Was it just a Pac of lies?
LOS ANGELES – So whatever became of the dog-eat-dog, grindhouse, coach-killing, take-that-Billy-Packer, best college basketball conference in America?
Is the Pac-10 mailing it in this weekend, or what?
Not to disparage anyone’s effort – some hard, fierce basketball has been played here at the Staples Center, at least in any game that didn’t involve Oregon State or California, and even the Bears found some heart and soul half the time they found themselves staring at defeat.
Still, compared to the regular season – which the participants likened to a basketball Bataan, or something at least as perilous as the Democratic primaries – the Pac-10 tournament has de-evolved into a bit of an anticlimax.
This is the conference in which anything can happen – but so far, nothing much has, at least contrary to form.
UCLA’s in the championship game. So is Stanford. Every lower seed lost on Thursday and Friday, which included the Washington State Cougars – once again derailed in the semifinals, this time by the Cardinal 75-68.
The Cougars were as game as in the old days but maybe not possessed of quite the same wall-to-wall feistiness that’s been a newer trademark. Some of it was having its big men in constant foul trouble trying to deal with Stanford’s non-mascot tree, Brook Lopez. But really they only tested the Cardinal in spurts – for a brief period when Derrick Low was firing, later when Kyle Weaver was taking it to the rack and at the end when Stanford’s nerves were a little frayed.
“They played well and perhaps they beat us,” said coach Tony Bennett, “but I thought we did some things that made us lose.
“We broke down defensively, we had some unforced turnovers, maybe got a little impatient – or maybe at times we were too patient. We just didn’t have the sharpness to win a game against a team of this caliber.”
This is three times the Cougs have lost to Stanford this season and Bennett called it “our least impressive outing against them,” so it’s probably not good if they run into the Cardinal’s type in the NCAA tournament. Not that many teams have a Lopez – or Lopezes, there being a twin.
“I can’t think of any other team – maybe Georgetown with (Roy) Hibbert,” said Low, “or UConn with their big guy. But I don’t know anybody with two of them.”
As for the rest of the Pac-10, well, how it does – first in getting teams into the NCAAs and then in the bracket itself – will be the measure of whether it’s deserved all its notices. The league tournament was of no particular help.
Really. One lousy nine-over-eight upset? When the No. 8 was without its only dependable scorer and rebounder?
There was craziness everywhere else the big dogs played. Boston College put it to Maryland in the ACC. Pitt bounced Louisville in the Big East. Pitiful Illinois can’t be stopped in the Big Ten. Did we mention Colorado over Baylor?
Sheesh, at the SEC tournament a storm ripped a hole in the roof of the Georgia Dome. That’s taking the drama a little far, but still…
Hard to know what this all means. Maybe the Pac-10 has finally surrendered to the long arm of the law of averages.
Or maybe – shudder – it’s not really the grand omnipotent badass of college basketball as it’s been touted all season long.
“No other league is as good as this league,” insisted UCLA coach Ben Howland on Friday night after his Bruins survived another war with crosstown rival USC 57-54.
OK, a company line is a company line. It’s not going to change now.
Besides, it feels good to believe it. After years of having the Packers and Eastern elitists belittle Pac-10 basketball as soft and even inconsequential, it was ego candy to hear that it was suddenly must-see-TV for the rest of the country – presuming those fine Fox telecasts can even be found in the rest of the country.
The league was, as Howland claimed, “the best it has ever been” in 2008. The over-touted statistic was 48-42 record home teams had in the round-robin – that talent and coaching and ferocity and parity had all conspired to negate the home-court advantage.
But even so, only four Pac-10 teams can be considered bracket locks at the moment. Oregon can claim a .500 record in the league, but little else outside it. Arizona State has lost 10 of its last 15 games. Arizona is relying on the kindness of the committee to overlook 14 losses.
And, of course, all three failed to get past the quarterfinals here. Lucky for them, 10 other bubble squatters were squashed on Friday alone.
However many get in, the Pac-10 needs to move a few teams through the bracket – “the true test,” as Howland put it. It doesn’t hurt that they won’t have to play each other for a couple of rounds.
“It’s like the first game of the year when you’ve been scrimmaging yourself every day and finally get to play somebody else,” said forward Robbie Cowgill. “We’ve been playing these guys for two months and it’ll be nice to stop beating up on each other.”
Finally, the mad part of March. It’s been a little late coming.