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Wildcats overtake Cardinal, Bruins

What was a log-jam between Arizona, Stanford and UCLA at the top of the Pacific 10 Conference entering last weekend turned into good news for the Wildcats in just three days.

With Arizona sweeping the Washington schools, UCLA being upset by Southern California and Stanford losing to Oregon, UA (20-3 overall, 9-2) took sole lead of the Pac-10. Stanford (15-6, 8-3) and Oregon (17-6, 8-3) stand tied for second.

The Bruins were picked in a preseason coaches' poll to finish first and began the season in the top-five in several national polls. They have since plummeted to No. 24 in the AP poll and now find themselves fighting for a tournament berth.

In their 73-69 loss to USC, the Bruins were forced to play without sophomore guard Michelle Greco, who suffered a head injury that gave her concussion-like symptoms against California on Feb. 5. She is listed as questionable for home games this weekend against Arizona State and Arizona.

The Arizona Republic reported last week that the Pac-10 is considering a plan to establish a women's basketball postseason tournament in order to determine the conference champion.

Arizona State Athletic Director Kevin White told the Republic last Tuesday that ASU is "very much in favor of a men's and women's tournament. We've been pretty overt about that."

"It allows programs within the conference to become part of March Madness. We're almost absent through the early innings by not having a tournament," he said.

If the proposal passes, one possible scenario would be to cut the number of conference games from 18 to 16, or perhaps even 14.

The idea of conducting a tournament would be in hopes of giving the Pac-10 more national television coverage, to up the team's computer power ratings and to allow teams surging late in the season to make a run for the NCAA tournament.

In conference power ratings, the Pac-10 is seventh, trailing, in order, the Southeastern Conference, Big East, Atlantic Coast Conference, Big 12, Big Ten and Conference USA.

Arizona State senior center Rachel Holt was named Pac-10 Player of the Week after averaging 18 points and seven rebounds in ASU's home sweep of the Washington schools. Holt helped the Sun Devils snap their four-game losing streak, giving ASU its first back-to-back 20-point conference wins since the 1976-77 season, when the team played in the Intermountain West Conference.