Conference Play – The PAC Attack

PAC 10 hoops conference play tipped off last night with a couple of interesting results.  Coming out of the non-conference schedule many believe the PAC 10 is the deepest and most talented conference in the country, so the next few months should be interesting.  Two results from last night were particularly interesting to me, ASU’s victory over Oregon, and Cal’s victory over USC. 

 ASU beat Oregon 64-52, dropping the Ducks to 9-4 and 0-1 in the conference.  The Ducks were preseason sweethearts to a lot of analysts and I never quite understood why.  I get that they had 4 starters coming back from last year’s squad, but the 1 starter that is missing happened to be a first team all-american…. and their point guard.  That is a lot to lose.  You not only have to replace one of the 5 best players in the country, but you have to find someone else to run your offense.  Tajuan Porter is struggling and I think that’s going to continue.  News flash:  He’s short.  Teams can load up on him and take away his easy looks.  Unless someone can step in, slash to the basket, and kick out to him for some easy looks, he’s going to struggle while he learns how to run the offense while still getting his own opportunity to score.  I’m not sure he’s a point guard. The Ducks now have to go to Zona, and then come home to play USC and Cal, before going to UW and WSU.  That is a brutal schedule and if they can’t figure something out pretty quick, they may be in a hole they can’t get out of.  ASU is off to a good start and Herb Sendek may have rebuilt them faster than anyone thought.  They also have a pretty good looking rodeo team.   

Also intriguing is the fact that USC fell to CAL 92-82 despite OJ Mayo’s 34 points.  This too seems like something that may become an issue for USC as the season progresses.  OJ Mayo is clearly a wonderful talent, but he came to USC explicitly because he wanted to be in LA and wanted to make himself a household name to increase his value for the NBA.  He basically recruited himself to SC and in so doing helped convince star player Nick Young to leave for the NBA draft, and had a hand in other’s players decision to shun USC in lieu of other schools.  UW freshman Venoy Overton was originally committed to USC, but changed his mind and one has to wonder to what extent that had to do with not wanting to be a sidekick in the OJ Mayo show.  Cal’s victory last night over the Trojans may show both that Cal may be a little farther along than people thought (or just healthy for the first time in 2 seasons), and that USC has one great player, but will struggle as a team. USC did play Memphis and Kansas tough in 2 of its 4 losses, but they also lost to Mercer.  Their only quality win this season is Oklahoma, and yet prior to their loss to Cal, at 9-3, were ranked.