Talk about drama. The bottom of the Pacific-10 Conference standings is a group of high schoolers.
They just keep stabbing each other in the back.
That’s what happened this weekend, as Washington State destroyed Washington in a key game for the Huskies. Cougar star Marcus Moore, supposedly out for the season after ankle surgery Jan. 24, came back and scored a game-high 23 points in Washington State’s 98-76 win in Pullman.
Washington State’s coaches learned Moore was available to play on Friday night. Moore was listed as “injured” in the game’s program, and his return caught everyone in the arena, especially the Huskies, by surprise.
“Give (Moore) credit,” Washington head coach Lorenzo Romar told the Seattle Times after the game. “It shows what kind of player he is, to sit out and have a dynamic game like he had.”
The win leaves the Cougars to wonder what could have been for this season. If Washington State wins both games against UCLA and USC this weekend, the Cougars will fall one game short of the Pac-10 Tournament, which takes the top eight teams from the conference.

Meanwhile, the loss sends the Huskies reeling as they head into the Los Angeles weekend. And whoa nellie, the scenarios are complicated. We’ll put it in terms of cleaning the floor. If Washington sweeps this weekend, the Huskies are in the tournament. Get swept, and they’re out. Split, and there are eight different scenarios, all conditional on Washington State’s performance and even the result of the Stanford-California game (don’t ask). Four of those scenarios put Washington in the tournament while four put UCLA in.
The same mantra applies to UCLA. Sweep and get in, get swept and stay home, or split and enter into a world of mind-boggling scenarios.
All of this, of course, makes for an exciting final weekend in the normally-dull Pac-10 basement.

Biggest game
They call the football version of the Stanford-Cal rivalry “The Big Game.” But Saturday’s basketball version is, well, bigger.
When the No. 17 Cardinal and No. 22 Golden Bears clash in Palo Alto’s Maples Pavilion on Saturday, the winner will get second place in the Pac-10 and a date with the No. 7 seed in the Pac-10 Tournament, while the loser gets the No. 3 tournament.
Cal won the first matchup between the teams, 72-59, in the conference’s first weekend back in December. But since that game, the Cardinal have gone on a remarkable 13-3 run that culminated with a last-second loss to No. 1 Arizona in Palo Alto on Saturday. During the streak, the Cardinal were the only team to beat Arizona, as they nipped the Wildcats 82-77 in Tucson.
All of which makes Saturday’s game much bigger.
Who needs March Madness?
Bill Walton might call the possible matchups in the Pac-10 Tournament “scintillating.”
Only a true Walton-ism could do them justice.
If things pan out like they should in the first round, the second day of play at this year’s conference tournament could enter don’t-leave-the-television-for-a-second area. The top half of the bracket will feature top-seeded Arizona against either Oregon or Arizona State, while the bottom half could feature Stanford-Cal III. The first game of Friday, March 14’s action starts at 6 p.m. while the second game is slated for 8:30. The March 15 title game starts at 3 p.m.
Hold on to your reclining chairs. It’s gonna be a wild ride.