The Official PAC-10 Tourney Thread..

[AsUdUdE]

Here we go... it should be a VERY interesting tournament this year... With the win against CAL, ASU I believe should secure the #3 seed, though on the PAC-10 website right now they still have ASU playing UofA in the first round...

I honeslty believe there are 7 teams that have a legit shot at winning the tourney, my dark horse?... Washington St....

Thoughts?

 

[Hazzard29]

I know Wazzu is hot right now, but I dont give them much of a chance to win the tourney. My darkhorse would be ASU, if you wanna call a #3 seed a darkhorse. ASU's toughest game may be against UofA... its difficult to beat your rival 3 times in a season.

Should be a good tourney.

 

[Mathew81]

ASU is the #4 seed. They are tied with Cal at 11-7 but Cal has the tie-breaker. First tie-breaker is head to head but it was 1-1. The next tie-breaker is record against the team at the top of the conference. Cal swept UW and UW sweapt ASU.

 

[AsUdUdE]

ASU is the #4 seed. They are tied with Cal at 11-7 but Cal has the tie-breaker. First tie-breaker is head to head but it was 1-1. The next tie-breaker is record against the team at the top of the conference. Cal swept UW and UW sweapt ASU.

Thats pretty gay...you would think overall record would be the second tie-breaker, but whatever...

ASU/UofA should be VERY entertaining.. I honeslty think UofA needs to win to get in the tourney, and ASU would like NOTHING better than to beat UofA for the 5th straight time and deny them their 40 billionth tourney appearence in a row...

 

[Russ Smith]

WSU is playing as well as anybody but the problem for them is in a tournament depth becomes a factor when you play everyday and they don't have a lot of contributing depth.

UW and UCLA seem to have the most depth, ASU has the best player, hell they may have the 2 best in Harden and Pendergraph. UW has the best regular season and with Dentmon and Brockman they're awfully tough.

Should be a great tourney.

 

[Skkorpion]

Where is the tournament played? LA? If so, it's UCLA in a slam dunk.

 

[AsUdUdE]

Where is the tournament played? LA? If so, it's UCLA in a slam dunk.

In LA, at the Staples Center

 

[PoolBoy]

I don't see Washington St. winning it either for some reason. But they could if Rochestie is still on fire. If ASU beats UofA (it will be a crazy game i think), I could see them going all the way. If not, I'm with Skkorp, Pac-10 refs cave to hometown fans, UCLA.

 

[ajcardfan]

The Pac 10 tournament seems to be the one of the boringest in all of college basketball every year. It's way overdue for a Cinderella winner or, at least, some very close games. I have a feeling that something nutty is going to happen....

 

[MaoTosiFanClub]

The Pac 10 tournament seems to be the one of the boringest in all of college basketball every year.

It does have a stale feel to it. Staples is usually about 1/4 full at most and some coaches who have locked up Tourney berths seemingly don't care whether they win or lose. I personally wouldn't mind if UA wins on Thursday to lock up a spot then loses on Friday so they can rest up.

 

[PoolBoy]

exactly, ASU games will be the only ones I watch, Pac-10 tourney is boring. Whereas I will watch every game of the BEAST tourney that I can.

 

[Dback Jon]

They need to rotate the tournament around to each of the five "states" in the Pac 10

 

[HooverDam]

^Indeed, Ive been saying for some time that the Pac 10 tourney needs to rotate between the Key Arena, the Rose Garden, Oracle Arena, Staples Center and USAC. Having it on a 5 year rotation would likely drive up attendance since it would be a rarity and more exciting for the local fan bases.

 

[Russ Smith]

I just hate conference tournaments on principle. I think the team that wins the regular season should win, it just lets in teams who get hot at the right time and rewards that over consistency IMHO.

UCLA had very favorable offiicating over the weekend against OSU and Oregon. In the Oregon game UCLA got called for a foul with 29 seconds left in the first half, which was the FIRST foul called on them in the game. To be fair, UCLA had played zero defense in the first half, Oregon was shooting over 50% from 3 and until they missed their last 9 shots of the half they were over 60% for the half. When you play no defense, you don't foul much, but it was pretty crazy. 6 total fouls in the half.

Staples is not a home game for UCLA but obviously then and USC would figure to get the edge. Totally agree it should be rotated but personally I wish they'd do away with it.

 

[MaoTosiFanClub]

^Indeed, Ive been saying for some time that the Pac 10 tourney needs to rotate between the Key Arena, the Rose Garden, Oracle Arena, Staples Center and USAC. Having it on a 5 year rotation would likely drive up attendance since it would be a rarity and more exciting for the local fan bases.

Doubtful.

ASU and Arizona's games on neutral courts this year in Phoenix did horribly from an attendance standpoint and those appearances are rare. And let's pretend Portland was the host this year, the attendance would be horribly bad with both those teams probably getting ousted by Thursday. Southern California without a doubt has the most alumni of all the Pac-10 schools combined and is the easiest to get in and out of from a travel standpoint so that's why it will always be there.

