Valentine’s Day Power Poll

Oregon in February got to love it . . . well not I don’t love it but I am excited for the upcoming 7 weeks because of a few factors. One is that we have entered the time of year where teams are falling off and on the bubble and resumes are being polished. I still think the Pac 10 looks like a 3 team league that will get 4 teams invited and while Stanford played heroically in it’s two losses this weekend they are the team that will be on the outside looking in. Second will be the whole Championship Week, Selection Sunday roll in to the actual tourney and then finally I will be taking leave of the US to visit my family in Taiwan. Hope I can find some channel that are showing the games from round 3 on in Asia . . . well on to this week’s poll:

1. UCLA (1) – Lost a toughie at UW a place where not many teams win. Discounting UW UCLA has only been bested by Cal however they still have to venture to Berkeley once more and that one could be for the regular season title. Great defensive performance in Pullman by the way Ben Howland.
2. Cal (3) One a tough one versus Stanford at Haas. Very key win as it puts the Pac regular season title in Cal’s hands if they can beat UCLA at home and then they would have the tie-breaker over the Bruins due to a sweep of UCLA. Cal is a lock for the NCAA’s now and are working on raising their seed number.
3. UW (5) I think UW moved themselves off the bubble. They added a sweep of UCLA to their resume and the Gonzaga win looks better now that they have beaten Stanford (albeit it was close but a win is a win).
4. Arizona (4) Needed to sweep the Oregon schools and did though it took a minor miracle aided by dumb coaching, questionable officiating and incompetent play by Oregon to get Lute a must win. We will look back at the Oregon game as perhaps the reason why Arizona will be making the NCAA tournament field in a month.
5. Stanford (2) Played two tough road games and loss them both in close fashion. Unfortunately they needed to get a road win this weekend to pump up their downtrodden RPI (thanks to UC-Davis and Montana losses). Looks like the Trees only shot at a non-NIT/stay home year is to win the Pac 10 tournament.
6. Oregon (9) It takes serious talent to blow a 7 point lead in a little over a minute but Oregon was up to the task. Nice rebound to beat ASU but it all just shows that this is probably a Top 30 team talent wise that just can’t put it together for some reason or another.
7. WSU (7) The Cougs managed to only have 12 points at halftime versus UCLA but rebounded nicely against USC. No injury to Derrick Low and these guys might be sitting in 4^th place or better right now. I think Dick Bennett will try to make a NCAA run next year and then let son Tony take over. He has planted the seeds in the hardest place to win in this league. Quite impressive with the Mid-Major monster of Gonzaga 70 minutes up the road and a very solid UW program to the west.
8. USC (6) After beating Arizona at home two weeks ago after a road sweep of the Oregon schools the talk in LA was that USC was a few more wins from putting themselves in the discussion for a NCAA bid. Then the loss to ASU occurred, Greg Pruitt got hurt and the season went in the tank. USC should salvage a NIT bid which considering the disaster that was last year is a pretty good season. Now they need to have Nick Young stick around for another year and build off that.
9. ASU (8) Well ASU finally got a Pac 10 home win but the Oregon loss was just another nail in Evans coffin.
10. OSU (10) The wheels on the bus have fallen off. Lets see if the return of Jason Fontenot can help OSU to try to salvage a home win this weekend. All they can do now is try and cause damage to other teams years.