Tourney Talk Heats Up

Washington State coach Paul Graham can’t believe the Pac-10 doesn’t have a tournament.

The exposure, the revenue, the possibility of pulling some upsets and squeezing into postseason play - what a positive for the conference, Graham said.

Arizona coach Lute Olson can’t believe there is talk of reviving the Pac-10 tournament. The extra games, the lack of fans, the stress it would put on athletes’ academics - what a negative for the conference, Olson said.

Graham’s feeling are shared by seven other coaches in the Pac-10 and seven of 10 athletic directors. One other coach and three athletic directors share Olson’s feelings. But in the land of the Pac-10, where three basketball schools are king, the minority rules.

And it probably will for quite some time. Because a tournament would be a revenue-sharing event, a super majority vote requiring eight of the 10 conference athletic directors would be needed to bring it back.

Currently, UCLA’s Pete Dalis, Stanford’s Ted Leland and Arizona’s Jim Livengood are steadfastly against the tournament. Presumably that is because their three teams are perennial shoo-ins for postseason play and therefore a conference tournament would potentially hurt their seeding and wear the players out before a NCAA run.

Of course, the coaches at those schools are not going to say that. Instead, they trumpet a litany of excuses.

Stanford’s Mike Montgomery claims fans are not interested. But in the four years (1987-90) there was a tournament, the average daily attendance was more than 11,300. That’s higher than the current regular season attendance average (8,409).

Olson claims it is extremely rare that a team plays its way into the NCAA tournament. He is right, but many teams, such as N.C. State in 1996, are able to play their way into the NIT.

Also, teams like Illinois, which made a run in the Big Ten tourney last year, are able to use that in recruiting and it helps build momentum going into the next season.

Olson also claims it would put too much of a stress on academics and that the reason the Pac-10 and Ivy League don’t hold tournaments is because they are the only “smart” conferences.

Yeah, all those Duke players seem to really be suffering in the classroom because of the ACC Tournament.

While the prospects are bleak for the rekindling of tournament in the Pac-10, hope is not lost. Several of the conference’s athletic directors are expected to make an appeal to change the super majority voting requirements. There has also been recent discussion of a women’s tournament. If that is pushed through, a men’s tournament would surely follow.

Additionally, Staples and Fox Sports are expected to come to the table this year with a bid that is worth $500,000 to each conference school. Some Pac-10 watchers expect a vote to reinstate the men’s tournament in 2002 could come as early as June. But, other sources indicated, it is unlikely that a vote will be taken until next year at the earliest.

Worlds apart

When it comes to statistics, No. 1 Cincinnati and No. 2 Stanford are mirror images on the floor. Both have lost only once. Both teams have blocked more than 85 shots - Stanford has 118 to Cincy’s 88. Both have shown a penchant for holding teams under 30 percent shooting - Cincy’s done it twice, Stanford five times. And both have huge home court advantages - the Cardinal has won 45 of its last 50 at Maples Pavilion, Cincinnati has won 41 straight at the Shoemaker Center.

But off the floor things couldn’t be different. In 14 seasons under Mike Montgomery, Stanford has never been put on probation and has graduated 100 percent of its players.

The Bearcats are currently under a two-year probation that includes the loss of three scholarships. And in 10 years under Bob Huggins, the Cincinnati Enquirer reported only one player who entered the program as a freshman has graduated.

Whistle blowers

The preferential treatment Arizona receives from the refs may have hit its apex last weekend. Against Oregon the Wildcats went to the line 36 times. The Ducks, who are far from a finesse team, made it to the line only three times.

Earlier this season, the Wildcats beat Washington State despite the fact that they did not score a field goal in the final 8:40 seconds. Arizona, with the benefit of several quick calls, did make it to the free throw line 12 straight times.

But wait, it gets more mind-boggling. On the season the Wildcats have outscored their opponents 427-215 from the free throw line. In nine Pac-10 games, Arizona has been to the line 90 times in the last 5 minutes.

Three-pointers

Oregon forward A.D. Smith has scored in double figures in all but one game this season… . Stanford is 22-3 in Pac-10 road games over the past three seasons… . For the first time in 14 road games, Washington’s leading scorer on the season, Deon Luton, was the team’s leading scorer with 26 points in the win over WSU… . Washington State senior Chris Crosby only scored one point against UW. It was his lowest point total since he was a freshman.