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Men's Pac-10 Notes

With Selection Sunday just five days away, the four Pacific 10 Conference teams that are considered locks for the NCAA Tournament are curious as to where they will spend next weekend.

ESPN.com and CBS.sportsline.com have come out with their premature brackets for the 'Big Dance.'

ESPN.com has Stanford as their No. 1 seed in the West Region playing its first and second round games in McKale Center, which is hosting the tournament's first and second round for the seventh time.

The Web site also lists Arizona has a No. 2 seed in the Midwest playing in Minneapolis, Ore. as a No. 6 seed in the South playing in Nashville, Tenn. and UCLA as a No. 8 in the South playing in Birmingham, Ala.

CBS.sportsline.com has different seedings.

They still have Stanford as the No. 1 seed in the West, but this time playing in Salt Lake City. Arizona is considered the No. 2 East seed playing in Buffalo, N.Y., Oregon is the No. 7 seed in the Midwest playing in Minneapolis and UCLA is No. 10 in the South playing in Birmingham, Ala.

According to ESPN.com, Stanford would play South Carolina State, Arizona would face Appalachian State, Oregon would play Pepperdine and UCLA would face Vanderbilt.

CBS.sportsline.com has Stanford facing Winthrop, Arizona playing Valparaiso, Oregon against Ball State and UCLA facing Kansas.

All that could drastically change, though, after this weekend's games in the Pac-10.

If Arizona beats Stanford on Thursday night and than defeats California on Saturday, the Wildcats would win the conference title, which in turn could make UA the No. 1 seed in the West.

If Stanford beats Arizona and Arizona State this weekend, they would win the conference outright and clearly be the No. 1 seed in the West.

UCLA also has to face Washington and Washington State and a loss to either of those schools who are at the bottom of the conference could make the Bruins a bubble team yet again.

Oregon only has one game, "The Civil War" against Oregon State, and the outcome of that game should not hurt the Ducks' seeding too much.

All this scrambled mess will be figured out on Sunday at 4:30 p.m. during the NCAA Tournament Selection Show on CBS (Cox Cable, Ch. 7).

The 22 finalists for the 2000 John. R. Wooden Award, given to college basketball's player of the year, were announced and three Pac-10 players found their names on the list.

Arizona's sophomore forward Michael Wright, Arizona State's senior guard Eddie House and Stanford's senior forward Mark Madsen were all finalists for the award that will be handed out on April 7 at 7 p.m. on Fox Sports Net (Cox Cable, Ch. 22).

Wright is averaging 15.7 points and 8.7 rebounds per game, while also leading the Pac-10 in double-doubles with 12 and is second in field goal percentage (.581).

House is scoring 22.9 points per game, leading the conference, while Madsen leads the Pac-10 in rebounding (9.2 rpg) and field goal percentage (.604).

The players named to the ballot are all in good academic standing, maintaining a 2.0 grade-point average.

The UCLA Bruins are streaking and they now have sophomore forward JaRon Rush back in the lineup for the tournament run.

Rush returned on Saturday from his suspension by the NCAA, which was reduced earlier last week, and responded with 19 points, including the game winning shot with three seconds left in overtime to give the Bruins a 94-93 win at then-No. 1 Stanford.

Rush hit seven-of-10 shots against the Cardinal, a team that is holding teams to just 35 percent shooting from the field.

As a team, the Bruins shot an unprecedented 55 percent from the field, hitting 36-of-66 shots.