Oregon’s Aaron Brooks, seen here against New Mexico, leads the Pac-10 in assists with 7.67 per game. He also leads the Ducks in scoring, averaging 17.0 points per game.
A couple of weeks into the season, the Pacific-10 Conference still has three undefeated teams — Oregon, UCLA and No. 14 Washington — remaining.
Despite being undefeated, Oregon received only two votes in this week’s Associated Press Top 25 poll. New Mexico, whom the Ducks defeated last week, received four votes, and UCLA didn’t get a vote.
Washington made the nation’s biggest jump in the AP poll, moving up from No. 22 to No. 14. Arizona dropped three spots to No. 21 after losing to No. 1 Wake Forest Friday by three points.
In key matchups this week, Washington travels to Gonzaga to face the Bulldogs on Tuesday. Gonzaga dropped from the AP Top 25 after falling to No. 5 Illinois 89-72 in a game where the Bulldogs were trailing by 31 points at halftime.
The Wooden Classic also takes place this weekend with Arizona taking on No. 15 Mississippi State and UCLA playing Boston College.
Washington’s Robinson named week’s top player
Washington guard Nate Robinson was named Pac-10 Player of the Week after he was named the Great Alaska Shootout’s Most Valuable Player for averaging 21.3 points, 5.0 assists, 3.7 rebounds and 1.7 steals in wins over Utah, Oklahoma and then-No. 19 Alabama.
The 5-foot-9 junior from Seattle hit 59 percent of his shots from the field, including 8 of 14 from behind the arc.
It’s the second time Robinson has been recognized with the weekly honor and is Washington’s 22nd all-time honoree.
After four games, Robinson is in the top five in the conference in scoring (2nd), assists (4th), steals (4th), free-throw percentage (5th), assist-to-turnover ratio (3rd) and minutes played (2nd).
Robinson has helped Washington become the top-scoring team in the conference this season at 85.5 points per game.
The Huskies have started the season 4-0 for the first time since 1999.
“We do things as a team,” Washington coach Lorenzo Romar said. “Our guys have bought into the team, and we talk about (how) it is amazing what can be accomplished when no one gets the credit. Our guys have done a good job of that.”
Brooks continues
shining for Ducks
Oregon’s Aaron Brooks keeps making a name for himself around the conference with his stellar play. New Mexico head coach Ritchie McKay said there was no other guard like him in the Pac-10.
Brooks leads the conference in assists, averaging 7.67 per game. The Seattle native also has limited his turnovers as he is the conference leader in assist-to-turnover ratio at 3.83 assists per every turnover (23 assists to six turnovers this season).
The sophomore point guard also leads the Ducks in scoring, averaging 17 points per game.
As well as the Ducks have been shooting this season, shooting over 50 percent, their defense has also played very well. They have yet to allow an opponent to shoot over 40 percent and are outscoring opponents by a conference-high 16.7 points per game.
Stanford struggles
in Maui, drops three
Last season’s Pac-10 champion took its lumps last week, going 1-3.
The Cardinal fell to Tennessee 69-57, No. 17 Louisville 82-67 and a Santa Clara team that upset No. 9 North Carolina earlier in the year. They beat BYU in the consolation game of the Maui Invitational.
The one bright spot for Stanford has been junior forward Dan
Grunfeld. He scored a career-high 26 points against Santa Clara and is averaging 19.4 points (third in the conference) and 6.8 rebounds per game (ninth in the conference).
The tough span sets the Cardinal back to a 2-3 record.
