Pac-10 Conference: Week 6
Ranking
This version of the Pac-10 Weekly Stack Ranking includes
Thursday night’s results.
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TEAM |
REC. |
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COMMENT |
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UCLA |
(18-2,
8-2) |
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UCLA looked awesome against the
Ducks on Thursday. The game’s final
margin was only 12 but this game wasn’t even close. The Bruins did such a good job of
quickly passing the ball from the point to the wing and then entering the ball
to the low post from there that the Ducks’ weak side double teams had little
time to react. The Bruins actually
run an offense with real screens and ball movement and stuff that puts players
in a position to score that when they’re clicking they’re nearly
unstoppable. They’ve only lost two
games this season and both losses came in the closing seconds. The Bruins are now clearly the team to
beat in the conference but are they now unbeatable? A road trip through the Pacific Northwest to close out the regular season might be
the only games that could potentially trip up UCLA and prevent them from getting
a coveted one seed in the NCAA Tourney. |
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Oregon |
(19-3,
7-3) |
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Oregon all of the sudden looks
fallible. Brooks had the best nine
game stretch of his career during the first half of conference play and led the
Ducks to some big wins. He sat out
the Washington
game and they lost. He played
poorly against UCLA tonight and they lost.
See a trend here. Shut down
Brooks and you shut down Oregon.
It might not be quite that simple, but it does give future opponents
something to aim for. Next up for
the Ducks is a USC team looking for the season sweep. Oregon probably needs the win to keep pace in
the conference race with a Bruins team that seems to be catching its
stride. |
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Washington State |
(18-4,
7-3) |
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Wazzu gets the season sweep of
Arizona. My goodness, what has the world come
to? With the win, the Cougars can
now set their sights on making a serious run at the regular season conference
crown. They get UCLA and USC at
home, as well as Cal and Stanford.
They have to travel to Seattle which could
be tough, and they’ll follow that game with a trip to Eugene to try to avenge
their overtime loss to the Ducks last week. |
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USC |
(17-6,
7-3) |
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The Trojans made easy pickens of
the Beavers Thursday night and now have their sights on the Ducks who will
hobble into the Galen center after their humbling loss to the Bruins,
69-57. USC can match up with the
Ducks at all positions and quite honestly, I expect them to win Saturday. Floyd understands how to win and seems
to be pushing all the right buttons this season. Unlike other Pac-10 teams who are
greatly underachieving, Floyd is getting the most out of his players because
above anything else, he might be the best game day coach in the
Pac-10. |
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Stanford |
(14-6,
6-3) |
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Stanford’s double overtime loss
to Gonzaga, 90-86, on Wednesday had to be a tough pill to swallow. The Cardinal had a fantastic run to end
the first half of conference play and a big win against the Zags would have kept
things rolling right along. How
will they respond after the loss?
The Cal Bears will be eager to find out this
weekend. |
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Arizona |
(14-7,
5-5) |
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Wow. So this is what losing feels like. Not only is Arizona losing, but
they’re losing at home. I mean,
c’mon. Granted the teams they’re
falling too have all been ranked teams but last time I checked this was the U of
A. Arizona doesn’t lose but five or
six times a season and when they do it’s usually to a team that played way over
their head and still needed all the pieces to fall perfectly into place to best
the Wildcats by a point or two.
Lately, Arizona seems like they’re trailing teams all
game long. This team, with all its
potential, is doing everything in their power to be known as Arizona’s most
disappointing squad ever. I leave
that up to healthy debate but right now it’s hard to see this team beating any
opponent with a winning record the remainder of the season and I’m hardly
kidding. |
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Washington |
(14-7,
4-6) |
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Wow. So this is what winning feels like. Jon Brockmon was the tip tonight against
the Sun Devils, raced down the court and converted on a thunderous dunk and that
was all she wrote. Three in a row
now for the Huskies who just might be catching the reeling Wildcats at the right
time to pull off the big upset. The
way these two teams are heading in opposite directions right now, the Huskies
may very well play their way into March Madness and they might use what once was
Arizona’s ticket to the Big Dance to get in. |
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California |
(12-9,
4-5) |
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Anderson continues to be a great story
and setting the foundation for what could amount to be an outstanding career in
the Pac-10. He needs more support
though from his teammates. Every
night out, it does seem like one player will step up and help the freshman out
but Cal needs
three or four players clicking to win this season in the highly competitive
Pac-10. Ubaka and Wilkes are both
capable and the return of Hardin (if he returns) won’t
hurt. |
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Oregon State |
(9-14,
1-9) |
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Right now the Beavers have three
games circled on their schedule that suddenly look like potential wins. Arizona
and Arizona State next week and Washington later in the month. All three games are in Corvallis and the Beavers
are always good for at least one monster upset win a season at home. |
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Arizona State |
(6-15,
0-10) |
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Don’t be fooled by Thursday’s
66-61 final score against the Huskies.
The Sun Devils were blown out of their own gym, falling behind by 24
points before staging a late second half rally that made the outcome look
reasonable to box score junkies.
It’s not that ASU is as bad as their winless conference record may
suggest. It’s that the Pac-10’s top
eight teams are so good it’s hard for this young team with their new coach to
break in new schemes and expect to win against such quality opponents game after
game. |
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