Evie

Evie
Originally uploaded by pete4ducks.

Pac 10 Power Poll

The Jay John era ended with a loss in Seattle and the coach found himself the victim of an unusual mid-season firing the likes which have not been seen in the Pac 10 since Dr Evil aka Henry Bibby was canned in favor of Jim Scia. In a somewhat shocking result UCLA was bounced convincingly at home by the very inconsistent but talented USC. Now UCLA will have to go up to Mac Court on Thursday night to face an Oregon team in desperate need of a win with the service of Mata and Btah Mute. I think the Ducks will get the upset but they need to make sure they beat USC as well or their slipping tourney chances will take a hit. Jon Brockman played great all week for the Huskies who got two wins and salvaged their season. Pity the Cal Bears who have a possible Pac 10POY candidate in Ryan Anderson but lost all realistic shot at anything better than the NIT with the home sweep by the Arizona schools. This week the LA schools go to Oregon, the Washington schools go to Arizona and Stanford goes across the Bay to Haas to play Cal.

1. WSU (2) -Broke the streak and the unexpected home loss by UCLA puts WSU in the drivers seat to win the conference if they can beat UCLA at Friel Court (RPI 18 SOS 138). NCAA Lock
2. UCLA (1) - A shocking home loss along with injuries has to raise some questions on the national level. If the tournament started today they would be a 2 seed (RPI 13 SOS 20). NCAA Lock
3. Stanford (4) - Solid home sweep of the Arizona schools including a 4 point win over the Wildcats who have had Stanford's number in Maples lately. Obviously having Brook Lopez back in the swing of things has made this team much better (RPI 27 SOS 82). NCAA Lock
4. ASU (5) - Nice double OT win in Berkeley gives them their first legit road win of the season (RPI 68 SOS 208). NCAA Bubble
5. UO (3) - The Ducks poor shooting at the end of the WSU game was quite costly, a win there and they are looking at a top 5 seed a loss takes them back to sitting on the bubble again. A sweep of the LA schools would get the Ducks right back where they need to be (RPI 33 SOS 27). NCAA Bubble
6. USC (8) - An enigma of a team all came together in getting a very rare road win on the home court of a Ben Howland coached team. A road sweep in Oregon will put them on the good side of the bubble again (RPI 46 SOS 16). NCAA Bubble
7. UA (7) - The Cats split in the Bay Area but the level of improvement with the return of Bayless wasn't what I would have expected. The computer numbers are so high for this team all they really need to do is win 9 conference games and they are okay but the 24 year NCAA streak is in jeopardy a bit (RPI 9 SOS 1) NCAA Bubble
8. UW (9) - Jon Brockman tooled Oregon and Oregon State on the boards. The Huskies would need to win 9 of 13 to have a chance of getting to the NCAAs with the poor computer numbers (RPI 106 SOS 68). NIT
9. Cal (7) - After being swept at home I think you can safely say that Cal can't do anything better than the NIT this year. I can see some pressure mounting on Ben Braun. (RPI 91 SOS 56) NIT
10. OSU (10) - Bob Decarrolis mercifully took Jay John out of his misery. At this point things can only go up and the Beavs need an impact hire which will be hard with the worst facilities in the conference and tons of fan apathy (RPI 236 SOS 178).