Oregon hoops what can I say . . . I thought they had a gutty effort against Vandy and they lost on a heart breaking shot, I can accept that . . . then they laid an egg to an agressive and big Georgetwon team ending a 37 game home winning streak against non Pac 10 foes, they seemed to show no life in that game and obviuosly were hungover from the Vandy loss but we have seen that often with Kent teams, losing streaks after heart breaking L's . . . facing Illinois on Saturday is pretty much a make or break game for the Ducks as for the NCAA's, I don't really see a lot of differnce from last year but maybe I can be convinced otherwise . . . How bad is the Pac 10 in basketball . . . I am talking about you Stanford . . . lose by 19 to Montana and then lose to UC Davis . . . do your self a favor and check out Bob Clark's article in the guard today . . . by the way UC Davis lost to Cal State Stanislaus . . . no suprise to me that Oregon lost out on the BCS . . . when LSU and then Va Tech lost I know that OSU and NDU were locked in to the 4th and 6th places leaving the Fiesta Bowl no choice in taking the 5th place BCS team . . . I think OSU, UO and Notre Dame all have good arguments someone was gonna bet hosed and luckily for John Junker the rules took his desicion out of the mix . . . the Pac 10 has definitely been more hurt by the BCS than any other conference in terms of payouts though I think the worst exclusion ever was probably K State in 1998 . . . Note to the Ducks, you better beat a very much improved Oklahoma team in San Diego or all the wining from fans is meaningless, the coaches and players though have handled the whole thing with pride and class and I give them kudos for that . . . the two biggest BCS shafts (ie not getting a bid, not the no championship game garbabe that screwed Oregon and USC) in the past were probably K State and Cal and both lost pretty badly in there lower tier bowl games . . . I see the Ducks showing up but Oklahoma should be not underestimated . . . expect to see Alliotti sell out to the run and hope Petersen can be stopped . . . I see a whole lotta Ngata in his future . . . well looking forward to going the Pape Jam on Saturday, hope the Ducks decide to show up to . . . speaking of hoops does the Pac 10 even get 4 bids this year? Right now I'd say no based on RPI numbers but they will probably change as the year goes on . . .

Cheers and Jeers

Cheers . . . Adam Morrison as a player of the year candidate
Jeers . . . Adam Morrison's porn-stasche
Cheers . . . Oregon going 10-1
Jeers . . . lacking a marquee win to lock up a Fiesta bid
Cheers . . . The Maui invitational
Jeers . . . The lack of other good holiday tournaments

Well for anyone who got a chance to catch any of the MSU/ Gonzaga game last night it was a classic. Both of those teams played at very high levels. I can always count on Izzo to go a long ways in March but we shall see if Few can ever put it together. I just don't think the Zags improve as much as High-Major conference teams in Janauary and February becuase of the conference they play in.

Oregon is 3-0 but I don't think they have been any where close to tested. Pacific is a good name after doing well in the tourney last year but they lost 7 major contributors from last year's team.

Hope everyone can enjoy Thanksgiving!

Pac 10 Basketball predictions

Oh first I want to preface this by saying I am way behind on my research. Since moving up to Portland I have way less free time than I did in Eugene for a variety of reasons that are mainly good. I am pretty much throwing these picks up based on who is returning from last year and I have yet to see any games from Pac 10 squads this year. However come February I promise that I will be a Pac 10 hoops expert again. Here are my picks:

1. Arizona - some good senior leadership along with quality youngsters
2. UCLA - Bringing East Coast toughness to the Pac 10
3. Washington - Brockman looks to be a candidate for Pac 10 Frosh of the year
4. Stanford - Cagey, experienced need to avoid injury bug of last year
5. Cal - So much depends on Powe's health
6. Oregon - Lots of upside, I wonder about the chemistry though, Kent can't afford another year not playing in the NCAA's with the recruits he has pulled in
7. Oregon State - Scrappy team, we shall see how they replace Lucas
8. WSU - No one likes to play WSU . . .
9. USC - hope is renewed with Floyd at the helm . . . I miss Doctor Evil though
10. Arizona State - this will be Evans swansong, if they couldn't win with Diogu how are they gonna win with out him

Pac 10 Power Rankings 11/14/05

Huge changes from last week's ratings, I see the scenario of where only 4 Pac 10 teams end up in bowls, if ASU loses to Zona it seems likely unless Stanford can beat either Cal or Notre Dame or shudder Oregon State can beat Oregon . . . the Trees have to be kicking themselves still for that UC Davis debacle

1. USC - Rolled up Cal, covered the spread, 3 wins away from history . . .
2. Oregon - survived a scare in Pullman, what's new . . .
3. UCLA - Came back after the U of A loss, maybe they have more character than previous Bruins teams which I think bodes well for Dorrel's future
4. Cal - Ayoob just doesn't make good desicions
5. Stanford - This team is bi-polar I think, nice win in Corvallis
6. ASU - Played UCLA pretty tough, just not enough, I'll predict that if Koetter loses to Arizona in two weeks, his services will no longer be needed in Tempe
7. UW - Wow a Husky win, shocking to say the least, will they ever lose 14 in a row in the Pac 10? Or will anyone for that matter?
8. Arizona - A wee bit overconfident Stoops and company?
9. Oregon State - Moore is done and most likely so are the Beavs bowl chances
10. WSU - Have to be the best 0-7 team in Pac 10 history . . . again they played just well enough to lose another close game

PAC 10 Power Rankings

USC - Best offense ever?
UO - They won without Clemens, very close game could have gone either way but Ngata and the Oregon defense stepped up big late and Bellotti went with a hunch and let Leaf play and it paid off.
Cal - Yeah they have lost 3 of 4 but they did take Oregon to OT in Autzen
Arizona - They killed UCLA so I have to rank them ahead of UCLA, they really have to regret blowing the Stanford and Oregon games, I'd predict Arizona will be a bowl team next year
UCLA - It is November and UCLA is fading, why do we expect that to ever change . . .
ASU - Well they won a road game albiet is was at winless WSU
OSU - Wins in Seattle are rare for the Beavs but they had to get a W and greatly improved their bowl chances
Stanford - I think injuries are catching up to them . . .
WSU - playing just well enough to lose every week, that is the definition of Coogin it!
UW - can they go 0-8 back to back years in the Pac 10? Has there ever been a bigger fade job for what has traditionally been a Top 15 program?