The Clipper

Issue date: 1/29/10 Section: Opinion

Considering it's a power conference, the Pac-10 has been anything but powerful.

The Pac-10 has not had a team win the NCAA Tournament since Arizona won it all in 1997, and it appears it will be a while before another team from the conference can cut down the nets in victory.

Through last weekend, eight teams in the conference have posted winning records, with UCLA (9-10), and Oregon State (8-11) being the exceptions. Although having eighty percent of the teams with over .500 records sounds impressive, the conference boasts not one team in the top 25 for the second consecutive week. Furthermore, the conference is a combined 5-13 against teams ranked in the AP poll, and 5-14 against teams ranked in the ESPN/USA poll.

Teams from the Pac-10 have posted a combined record of 76-44 against non-conference teams, while in comparison, the Big-12 has posted a 142-31 record outside of their conference.

Now that conference play is well under way, the Pac-10 can focus on beating up on each other, and putting the bad memories of non-conference play behind them.

Pre-season favorite California leads the conference with a 5-2 record inside the conference and a 13-6 record overall.
Arizona State and Washington State both have a league-best 14-6 overall record. Meanwhile, defending conference champion Washington has struggled to find its identity and has dropped all six games away from the confines of Bank of America Arena.

The Huskies were almost able to erase their road woes against a struggling UCLA team at Poly Pavilion in Pasadena. Husky junior Venoy Overton gave the Huskies a 61-60 lead with 3.2 seconds remaining, only to have Mustafa Abdul-Hamid bury a jumper as time expired to give the Bruins a 62-61 victory over the once-mighty Huskies. Abdul-Hamid had only scored 45 points in 34 career games with the Bruins.

"He's spent countless hours by himself working on his shot. It's so rewarding and gratifying to have a kid like him in our program. No one has worked harder, been more committed to the program, and our team. He's always ready, he got an opportunity and he took advantage of it," UCLA coach Ben Howland said.

The Bruins backed up their big win by taking out Washington State 74-62. The Huskies made the long trip to rain-soaked Los Angeles to face the upstart USC Trojans. USC, already feeling the loss of their self-imposed sanctions in the OJ Mayo backlash that will keep them out of postseason play, dismantled the Dawgs 87-61. Washington's lone senior and leading scorer, Quincy Pondexter, was held to just two points, well below his average of 19.5 points per game.

Continued...

Page 1 of 2 next >

Article Tools