Pac-10 Player of the Year Sam Clancy and USC are a No. 4 seed in the South Region of the NCAA Tournament.
This weekend, several Pacific-10 Conference teams will play games with only a day for a break.
Wait, they’ve been doing that all season.
Well, the games will be against top-flight competition.
Ditto on doing that all season.
But the games will be in a tournament, a win-or-go-home scenario.
Ditto on that, thanks to the resurrected Pac-10 Tournament.
So why aren’t more Pac-10 teams favored in the Big Dance? Why isn’t UCLA mentioned as a possible Final Four team? Why doesn’t California get mentioned as a so-called “upset special?”
“The six (Tournament) teams in this conference are battle-tested,” Oregon head coach Ernie Kent said. “You only need to look back to last year and see what this conference did, and this year it’s even a much deeper conference than it was last year.”
Last season, Arizona entered as a No. 2 seed and went to the NCAA championship game. USC came in as a No. 6 seed and went to the Elite Eight. UCLA went to the Sweet 16 as a No. 4 seed. Stanford went to the Elite Eight as a No. 1 seed.
So how will the Pac-10 fare this year? Only time will tell, but we can try and shorten time as much as possible.
Arizona
The Wildcats landed as the No. 3 seed in the toughest of the four regions, the West, and face a much-hyped matchup with Gonzaga in the second round, if both teams get that far. The Zags face a 21-8 Wyoming team, while the Wildcats will play a 20-10 UC-Santa Barbara squad.
“When you look at the West regional, the number of conference champs that we’re talking about certainly indicates that the region, I think, is the toughest of the four,” Arizona coach Lute Olson said.
In 1997, Olson took an underachieving team and won the National Championship. Last season, he took an underachieving team and lost in the national championship. This season, he takes an overachieving team into the tournament and could go deep, but he’ll face a hyped Gonzaga team before that can happen.
USC
The Trojans are a dark horse in this year’s NCAA Tournament. Loaded with talent and panache, they enter as the No. 4 seed in the South Region, where they could meet Duke in the Sweet 16. They’ll want another crack at the Blue Devils, who won a tough game 79-69 last season.
With a player like big man Sam Clancy on the roster, USC could shock the country once again this season.
California
The Golden Bears haven’t been to the NCAA Tournament since 1997, but this season they are built like a team that could go deep into the Big Dance. They have leadership on the floor in the form of point guard Shantay Legans and go inside to forwards Joe Shipp and Amit Tamir. As the No. 6 seed in the West, they face Pennsylvania in Pittsburgh and have a possible second-round matchup with another hometown team, Pittsburgh.
“The Ivy League is getting better and better every year,” California coach Ben Braun said about playing Penn.
UCLA
The Bruins have been up and down all season, and right now they appear to be down. UCLA has lost three of its last five games, including a first-round loss in the Pac-10 Tournament. As the No. 8 seed in the West, the Bruins face a tough Ole Miss team and a possible second-round matchup with Cincinnati.
Stanford
Another team falling on hard times recently, the Cardinal are also 2-3 over their last five games. Stanford lost in the first round of the Pac-10 Tourney to USC, but that may be good. The Cardinal spent only a day in Los Angeles, as they arrived the morning of game day and left that night. Stanford is a No. 8 seed in the Midwest (facing Western Kentucky), and could meet top-seeded Kansas in the second round.
E-mail sports reporter Peter Hockaday
at [email protected].