No. 3 California Golden Bears (22-9, 11-7 Pacific-10 Conference) vs. No. 6 Southern California Trojans (18-12, 9-9 Pac-10)
Thursday, March 12 – 6 p.m.
Statistical leaders:
Scoring: Cal – Jerome Randle 18.4 ppg; USC – Taj Gibson 14.4 ppg
Rebounding: Cal – Jamal Boykin 6.5 rpg; USC – Taj Gibson 9.3 rpg
Somewhat surprisingly, Cal head coach Mike Montgomery is down-playing the importance of winning games in the conference tournament, saying that he doesn’t believe a quick exit would hurt the Bears confidence headed into the NCAA tournament. Pre-emptive damage control?
“No. You can overanalyze that ad nauseum if you want to. You can look at everything every which way,” he said in a March 9 press conference. “We’ve got a tough game against SC in Los Angeles. There is no way that, whoever we drew, it wasn’t going to be a tough game, it’s just the way it was going to be, given the league.”
The Trojans and Bears split the season series, each winning on their home floor, and Montgomery said he doesn’t know any more about the Trojans than he did before the two games.
“It’s not like there’s this daily entourage of information that’s being supplied,” he said. “They’ll be plenty motivated. They have very good athletes.”
No. 4 Arizona State Sun Devils (22-8, 11-7 Pac-10) vs. No. 5 Arizona Wildcats (19-12, 9-9 Pac-10)
Thursday, March 12 – Noon
Statistical leaders:
Scoring: ASU – James Harden 20.8 ppg; UA – Jordan Hill 18.5 ppg
Rebounding: ASU – Jeff Pendergraph 8.5 rpg; UA – Jordan Hill 11.0 rpg
The Sun Devils swept the season series from the Wildcats but Arizona forward Chase Budinger still likes his team’s chances going into the tournament.
“This will be a great opportunity for redemption. In both games we were in the game at the end,” he said in an Arizona release. “We had chances to win both, so we’re still pretty confident. ASU is a great team and they’re coming off a big win against Cal. We’re two teams that are playing well. This will be fun.”
Arizona State coach Herb Sendek said that though Jeff Pendergraph and James Harden have both shouldered hefty minutes for the Sun Devils, he expects them to still have fresh legs for the tournament.
“Those are two guys who in less than a year from now aspire to play in the NBA,” he said in a weekly press conference. “Those games are 48 minutes long, and they play a minimum of 82 games, excluding playoffs. So I hope the number of minutes they have played this year doesn’t knock them off their horse.”
No. 1 Washington Huskies (24-7, 14-4 Pac-10) vs. No. 8 Stanford Cardinal (18-12, 6-12 Pac-10)
WHEN: Today, 2:30 p.m.
Statistical leaders
Scoring: UW – Isaiah Thomas 15.4 ppg; Stan – Anthony Goods 15.9 ppg
Rebounding: UW – Jon Brockman 11.5 rpg ; Stan – Landry Fields 6.4 rpg
Washington is coming off the high of winning its first outright Pac-10 season title since 1953 and is assured an upper-echelon NCAA tournament birth at this point. One has to wonder how motivated the Huskies will be to make a run at winning the conference tourney versus resting up for an extended run at the Big Dance.
Still, Stanford represents a feeble challenge despite its 62-54 revenge win over the Beavers Wednesday night. Keep in mind that the win will also tax the Cardinal’s legs and thus sap their already meager chances to best the Huskies.
Lathen Wallace led the Beavers with 18 points. The Cardinal were led by their season scoring leader Anthony Goods (15.9 ppg), who had 23 points in the win.
Oregon State led at the half and would get within one of the Cardinal twice in the last four minutes but missed shots and free throws would doom the Beavers in the endgame.
The Cardinals inched to 11-10 all-time in Pac-10 Tournament play. The game marked Stanford’s first-ever appearance in either of the play-in games.
No. 2 UCLA Bruins (24-7, 13-5 Pac-10) vs. No.7 Washington State Cougars (17-14, 8-10 Pac-10)
WHEN: Today, 8:30 p.m.
Statistical leaders:
Scoring: UCLA – Darren Collison 14.8 ppg; WSU – Taylor Rochestie 13.6 ppg
Rebounding: UCLA – Alfred Aboya 6.0 rpg; WSU – Aron Baynes 7.4 rpg
UCLA should be looking to improve its NCAA tournament seed with a deep run in the conference tournament, but with the up-and-down nature of this season’s Bruins, who knows who will show up?
The Bruins, for their part, have said all the right things.
“I definitely think it’s a good time to get hot,” said Josh Shipp after the Bruins’ 94-68 pounding of the Ducks Saturday. “It’s tourney time; time to bring your ‘A’ game.”
UCLA scoring leader Darren Collison (14.8 ppg) was injured on a hard foul under the basket by Oregon freshman Matthew Humphrey with 12:50 remaining in the Bruins’ win over the Ducks. He left the game soon after and go to the hospital for an MRI on his tailbone.
“The trainer says it’s just a bruise,” coach Ben Howland told The Associated Press after the game.
Collison is listed as probable for the game with a sacral contusion after the MRI results were negative for further damage.
Washington State is coming off its third win this season over Oregon and figures to need a conference tournament championship to earn an NCAA tournament birth.
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