Coaches Implore Ncaa Committee To Pick Six
The Pacific-10 Conference heads into the final week of its men’s basketball schedule with league coaches still clamoring for respect - especially from the NCAA Tournament’s selection committee.
If they get it, some contend, the league could put as many as six in the Big Dance.
That might seem like a reach, considering the NCAA has never invited more than four Pac-10 teams in any one year. But coaches insist the league has never been stronger.
“We’ve proven that we’re one of the top two or three conferences in the country this year,” Arizona State’s Bill Frieder said, pointing to the league’s 72-25 record against non-conference foes.
“We’ll get five teams in, and if we had a Pac-10 Tournament we’d get six, because then everyone would get to play a couple of more games.”
Among the biggest non-conference wins are UCLA’s 82-81 road victory over thirdranked Kentucky, Stanford’s 64-60 upset of 11th-ranked Virginia, ASU’s 97-90 victory over 10th-ranked Maryland and Arizona’s 73-63 breeze past No. 19 Oklahoma State.
Even lowly Oregon State, tied for seventh in the Pac-10 standings, has wins over George Washington and Santa Clara - teams considered to be on the NCAA “bubble.”
Last week, USA Today listed 69 teams as either in the tournament or on the fence. The top six teams in the Pac-10 are 14-4 against that mythical field.
And the Pac-10 is 5-0 against teams USA Today predicts to be among the top four seeds in each region.
“We’re one of the real good conferences in the nation,” said Jim Harrick, coach of No. 1-ranked UCLA, “and when they’re talking about five or six (teams) from any other conference, they’ve got to talk about the same thing with ours. There’s no question we deserve five teams in the tournament. We really deserve six, but I don’t know if Washington State can make it.”
The Cougars’ chances are iffy, at best. Two of their 15 wins are against non-Division I teams, and they lost to Idaho, Eastern Michigan and Washington.
But they have five wins over teams that were ranked when they played, and a road sweep of Stanford and California this week would send a pretty strong message.
Cougars coach Kevin Eastman thinks the league has a chance to send six teams.
“But right now, if we’re the sixth team, it’s debateable,” he admitted. “We have to find a way to get one more (win). If we get to 10, we’re on the board and have to be given serious, serious consideration.”
If the Cougars beat Stanford Thursday night, they would have swept the Cardinal and 25th-ranked Oregon, the two teams considered most likely to join UCLA, Arizona and Arizona State out of the Pac-10.
Hendrickson All-District 8
WSU forward Mark Hendrickson is one of 10 named to the United States Basketball Writers Association All-District 8 team.
Also named to the team, which includes
Division I players from California, Arizona, Oregon and Washington, were UCLA’s Ed O’Bannon and Tyus Edney, Stanford’s Brevin Knight and Dion Cross, Arizona’s Damon Stoudamire, Oregon’s Orlando Williams, Arizona State’s Mario Bennett, Oregon State’s Brent Barry and Santa Clara’s Steve Nash. O’Bannon was named the District 8 Player of the Year and the Bruins’ Jim Harrick was named Coach of the Year.
P-E-N-I- - hey, wait a minute!
In an effort to attract the attention of ESPN cameras during Thursday night’s nationally televised game against Arizona, WSU officials handed out colored placards - each individually stenciled with either an E, S, P or N - to fans behind the baskets.
The idea, which seemed innocent enough, was to get fans to wave the cards whenever Arizona was shooting a free throw.
But officials underestimated the resourcefulness of several crass students who took the four letters, along with an extra N that they folded neatly into an I, and rearranged them to spell out a part of the male anatomy.