Five Pac-12 teams make tourney
COUGARS
FROM PULLMAN -- Back on the Palouse, albeit for a very short time before hitting the road again. We do have a recap of yesterday's NCAA tournament selections, which went much better for the Pac-12 this year than last. Read on.
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The WSU baseball team made history yesterday by winning a series at Arizona State for the first time in school history. ... Also, we invite you to join our SportsLink Reader Challenge, where you can submit your NCAA tournament bracket and compete for a grand-prize of a blog shout-out.
Around the Pac-12 ... First, here's the full tournament bracket. ... We'll start at the top of the heap, which for the Pac-12 this year means a pair of No. 6 seeds, UCLA and Arizona. The Wildcats got the best draw possible, staying in the West Region and starting their tourney run in Salt Lake City against No. 11 seed Belmont. It's hard to predict the Wildcats' fate. ... The Bruins may have been downgraded due to Jordan Adams' foot injury -- which, by the way, is absurd -- and have to travel the farthest of any Pac-12 team. They're headed to Austin, Texas for a game against No. 11 Minnesota. Hard to imagine how a No. 6 seed has to fly to Texas while a team from the same conference -- say, California -- is a 12 seed but gets to play what amounts to a home game in San Jose. But shuffling is sometimes required to make things work, and those sort of oddities happen every now and then. ... Colorado made out OK, earning a No. 10 seed against No. 7 Illinois in Austin, Texas. That's the home state of star forward Andre Roberson. ... As mentioned above, California lucked out and got placed near home, as a No. 12 seed facing No. 5 UNLV in San Jose. ... Oregon isn't feeling quite so hot about its 12 seed, though it says it remains unfazed by the slight. The Ducks won the Pac-12 tournament and appeared destined for an 8 or 9 seed. Instead, they'll face No. 5 Oklahoma State (and the Cowboys can't be too happy about that, either) in San Jose. Still not a bad destination. ... There are other Pac-12 teams heading to the postseason, though not the most exciting one. Washington will be a No. 6 seed in the NIT and will play at Brigham Young on Tuesday night. There's more excitement over this NIT bid than there was last year for the Huskies. ... Stanford is also back in the NIT as a No. 4 seed, and will host a first-round game against Stephen F. Austin. ... Arizona State is also in the NIT field, and will face Detroit in the first round.
Christian Caple can be reached at christianc@spokesman.com. Twitter: @ChristianCaple