Arizona Daily Wildcat advertising info
UA news
world news
sports
arts
perspectives
comics
crossword
cat calls
police beat
photo features
special reports
classifieds
archives
search
advertising

UA Basketball
restaurant, bar and party guide
FEEDBACK
Write a letter to the Editor

Contact the Daily Wildcat staff

Send feedback to the web designers


AZ STUDENT MEDIA
Arizona Student Media info...

Daily Wildcat staff alumni...

TV3 - student tv...

KAMP - student radio...

Wildcat Online Banner

Pacific 10 powder keg

By Jeff Lund
Arizona Daily Wildcat
Thursday Feb. 7, 2002

Loaded conference set to explode at conference tourney

With just a month left in the regular season, there is still plenty to be decided in the Pacific-10 Conference.

As the regular season unfolds, the Pac-10 tournament seeding will start to come into focus but probably will not be decided until the last weekend of play.

With the return of the Pac-10 tournament, the regular-season conference title means nothing more than seeding and a sense of pride.

However, not all of the 10 teams will be able to participate in the tournament on March 7-9. Only the top eight teams will qualify to duke it out for the crown.

Arizona head coach Lute Olson and his Stanford counterpart, Mike Montgomery, have openly opposed the resurrection of the Pac-10 tournament.

Olson even joked about not going.

"How can you have a conference tournament and eliminate two teams from being a part of it?" Olson said. "We should just let the eight that want to be in it go."

A conference that many coaches expected to be close has turned out to be nothing short of a thriller.

Surprisingly, both Arizona and Stanford find themselves out of the top spot.

Arizona is in second place, followed by UCLA and USC, which are tied for third. Stanford and California, tied for fifth, are still in the hunt for the title.

Flying high above these other five teams is an upstart Oregon team.

Olson said the strength of the conference is evident and should be recognized during the selections for the NCAA tournament.

"It's really, really a tough league," Olson said. "It's been a long time since I heard national analysts talking about the Pac-10 having six teams in the (NCAA) tournament. There are at least six teams in this conference that could do very well against anyone."

Few would have thought at this point the leader of the Pac would be Oregon, a team that last season finished with a 14-14 record overall and a dismal 5-13 mark in conference play.

Six teams are currently within two games of first place Oregon's 9-2 mark.

The Ducks are one of five teams in the Associated Press Top 25. Arizona is currently the highest ranked at No. 11 in the AP poll, followed by No.13 Oregon - occupying its highest ranking since 1974-75 - No.15 UCLA, No.20 Stanford and No. 25 USC.

Interestingly enough, it has not been the top teams that have given the soaring Ducks troubles.

Both of Oregon's losses have come to teams in the lower half of the conference, one to Arizona State and the other to Washington.

For Washington, the win at home against Oregon was just its second conference victory of the season.

Arizona State has done its fair share of damage to the conference leaders, recording wins over Arizona as well as Oregon.

The one thing that has been consistent has been home-court advantage.

None of the top six teams in the conference have more than one home loss. UO is the only undefeated team at 6-0.

Oregon however, will be doing the most traveling to close out the season.

The first-place Ducks have five of their last seven games on the road including trips to Stanford, California, USC and UCLA.

Arizona finishes with a much more manageable schedule. Five of UA's last seven games will be at home.

The race is on, and the spoilers are taking aim. With a month left, the madness has already arrived for the Pac-10.

ARTICLES

advertising info

UA NEWS | WORLD NEWS | SPORTS | ARTS | PERSPECTIVES | COMICS
CLASSIFIEDS | ARCHIVES | CONTACT US | SEARCH
Webmaster - webmaster@wildcat.arizona.edu
© Copyright 2001 - The Arizona Daily Wildcat - Arizona Student Media