The Pac-10 Tourney is simply a product of money-hungry school presidents, it really doesn't serve any purpose other than to line some pockets.

 

[HooverDam]

^Those were early season games in Phx this season, which isn't really comparable to the Pac 10 tourney. You're right about if it happened to land in a city in a year where both 'home' teams were down the attendance would be down, but the likelihood of that happening very often seems rare.

 

[Russ Smith]

Classic example today of why I hate conference tourneys. Cincinnati on the bubble plays DePaul who went winless in the Big East this year but makes the tourney anyways as all teams do. Cincy blows it, loses by 10, and is now almost assuredly out of the NCAA tourney.

The argument is always that tournaments can help you get more teams in but I always argue the opposite is true too. Big East found that out today, Cincy has no chance now to get in and it also hurts Providence who plays DePaul next, because beating Depaul does nothing for them, losing would knock them out.

 

[Dback Jon]

Cincy was out before the loss to DePaul.

Providence is out as of now, with a 71 RPI. Only chance Cincy or Providence had was a deep run (i.e. semis for Cincy, Championship game for Providence).

 

[MaoTosiFanClub]

^Those were early season games in Phx this season, which isn't really comparable to the Pac 10 tourney.

Arizona played Gonzaga who was a top 5 team at the time, how is that not comparable to playing in an essentially meaningless Tournament?

You're right about if it happened to land in a city in a year where both 'home' teams were down the attendance would be down, but the likelihood of that happening very often seems rare.

Attendance is going to be down no matter where it is. If you can't get butts in the seats in the second biggest city in the country it won't happen anywhere.

Were it to stay I think it should be moved to different hubs (Seattle, SF, LA, Phx, Portland rotation) or annually in one of San Diego, Vegas, Reno or wherever for true neutral court reasons but the attendance probably won't rise all that much. There just isn't all that much interest in Pac-10 basketball regionally.

 

[MaoTosiFanClub]

And let's also not forget that the reason the Pac-0 Tournament came back is because Lavin switched his vote away from Lute and Monty when the Pac-10 decided to give UCLA/USC a hometown tournament. We'll see how much St. Howland loves the Tourney if it got played in hostile courts 80% of the time.

 

[ajcardfan]

I think the best argument I've heard in favor of conference tournaments is that it makes NCAA basketball the sport closest to actually every single team an equal chance to win the championship. Think about it, in no other major sport is it even hypothetically possible for a team like DePaul to still be able win their conference or even the National Championship.

 

[HooverDam]

Arizona played Gonzaga who was a top 5 team at the time, how is that not comparable to playing in an essentially meaningless Tournament?

Like I said ,it was early season. People aren't in college basketball mode at that time of year. In March, its on peoples minds.

If you can't get butts in the seats in the second biggest city in the country it won't happen anywhere.

Yes LA is the 2nd largest city in the country, but its also a pretty lukewarm sports market like Phoenix that has trouble drawing consistent numbers.

Were it to stay I think it should be moved to different hubs (Seattle, SF, LA, Phx, Portland rotation) or annually in one of San Diego, Vegas, Reno or wherever for true neutral court reasons but the attendance probably won't rise all that much. There just isn't all that much interest in Pac-10 basketball regionally.

I'm not for the Pac 10 tourney either, the Pac 10 plays a true round robin, so its not necessary. However, I dont think theyll ever do away with it for monetary reasons, so its unrealistic to say 'well lets just get rid of it'. I too think it should rotate between Pdx, Phx, the Bay, LA and Seattle.

I don't like a rotation of true neutral places like Reno/LV/SD just because the travel is more of an issue. At least if you're keeping it in Pac 10 hubs, you'll be able to bus students in from 2 schools. Plus, I'm selfish, I live in Phoenix, I want to go see the games just down the street from me every few years

 

[Skkorpion]

Yup. It sucks. It really is just to raise money. And I'll watch every game televised and hope ASU wins it. So there.

 

[TheKid_1]

Classic example today of why I hate conference tourneys. Cincinnati on the bubble plays DePaul who went winless in the Big East this year but makes the tourney anyways as all teams do. Cincy blows it, loses by 10, and is now almost assuredly out of the NCAA tourney.

The argument is always that tournaments can help you get more teams in but I always argue the opposite is true too. Big East found that out today, Cincy has no chance now to get in and it also hurts Providence who plays DePaul next, because beating Depaul does nothing for them, losing would knock them out.

Gotta love the fact that Cleveland state just won their tourney and now are in when they weren't in before...that takes one bubble teams spot away.

 

[FArting]

Pac 10 Tourney starts tonight

Stanford vs Oregon State

Oregon vs Washington State