Arizona, Pac-10 prepare for tourney

LOS ANGELES - Starting tonight all eyes are on the prize.

An automatic bid to the NCAA tournament is on the line when the Pacific 10 Conference men's basketball tournament begins tonight.

It has been nothing short of a crazy regular season, which makes the outcome of the tournament even more difficult to predict.

For the first time since 1997, neither Arizona nor Stanford won the regular season title, something that California head coach Ben Braun said reflects the toughness of the Pac-10 this season.

"We're having a banner year in the league," Braun said. "This reflects an NCAA tournament atmosphere. There are a lot of conferences around the country that don't have this kind of following. The schools this year have fought hard and have set this up to be a great tournament. When you are having success, people tend to follow it."

For most of the season, the teams in the Pac-10 were following the high-flying Oregon Ducks.

Oregon head coach Ernie Kent said this season has been a memorable one, not only for his team, but also for the entire Pac-10.

"It has been a grueling Pac-10 race, one of the best in the country," Ducks head coach Ernie Kent said. "This is uncharted territory for the University of Oregon."

UO won the title after finishing tied for sixth in the Pac-10 with a 5-13 record a year ago.

The Ducks enter the tournament as the highest-ranked team in the field at No. 9.

But that does not necessarily make the Ducks the favorite.

"Any team can win it," Southern California head coach Henry Bibby said. "The Pac-10 is that good. I don't think there is a favorite."

Both Washington (11-17, 5-13) and Arizona State (14-13, 7-11) - the last two teams that qualified for the conference tournaments - have beaten the Ducks this season.

Washington head coach Bob Bender said though his team has already beaten Oregon once this season, winning again will be every bit as difficult.

"No matter who you're playing you'll have a tough matchup," said Bender, whose team needs to win the Pac-10 tournament if they hope to play in the NCAA tournament. "A credit to Oregon is that they've gotten better. They have built up on all of their positives. When we've played well against them and won it was because we found out how to play them."

If the matchup between Oregon and Washington isn't intriguing enough, there are plenty of other games worthy of attention.

"You just look at the matchups," UA head coach Lute Olson said. "It's not a three-team league like it has been. We all know there is going to be great competition."

All four of the quarterfinal games feature at least one Top 25 team.

Though the USC-Stanford game is the only one in which both teams are ranked nationally, UCLA - a team that was ranked as high as No. 3 early in the season - only recently fell from the Top 25.

Braun said he is well aware of UCLA's potential.

"When (UCLA) gets it going they are tough," Braun said. "Just ask (No. 1) Kansas."

Cal and UCLA split their two meetings during the regular season, each winning on its home floor.

In the bout between USC and Stanford, the focus will be on the inside.

Two of the league's top big men will be going head-to-head as the Cardinal's 7-foot Curtis Borchardt faces USC's 6-foot-7 Sam Clancy.

Though Clancy is a full five inches shorter than Borchardt, Clancy's long arms and big body enabled him to be second in the Pac-10 in rebounding - second to Borchardt - and fourth in the league in scoring with 19.2 points per game.

The first round's biggest rivalry will be Arizona taking on Arizona State.

The Wildcats have won 13 of the last 14 games, but the Sun Devils' one victory came this year.

"Every game is going to be a challenge," Olson said. "It doesn't matter who you are talking about."

The stage is set. A tournament 12 years in the making commences tonight.