Despite narrow victories at Washington and Washington State last weekend, Arizona jumped back into the top spot in the national polls Monday.
More importantly, Arizona (18-2 overall, 10-1 Pacific-10 Conference) remained No. 1 in the Pac-10, maintaining a one-game lead over California. The Bears (16-4, 9-2), by sweeping Oregon and Oregon State, jumped back into the national rankings at No. 22 in the Associated Press poll (23rd in the ESPN/USA Today coaches’ poll).
Stanford (17-6, 8-3) is the only other Pac-10 team ranked (No. 24 by the AP). Oregon is not ranked for the first time in 13 months.
With seven conference games remaining, Cal seems to have a more favorable schedule than Arizona. The Bears have four games at home — including Washington State and Washington this week — and two of their road games are at UCLA and USC. Cal and Arizona meet in Berkeley on Feb. 27.
The Bears have not been surprised by their success this season, even though the media projected them to finish fifth in the conference.
“Our goal is to win the Pac-10, and we’re going to do that,” Cal’s Joe Shipp, the Pac-10’s scoring leader, said after the Bears’ 86-75 win over Oregon on Saturday. “Winning (at McArthur Court) is big-time for us, and we’re showing signs that we’re not going away and that we’re going to win the Pac-10.”
Arizona also has four of its final seven games at home, but its three road games are at Arizona State, Stanford and Cal, the teams right behind the Wildcats in the standings. The Wildcats, who needed overtime to beat Washington on Thursday and didn’t pull away from lowly Washington State until the final minutes, say they must do some soul-searching before the NCAA Tournament.
“It’s getting more frustrating the further into the season we go,” Arizona senior Luke Walton told the Tucson Citizen. “This should be one of the best teams around. A team that people are talking about, but the way we’re playing right now, we’re just doing that in spurts.”
Oregon (16-6, 6-5), by the way, has virtually no hope left for defending its conference crown. The Ducks are fifth in the Pac-10, four games behind Arizona, with five of their final seven games on the road, including the Civil War in Corvallis on Saturday.

Another coaching

controversy
UCLA’s Steven Lavin isn’t the only Pac-10 coach who may soon be looking for a new job.
Paul Graham, in his fourth year as Washington State’s head coach, has twice finished 1-17 in conference play and his Cougars are 0-11 in the Pac-10 this season (5-15 overall). WSU hasn’t had a winning season since 1995-96, and is 18-87 in the Pac-10 since then. Worse yet, the Cougars are averaging just 2,098 fans per game this season, the lowest attendance figures in school history.
A season-ending injury to its best player, Marcus Moore, has hurt the Cougs, though they have played tough against Arizona and Oregon in recent weeks.
“To be honest with you, I don’t think Washington State is good at all,” Oregon State’s Jimmie Haywood told reporters after the Beavers’ win over WSU last month. “They are missing a lot more than just Marcus Moore. It would have been the exact same game as it was even if they had him.”
The buzz around the Palouse is that Grahman’s tenure in Pullman may be over, but the coach is remaining optimistic about his future.
“I don’t have any less enthusiasm or confidence that we can do it than I did four years ago,” he said. “If anything, I’m probably more determined than I was four years ago because I want it to read someday that those guys got it done. There’s no quit in me.”