SAN JOSE, Calif. — It would be easy to call the women’s Pacific-10 Conference Tournament at HP Pavilion a failure.
There have been no upsets of top seeds by cellar-dwellers, just a dismantling of Washington by Arizona in the first semifinal game Sunday. Of course, the Wildcats were ranked third, while Washington was one better.
Big deal.
Then you have attendance figures, which have failed to reach — as of Sunday’s last game — the same level of last year’s at McArthur Court. The session, which featured Stanford’s game against California and Oregon’s against UCLA Saturday, produced the highest figure. And that, at 4,188, was drastically lower than the average 5,000-plus fans that attended games last season at the tournament.
So to call the Pac-10 Tournament a failure wouldn’t be completely
off target.
But to say it has been a success wouldn’t be to go too far off on a limb, either.
Personally, I’m not a big fan of the conference tournament to begin with. I’ve always felt the Pac-10 placed more importance on the regular season without it. It would have been a novel idea, but no one really wanted to see 2-26 Washington State make it into the NCAA Tournament.
But if you’re going to have it — and I actually felt last season’s was somewhat exciting — San Jose is the perfect place to do it.
HP Pavilion has been a benefit to the teams. Unlike Mac Court, there are more than four locker rooms that can house teams, so the shuffle that took place last year is a thing of the past.
The fans haven’t been terribly loud, aside from the Stanford fanatics that have made their presence known. Without those rambunctious Cardinal fans, figures, like I said, have been down. At least, though, each of the nine remaining teams has had equal amount of fan support.
The people who have benefited the most from the facilities and fan support have been the players. There is no home court advantage like the one Oregon enjoyed last year.
Stanford has come closest to feeling at home, but there are no Cardinal logos inside the palace, and each team has been treated equally. The same could be said for last year’s tournament, but in essence, the Ducks benefited by staying in Eugene.
Throw Oregon in a neutral-court situation like this, and well, you could see what happened.
The Ducks struggled early on, played well for the middle part of the contest against UCLA, and couldn’t make a shot in the final 10 minutes. Play UCLA at home — a second time at least — with a healthy Cathrine Kraayeveld, and the Ducks probably would have come out on top.
That’s why having the games at a neutral site offers every team the same chance. It’s always a benefit to allow the have-nots a chance to beat the best, even if that is Washington State (writer’s note: I hope that never happens. The Cougars are not exactly a fun team to watch).
Ironically, as I am writing this in the media room at HP Pavilion, the televisions airing Pac-10 highlights on Fox Sports Net show Washington State. Scary.
The Pac-10 and HP Pavilion have a contract to keep the tournament in San Jose through 2005. It would probably be wise to extend that contract after next season’s tournament, but it looks as though there may have been enough dissent among the media and coaches to bring it back to campus sites beginning in 2006.
With that in mind, the next couple of years — much like this one — should be interesting and a benefit to women’s collegiate basketball on the West Coast.