The men’s basketball season is a weekend into its second round of Pacific-10 Conference schedule, and Emerald beat reporters Kevin Hudson and Andrew Greif graded the performance of the teams up to this point.
No. 11 UCLA Bruins: A
19-4, 8-2 Pac-10 (1st)
It may play in Los Angeles, but there’s a certain workmanlike efficiency about this year’s Bruins team. Without an instantly recognizable player on the roster besides senior point guard Darren Collison, the Bruins are on the brink of 20 wins because of their defense, the specialty of hard-nosed coach Ben Howland. Not one player on the roster is in the Pac-10’s top 10 in scoring or rebounding. The Bruins are only fifth in the league in rebounding, but their skill comes in keeping the other team off the boards. The Bruins are best in the league when it comes to fewest allowed rebounds, second-best in three-point percentage allowed (only 32 percent). They do have their weaknesses but senior post Alfred Aboya, the current Pac-10 Player of the Week, who is shooting 59 percent this season, and Collison, who is maybe the fastest player in America with the ball in his hands, give them the edge.
Washington Huskies: A
17-6, 8-3 Pac-10 (2nd)
The Huskies have far outpaced their rodent counterparts to the south in terms of compelling resurgence stories, as they are off to their best conference start “since Gerald Ford was President,” according to their Web site. Last weekend they won 75-68 at Stanford to snap a 15-game losing streak to the Cardinal at Pauley Pavilion and maintain sole possession of second in the conference standings.
Senior center John Brockman is, again, the driving force of the Huskies in the paint and on the glass. He notched his 11th double-double of the season and ranks in the conference top 10 in scoring (15.0 points per game, 9th Pac-10), rebounding (11.1 rebounds per game, 2nd Pac-10) and field goal percentage (.525, 9th Pac-10). The difference for the Huskies this season has been the improved perimeter play around Brockman, as Washington boasts two more of the conference’s top-10 scorers in freshman guard Isaiah Thomas (16.5 points per game, T-5th Pac-10) and senior guard Justin Dentmon (15.1 points per game, 8th Pac-10).
Arizona Wildcats: B
16-8, 6-5 Pac-10 (6th)
Arizona this high? Absolutely. How else to judge the Wildcats’ recent resurgence, winning five games in a row, including its first road sweep of the Pac-10 season. The team has picked the right time to start a run, with seven games left in the Pac-10 regular season.
During that five game stretch, the ‘Cats have averaged 11 points more per game, and its three best offensive outputs have been during that period, as well, scoring 106, 96 and 87 points. Not surprisingly, the team thrives on a fast-paced game that encourages scoring, racking up a 6-0 record this year when they score 80 or more points. The team’s spark plug has been Chase Budinger, whose per-game averages in points (20.2 vs. 17.7), rebounds (9 vs. 6.6) and assists (4.2 vs. 3.3) have all increased. Even more impressive, during the last five games, Budinger has committed just six turnovers in 199 minutes.
No. 18 Arizona State Sun Devils: B-
18-5, 7-4 Pac-10 (T-3rd)
The Sun Devils got healthy last week against the Oregon schools with a road sweep to offset their pair of road losses in Washington the week before. They were unbeaten in a soft December schedule and have a road win over UCLA under their belts, but with arguably the Pac-10’s best player in sophomore guard James Harden, it could be said Arizona State has underachieved thus far in conference play.
Harden has certainly not underachieved this season, as his conference-best 21.9 points per game scoring average is more than three points clear of his closest competition in the category, and hung 36 points on UO, the most in a conference game.
California Golden Bears: B-
18-6, 7-4 Pac-10 (T-3rd)
Cal was once 4-0 and on top of the league before hitting a rough patch and losing four of their next five games. That stretch might be a sign that the team isn’t really made for a Pac-10 title run, and it might be true. But for the Bears, it doesn’t really matter considering they’ve already won more Pac-10 games than the last two seasons, and have played far above expectations.
Junior point guard Jerome Randle has been one of the biggest beneficiaries of the switch, ranking second in the league in scoring with 18.5 points per game, and tied for first in assists, with 5.0. They’re part of why Cal is the best shooting three-point team in the league, shooting nearly 46 percent from deep. It has had trouble on the boards, barely outrebounding its opponents by three per game, and ranks near the bottom of the league in blocks and steals.
