Pac 10 Tournament Updates
Two weeks ago, Cal was in ninth place in the Pac-10 and not even in the NCAA Pac 10 Tournament discussion. Five days ago, the Bears would have been in the NCAA Tournament. Now Cal is out again. By Friday, the Bears could be back in, although two days after that, they could be back out.
The Pac-10 could have as few as four teams in the NCAA Tournament and as many as eight, as a mass of equality in the middle of the standings makes it difficult to say anything conclusive about the conference's postseason prospects with selection day more than four weeks away.
Other conferences are easier to read. The Atlantic Coast looks like it will send four or five teams to the NCAA Tournament, and the Big East could have eight or nine in the event. Despite being home to No. 1 Memphis, Conference USA might get only one team invited. The Big Ten, SEC and Big 12 look like they'll get five or six bids apiece.
The West Coast looks like a two-bid conference at the moment, but St. Mary's is not a shoo-in for an at-large berth even though it is ranked in both polls. The Gaels are one of three teams with one conference loss, and they have a game at Gonzaga still to play, so a third-place finish remains a possibility. It's hard to imagine a third-place team from the WCC getting an at-large bid, because it has not happened.
The Pac-10 has been claiming it deserves seven NCAA berths, which means a team with a Pac-10 record of 9-9 or worse would have to get invited, and that has not happened.
UCLA and Stanford are the only Pac-10 teams that are virtually assured of an NCAA berth, although Washington State would be safely in with a fairly high seed if the selections were made today.
Then comes the five-team mishmash of uncertainty. Arizona and USC still seem to be good bets to make it, although their losses over the weekend made them vulnerable.
Cal, Arizona State and Oregon are right on the borderline. Oregon might have replaced Cal as an NCAA team for the moment by beating the Bears on Saturday, and Arizona State's victory at Arizona on Sunday might have lifted the Sun Devils back into the 65-team field after their five-game losing streak seemed to put them out.
Even ninth-place Washington is back in the discussion after its win over UCLA, because the Huskies are only two games out of third place.
Selection committee chairman Tom O'Connor said Tuesday that a team's success over the final 12 games will be a significant factor in the selection process. Every Pac-10 team has at least eight games left.
Moment of the week: Washington's Tim Morris, trying to bounce the ball off a UCLA defender to avoid a five-second call on an out-of-bounds play, wound up and smashed the ball off the nose of UCLA's Alfred Aboya, who was standing about 2 feet away from Morris.
Quote of the week: "After this performance, I don't blame people for not wanting to watch us play. ... We don't deserve for anyone to be there." - Oklahoma coach Jeff Capel, on his postgame radio show, according to the Daily Oklahoman, after the Sooners' 72-58 loss to Colorado on Saturday.
Thought of the week: Is it possible for UCLA center Kevin Love to be named Pac-10 Player of the Year but not conference freshman of the year?
Injury news of the week: USC point guard Daniel Hackett will miss Sunday's game against UCLA because of a stress fracture in his back; Trojans coach Tim Floyd said Hackett could be lost for the season.
North Carolina point guard Ty Lawson missed his third straight game Tuesday with an ankle injury, and it's unclear when he will return.
Surprise of the week: Purdue had lost at home to Wofford on Dec. 19, but on Saturday, it handed then-No. 8 Wisconsin only its second Big Ten home loss since Bo Ryan became coach seven years ago. Then on Tuesday, Purdue beat No. 10 Michigan State 60-54 for the Boilermakers' 10th straight win and a spot atop the standings. Purdue was not only unranked in preseason, but it was not one of the 62 teams that received votes in one of the two major polls.
Stats of the week: UCLA guard Darren Collison was 1-for-8 from the field and had eight turnovers in the 71-61 loss at Washington on Sunday.
Texas' D.J. Augustin was 1-for-13 from the floor Monday, but the Longhorns still beat No. 3 Kansas 72-69.
You can purchase Pac 10 Tournament tickets at the Staples Center by going to
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