Week 1 PAC 10 Hoops Wrap

Fig Jam

One week into PAC 10 hoops and I am reminded how much I love college basketball.  The nonconference season is great, but there is something special about playing conference opponents and having a full slate of conference matchups to watch every week.  Here’s how it panned out in week 1:

Biggest Winners:  Washington, California

Washington: UW only played one game, but it was a big one as the Huskies snapped a 7 game losing streak to WSU and won an all important conference road game in the process.  This game showed both that the Huskies have come a long way since last year’s team, and that WSU may struggle this season.  UW’s defense was superb and WSU could not slow down the Huskies on offense, allowing 68 points (which is a lot by WSU standards). 

This game also has brewed a little controversy courtesy of the Justin Dentmon to Quincy Pondexter slam off the backboard with one minute left to go in the game.  Many WSU fans have deemed it “classless” and the internet message boards have been full of discussion over whether or not the dunk was warranted.  A video of said dunk is below.

 Now, I’m not going to venture an opinion as to whether the dunk makes the Huskies a “Classless” team or not, but I will say that throughout the course of any college basketball game each team does something that is probably not in the best interest of good sportsmanship.  The UW v. WSU game was no exception.  Note that less than a minute before the Pondexter slam, WSU senior Caleb Forrest clearly throws a punch at UW freshman Darnell Gant.   The video is below (look at the bottom of the screen around the 8 second mark).

Both players were given technical fouls on the play, but apparently because they were jawing after the whistle was blown on an unrelated foul.  As I said, I don’t want to get into a lengthy debate about sportsmanship, but I would just say to WSU fans: let the dunk go.  Maybe it wasn’t the best idea, but neither is sucker punching a guy from behind.  In fact, I’m pretty sure of the two incidents, the punch is worse.  Let it be. 

Cal:  The new look California Golden Bears got a couple of good wins this weekend against the Arizona schools.  Holding serve at home, new coach Mike Montgomery sent a message that this team is improved and picked up a couple of key wins against schools that it will likely be competing against for the top half of the PAC 10 this season.  The only other PAC 10 team to get 2 wins this weekend was UCLA, who predictably beat the Oregon schools.  I believe that momentum is really important in PAC 10 play and getting a good start is huge.  Cal now has a good start upon which to build.

Biggest Losers:  Arizona, USC

Arizona: The Wildcats came into PAC 10  play and got swept by Cal and Stanford on the road.  While it is difficult to get PAC 10 road victories, this Wildcat team really needed to pick up a victory, especially against a Stanford team that lost by 30 points to ASU two nights earlier.  With all the turmoil that has surrounded the program in the last few years, I really felt like it was important for this team to come out and get some positive energy early in conference play.  Avoid the ‘here we go again’ scenario from dragging the team down.  Now in an 0-2 hole, the Wildcats really need to stop the bleeding and get back on track.  They have the talent to do it. 

USC:  Technically I think anytime you go 1-1 on a conference road trip it is a positive, however, when your loss is to Oregon State, the analysis changes.  Oregon State, you may remember, is the team that went 0-18 in conference play last year.  They are certainly getting better under first year coach Craig Robinson, but they are still woefully deficient on talent and should finish 10th in the PAC 10 this season.  But for whatever reason, USC as an institution just refuses to take Oregon State seriously.  The football didn’t and it cost them a shot at the National Championship (although OSU’s football program is vastly superior to its basketball team) and now the Trojan Basketball team has done the same thing, falling in overtime to the Beavers. 

What really hurts about this loss is that USC’s post season hopes this year were predicated on finishing in the upper echelon of the conference.  They don’t have an amazing nonconference slate to fall back on if they are just average in conference play.  Realistaclly, USC needs to go 10-8, possibly 11-7 in conference play to make the NCAA tournament.  That means winning every home game and still picking up a few road victories as well.  They got one at Oregon, which is good, but letting OSU off the hook could really come back to haunt the Trojans later in the year.

Biggest Surprise of Week 1:   Oregon State’s victory over USC

Just discussed the Beavers big win against USC in the ‘most dissapointing’ category, but it’s worth following up on to talk about how big a win this could be for the OSU program.  OSU not only snapped the ridiculously long PAC 10 losing streak they had been suffering through, but gave their entire program a shot in the arm with the overtime victory over the Trojans. 

The Beavers are playing hard under first year coach Craig Robinson and will look to build off this win in the future.  It was really nice for them to get this win early in conference play, so the pressure to get a PAC 10 win would be released.  Now they can just focus on improving as a squad.

Player of the Week:  Jerome Randle, Cal

Randle averaged 20 points, 4.5 rebounds, and 7.5 assists this weekend against the Arizona schools.  He helped get the Bears off to a 2-0 start.

Standings after week 1: