A quick mid-Wednesday morning spin around the world of college basketball:
*I’ll be spending all of Thanksgiving in the Anaheim (CA) Convention Arena, watching the four games played in the 76 Classic.
And, yes, my wife (Julie) knew what she was signing on for when she married me more than four years ago . . .
*During the 2010, the national – and regional – perception of the Pacific 10 Conference couldn’t have been more trampled upon.
The only teams to represent the conference in the NCAA Tournament were the regular-season champion California Golden Bears and the Washington Huskies.
How imperative was it that Lorenzo Romar’s Huskies win the conference tourney in the L.A. Staples Center in order to be a part of the event’s final 64-team field? They earned a No. 11 seed but did parlay it into “upset” wins over 6 (Marquette) and 3 (New Mexico seeds).
Cal, as No. 8 seed, was “two and done” – beating Louisville in the first round before falling to eventual national champion Duke.
Things were a lot closer to the expected status quo last spring, as regular-season champion Arizona joined UCLA and USC as at-large choices while the Huskies again picked up the automatic bid after edging Sean Miller’s Wildcats in the Staples Center final.
Now, with the Colorado and Utah programs aboard, it’s the Pac-12.
I anticipated five clubs – with the pecking order of Cal, Washington, UCLA, Arizona and Oregon – helping fill out the 68-team bracket on March 12.
If that bracket was being assembled in Indianapolis the day before Thanksgiving, the conference might be giving thanks for any at-large selections its members received.
Cal, after dispatching with a young Georgia squad on Monday night, was hammered by Missouri (92-53) Tuesday night in Kansas City in the CBE Classic final.
The Huskies, in their first venture outside of Seattle, trailed host Saint Louis by 25 points at intermission Sunday afternoon before doing enough in the second half to drop their deficit to 13 points when they left the building.
Ben Howland’s Bruins? Subtracting the first-round contest with Chaminade Monday night in the Maui Invitational, they’re 0 for 3 against Division I competition – with an average margin of defeat of 15.7 points. And the opposition in the third-place game later Wednesday is a Michigan team that breezed against Memphis on Monday and lost by seven to Duke Tuesday night.
Arizona – even minus quite the early season contributions expected from its touted recruiting class – won four of its first five game, although the first three contests (vs. Valparaiso, Duquesne and Ball State) were a tad tougher than most in Tucson probably anticipated.
After dropping a 14-point decision at Vanderbilt to open their season, the Oregon Ducks had narrow wins over Eastern Washington and Southeast Missouri. Before the third game the program’s most heavily recruited freshman, Jabari Brown, left the team.
And there have been startling home losses by USC (to Cal Poly) and Arizona State (to Pepperdine) to teams that have lost to NCAA Div. II Cal State Bakersfield.
But on to the positive:
Stanford took a 4-0 record into its Wednesday night game with Oklahoma State in Madison Square Garden.
And the Oregon State Beavers are off to a 4-1 start after splitting narrow decisions with Texas (on the plus side of 100-95) and Vanderbilt (falling 64-62) in New Jersey earlier this week.
Pac-12 play begins on Dec. 29, so there is a bit more than a month for the conference squads to rebuild some national credibility.
*Creighton – which plays host to currently unbeaten Campbell on Friday night and visits San Diego State next Wednesday night – was mighty impressive while smacking the Iowa Hawkeyes on Sunday (thank you Big Ten Network!).
I’d be surprised if the Blue Jays don’t win at least once NCAA Tournament game and I wouldn’t be surprised at all if they’re the last of the “non-BCS conference members” still playing in the tournament.
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