Pac 10 Power Poll 2/6/06

Well first off I have to say that I have never seen an NFL game called in such a one-sided manner as yesterday’s Super Bowl. Not to take anything away from Pittburgh but the Seahawks had at least 11 points taken off the board and that doesn’t include some other skeptical calls made by the Zebras. Unless the NFL wants to be put in the same league as the NBA which gets accused of picking which teams they want to win in the playoffs the NFL needs to firm up there officiating pronto. Well on to the good ole Pac 10 Power Poll:

1. UCLA (1) Swept the Zona schools and in my opinion have completely distanced themselves from the rest of the pack. This team looks like they have a decent run in them come March and the future looks very bright for Ben Howland.
2. Stanford (3) Road sweeps are huge. Chris Hernandez continues his owning of the Oregon Ducks and Matt Harayasz just might sneak in and take Pac 10 player of the year. A win at Gonzaga this Saturday might get these guys in the Big Dance which is amazing after the disaster of their non-conference schedule.
3. Cal (4) Hadn’t done much of anything on the road this year but a nice sweep of the Willamette Valley puts Cal in the NCAA’s as of right now.
4. Arizona (2) It is almost disaster time in Tucson. Lute is one more bad loss from the NIT and the significance of that is epic. Arizona has the second longest NCAA tournament appearance streak in NCAA under Olson but the loss to USC will haunt them and I don’t know if they would get in today if the bids came out. A home sweep of the Oregon schools this week is absolutely necessary.
5. UW (5) WSU has the number of the Dawgs who if they keep it up just might find themselves in the NIT a year after being a #1 seed. A terrible OOC schedule will hurt them and remember though they beat Gonzaga the Zags were nowhere near full strength and still almost beat UW. If UW doesn’t make the NCAA’s they can look at their two games versus WSU as the reason why.
6. USC (6) Had a chance to make a statement and get on the bubble before they blew that game to ASU. However the NIT is a nice get for a team many picked for 10^th in the conference.
7. WSU (9) Beat UW by 13 . . . now if they could only play as well against the rest of the league as they do against Lorenzo Romar’s boys.
8. ASU (10) Well this team plays tough and you know they were going to knock off someone good soon, funny that both Pac 10 wins they have are on the road.
9. UO (7) Ernie Kent does less with more than any coach in this conference. What many Ducks fans were hoping to see was a 4-0 home-stand and had that happened Oregon would be in 2^nd place in the conference. Instead 4 close losses occurred with some questionable coaching decisions and lack of execution down the stretch. Oregon basketball these days reminds me of the Paul Hackett USC regime of the late 90’s and 2000. Great athletes who just don’t seem to improve while in the current system and who seem to lack heart. I think the blame needs to be put on Kent and his assistants for that.
10. OSU (8) An 0-4 home stretch makes for an angry Jay John. This is a senior laden team who I expected a bit more from this year.