USC Trojans: C+
15-7, 6-4 Pac-10 (5th)
The potential is very much there for head coach Tim Floyd’s team, but it hasn’t capitalized when it should have, namely in losses to OSU and Washington, whose athletes aren’t as good as USC’s. It does have a dominating inside presence in junior forward Taj Gibson, who was named to the midseason’s top-30 list for the Wooden Award. The forward’s length makes him a force at each end, blocking 2.9 shots per game, tied for the seventh-best average in the nation. He has 11 double-doubles this season, averaging 10 rebounds per game, but was out for most of the game against UCLA this week, and showed the team’s Achilles Heel inside when he is gone.
Washington State Cougars: C+
12-11, 4-7 Pac-10 (T-7th)
Though tied with the Beavers for seventh place in the conference, the Cougars get a slightly better grade because of their particularly stifling brand of defense. Washington State boasts conference-best marks in scoring defense (54.5 points per game) and field goal percentage defense (.384), while shooting a higher free throw percentage than anyone else in the Pac-10 (.775).
The Cougars are led in scoring by senior guard Taylor Rochestie (12.6 points per game), but rely heavily on sophomore shooting guard Klay Thompson (12.5 points per game) and senior center Aaron Baynes (12.4 points per game) to shoulder the offensive load. Baynes is the Cougars’ best bet on the glass at 7.5 rebounds per game.
Stanford Cardinal: C
14-7, 4-7 Pac-10 (T-7th)
New head coach Johnny Dawkins brought his Duke pedigree west to Palo Alto, Calif., but we haven’t seen the mental toughness the Blue Devils are famous for rub off onto his Cardinal. The team has four seniors who contribute, yet have lost games to Washington State and Oregon State this season, both games it should have won. Stanford went a perfect 10-0 to start the year in non-conference play, although none were marquee victories. The Cardinal were exposed come Pac-10 play, losing to ASU by 30 to open the schedule, only to beat Arizona by 16 in their next game.
Senior guard Anthony Goods is the team’s best offensive threat, scoring 16.5 points per game. The Cardinal protect the ball well, averaging 3.19 fewer turnovers per game than their opponent, yet they are outrebounded on average each game. And like the Ducks, the Cardinal can’t shoot (eighth-best in the league) but allow a conference-worst 48 percent shooting by other teams.
Oregon State Beavers: C
10-12, 4-7 Pac-10 (T-7th)
Oregon State’s grade cannot be based purely on performance, but considered against the backdrop of the horrid play of recent years in contrast with the optimism of this season’s success, albeit limited.
First-year head coach Craig Robinson can be largely credited with the turnaround, as he has his Beaver team playing some of the best scoring defense in the league (62.0 points per game, 4th Pac-10) with his rendition of the 1-3-1 trap zone. Beaver guard Seth Tarver embodies this new defensive scheme as one of the conference’s top thieves (1.5 steals per game, T-5 Pac-10).
This resurgence may be more from within the program than without at this point, or more perception than reality,
as empty seats still plague Gill Coliseum, which ranks ninth in the conference in attendance at 6,174 per game.
Oregon Ducks: F
6-17, 0-11 Pac-10 (10th)
While some recent development on this young team may warrant a higher grade from those watching closely, the historic nature of the Ducks’ futile first 11 games of Pac-10 play leaves no alternative to a failing grade. Think of it this way: they were getting about a C with their 6-6 non-conference record (the equivalent to showing up to get the syllabus and introducing yourself to the professor) and since then have bombed the midterm, the research project and every weekly quiz.
The Ducks are the conference’s worst team this season in scoring defense (76.0 points per game), field goal percentage (.413), three-point percentage defense (.393), rebounding defense (35.8), rebounding margin (-3.3) and assist-to-turnover ratio (290/354, 0.8).
The only categories in which the Ducks have been competitive are three point field goals made (7.7, 2nd Pac-10), thanks largely to junior guard Tajuan Porter, the conference leader in threes-per-game (2.8), and offensive rebounds (12.0, 2nd-Pac-10) due to the efforts of two of the conference’s top overall rebounders in junior forward Joevan Catron (7.1 rebounds per game, 6th Pac-10) and freshman center Michael Dunigan (5.1 rebounds per game, 16th Pac-10).
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