his last eight games. A lot of people, especially NBA scouts, will be focused on how Thompson handles adversity over the next week.
Isaiah Thomas, G, Washington
He is the one that makes the Huskies high powered offense go. When he struggles the Huskies become an extremely average team. They need him to get into the lane and create open shots for teammates but they also need him to score to beat top teams. The loss of Abdul Gaddy at the point has helped Thomas’s assist totals but it also takes another ball-handler off of the court. If the Huskies get off to a slow start look for Venoy Overton to get more run at the point so that Thomas can concentrate on scoring . The 5-foor-9 junior has had his best season (16.6 points and 5.6 assists) but it may end up on a sour note if he can’t play well enough to defeat rival Washington State on Thursday.
Allen Crabbe, G, Cal
The 6-foot-4 freshman from Los Angeles will have a chance to make a name nationally for himself this week. He really came on strong about midseason and should win the Pac 10 Freshman of the Year Award. He was the best long distance shooter (48.1%), sixth best scorer (16.4), fourteenth best rebounder (5.8), and led the league in minutes played (36.6) during Pac 10 conference play. He finished the season on a roll averaging 23.0 points and 5.7 rebounds while shooting 63% (24-for-38) from the field, 61%(11-for-18) from three-point land, and 91% (10-for-11) from the charity stripe over his last three games. He will have his hands full though with USC’s Marcus Simmons who is one of the best man-to-man defenders in the nation.
Joshua Smith, C, UCLA
The 6-foot-10 freshman is the one player in the conference that no one has an answer for. He is a load on the blocks and can be almost unguardable when he is focused on establishing deep post position. He is starting to hit his stride as a collegian as he has scored in double-figures in 12 of his last 15 games and grabbed a career-high 16 rebounds against Washington last week. If the Bruins make a deep run into the Pac 10 Tournament, it will be interesting to see how the 305 pounder responds to playing three games in three days. He averaged 10.8 points and 6.5 rebounds while shooting 56% from the floor in 21.5 minutes this year.