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Pac-12 Hoops


glduck

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We're coming down the homestretch of Pac-12 basketball and even with a disjointed season disrupted by Covid, things are becoming more clear.  If everything falls right, the conference will get five teams into the NCAA tourney, all games to be played in B1G territory in Indianapolis.  Here's where things stand:

--USC is the leader and favorite, but if it's like the past, you can count on Enfield to screw it up.  Tonight's game with WSU is no gimme, and the final three games (the mountain trip and at UCLA) all could be L's, especially the one against Boyle, who totally owns Enfield.

--UCLA is hurting after Christ Smith's torn ACL and isn't a complete team.  Still, they have the coaching to come out on top with their remaining talent; winning the next three against UDub and the Arizona schools would be a start.

--Colorado is a hot team and an experienced team.  Teams with great point guards win, and McKinley Wright certainly qualifies.  If they prevail on their Oregon trip next week with wins, they can take the league title.  They're 11th nationally in the current NET ratings, the best in the Pac-12.

--Oregon has been dealt a bad virus-hand, their growth as a young team disrupted by all of the postponed games.  Talent wise, they may be the best in the conference, but they have, for obvious reasons, failed to mesh as a unit.  Altman's focus will be to get them primed for the conference tourney.

--Stanford also has been dealt a bad hand, until recently not playing/practicing at home.  Still, they are a solid and experienced team, and could rack up some wins in the Vegas tourney.  They're bubble-for-the-NCAA's, and need to finish with some serious wins.

--The rest of the league won't be going to the Big Dance, but there are some dangerous teams.  Arizona certainly has talent, but their self-imposed post-season penalties and the empty arena-syndrome appear to have had them play less than seriously.  At times the Utes look solid, other times they disappear, but they certainly do seem to be improving with three straight wins.  Wazoo suddenly has come around, winning three of their last four, and now are a team nobody wants to play.   The Beavs are nothing on the road, just vapor, but they are tough-as-nails at Corvallis.  ASU, another victim of postponements, is a total unmitigated disappointment in both play and coaching.  Cal and Washington are simply disasters (NET rankings of 178 and 203 respectively.)

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Big sweep in the desert. I know in a normal year having only 4 losses in February is really good, but I was legit worried we may have played our way out of the Tournament with a pair of really bad losses to OSU and Wazzu. We dropped from a 4-seed to “last 4 in” in a lot of projections, and there’s not exactly opportunity for a bunch of marquee wins down the stretch. It’s not even known if we’ll be able to get in all of our makeup games (which include four games against the Quad-1 LA schools). But we moved back into the top 50 in the NET rankings with the win in Tucson, and we can keep climbing with a top 20 win opportunity Thursday against CU.

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At this stage of the season, especially this ugly year with disrupted practices and cancelled games, most P6 teams have suffered deep losses with player injuries.  It's a nasty year all the way around.  I know a number of UCLA fans and injuries are all they can talk about, perhaps because they're sold on Cronin and don't want to blame him for losses.  Fans from other schools seem to place more of the blame on losses at the door of their coach, even though they also are dealing with serious player injuries (e.g., Krystkowiak, Hopkins, Boyle, Hurley.)  That's what I was referring to.

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UCLA lands Amari Bailey (again). He committed to Alford as a freshman and opened back up when he was fired. He's ranked #3 in the class and will likely play backup PG and SG as a freshmen. He's a senior and just turned 17, so he's the rare guy whose young for their class. Chris Smith is a 4th year senior and just turned 20, also coming to UCLA as a 17 year old.

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I watched most of the second half. Impressive win by the Cougs, who were short handed. Stanford really needed that one, but Noah Williams said nah. I was hoping for a third OT, but Stanford had basically fouled out by the second and that was all she wrote.

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Got slapped upside the head by SC yesterday. We rolled into town with the “pack the paint and make SC hit the three to beat you” scouting report, which apparently needs updating. Tahj Eaddy hit six 3’s in the first half and nearly out scored us all by himself as SC rolled to a 21-pt halftime lead. We got it down to 10 in the second half, but by then it was too little, too late.

The Pac-12 announced a few makeup games sprinkled over the next two weeks. We’ve got 8 games in 18 days prior to Vegas, which gets me winded just thinking about it. Ah, to be 20 years old again.

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