Pac 10 Power Poll 1/23/06

Not a lot of movement this week. ASU and WSU were both swept at home, the Cougars really seemed to Coog it against Oregon , allowing Malik Hairston to hit 2 three pointers in the final 12 seconds to lead the Ducks to a much needed road win, in fact their first victory outside the confines of Mac Court in the 05/06 campaign. UCLA’s loss to West Virgina shows the depth of the Big East and cements my feeling that unless the conference tournament winner is not one of our current Top 3 teams the Pac 10 is destined for a 3 bid year.

1. Washington (1) Faced a tough game against the Beavs and then blew the Ducks out of the water.

2. UCLA (2) Crushed USC then lost a close OOC match-up to West Virginia who is one of the teams out there capable of making a national championship run in March.

3. Arizona (4) Swept the Bay Area schools at home in two close match-up. This is not a vintage Lute team.

4. Stanford (3) Close but no cigar against U of A. Ultimately that loss all but killed Stanford’s at large chances with their horrid RPI and horrific early season play.

5. Cal (5) Split on the road , that is what you want to do in this conference. Cal has the best resume outside of the top 3 but has to be still kicking themselves over the OSU loss at home.

6. Oregon (6) Nice split on the road. The Ducks may have ruined WSU’s miracle season. Malik Hairston is starting to become the real deal on the offensive end.

7. OSU (9) Big mover of the week. Played UW tough on the road and then beat the Cougs to give WSU a 0-2 weekend which going in to it they probably should have swept.

8. USC (7) Pummeled by the cross town Bruins they should at least be rested for their trip up to Oregon this week.

9. WSU (8) The Cougars pretty much killed their chance of an NCAA bid with being swept at home by the Oregon schools. Realistically they needed to to win at least 11 conferences games this year to make it to the NCAA’s and that is unattainable now. A rally to the NIT would be huge for WSU with the easier part of the home schedule concluded I don’t see the Cougars finishing over .500 now and it will be another quiet March in Pullman.

10. ASU (10) They were competitive at home but were swept. I don’t see this team not finishing last in the Pac 10 this year.

Pac 10 Power Poll 1/18/06

Well only once in the history of the Pac 10 has every team had at least 2 loses in the first 3 weeks of the regular season, that was in 1987 when UCLA finished 14-4. This stat care of http://www.pac-10.org/

Well I think this bodes poorly for the seeds the conference will receive in the NCAA’s but once there who knows what can happen. Arizona’s run to the national championship saw them finish 5^th in conference play but tops in the nation when all was said and done. Well here we go this list was hard to choose this week outside of ASU at 10 and even they picked up a nice win in Corvallis. One thing I know is that Lute Olson has to be worried:

1. UW (5) Bounced back from a tough two game home losing streak with an impressive sweep of the LA schools. The Dawgs appear to be on track and I look for them to sweep the Oregon schools at home this week in pretty easy fashion.
2. UCLA (1) Took a tough home loss to UW and injuries are obviously hurting this team. If everyone is healthy they may have the most talented squad in the conference.
3. Stanford (8) Big riser this week, they handled Cal and haven’t lost at home, only Oregon can match that so far.
4. Arizona (2) Lute losing 2 in Oregon is rare.
5. Cal (4) I can’t place them ahead of Stanford when Stanford beats them by 14.
6. UO (9) Nice sweep at home, Hairston seems to be coming in to his own.
7. USC (7) Split at home, not gonna move them this week
8. WSU (3) Close but no cigar for Dick Bennett’s boys. They haven’t beat Oregon in 8 tries but a sweep would probably put WSU back in contention for the 4^th bid in the conference
9. OSU (6) Great job pummeling Arizona then blow it to ASU at home? If they want to have a shot to compete in this league you can’t lose to bottom feeders at home.
10. ASU (10) Nice win in Corvallis but that is not enough to save Rob Evans

Pac 10 Power Poll 1/9/06

Pac 10 Power Poll 1/9/06

RPI loves a few Pac 10 teams but I really have to wonder how great the conference is on a national level. Andy Katz from ESPN mentioned the Missouri Valley getting 4 bids this year, I agree that is a very good possibility and the leagues that are likely to be hurt by that are the Pac 10 and Big XII (who is getting hammered in RPI because of the struggling of the conference and the zero games played by Baylor). Teams of the week have to be OSU and WSU, the Cougs won on Washington’s home court and have a highly superior RPI while the Beavs gave Cal its first loss in conference play. Jay John has to be a happy with being 1-2 after a tough 3 game road streak.

1. UCLA (4) Winning on the road in Tucson is hard, they struggled to beat ASU but did win the game so I put them number one . . .

2. Arizona (1) Losing to UCLA at home could come back and bite these guys . . .

3. WSU (6) Don’t look now but who has the better resume for March for the Pac 10’s Washington schools, it is the boys from Pullman who sport the higher SOS, RPI and have a win in Seattle . . .

4. Cal (3) All primed to be ranked #1 and then they go and lose to Oregon State at home?

5. UW (2) Managed to go from being in the discussion for a 1 seed to being a bubble team . . . their RPI sucks, they have lost 2 in a row at home and outside of Gonzaga have played a pathetic OOC schedule.

6. OSU (9) Road wins at Berkeley are a rare thing . . . now they get to play back in Gill and should be able to split at worst against the Arizona schools

7. USC (5) Beat ASU barely to get to 2 wins on the Pac 10 season, obviously they are much improved from last year

8. Stanford (7) Yeah they swept the Oregon schools but injuries and lack of athleticism doom this team

9. Oregon (8) Well in 2001-2002 they were swept in the Bay as well . . . some controversy at the end of the Stanford game . . . ASU on Thursday should provide some relief for this beleaguered squad

10. ASU (10) 0-4 facing a 2 game road swing . . . a split would be huge

Finally I wanted to say good luck to Haloti Ngata in the NFL draft, thanks for all the great memories #96!

The Rose Bowl

The Rose Bowl . . . wow how about the 4 BCS games all were entertaining and we saw some amazing offensive performances but again just like everyone else on planet Earth I was floored by Mr. Young of Texas . . . here are some quick takes . . . Vince Young’s draft status will never be higher than it is now, he should leave for the NFL and it will cause quite a dilemma for the Houston Texans as they are from Vince’s hometown. If I were them I’d trade down to get some more picks ala the Chargers in the Vick deal and focus on improving their O-line. Who cares who the qb and running back are if the hogs up front can’t keep the defense out of the backfield . . . Matt Leinart came out looking like a huge jerk after the game I thought with his “We were the better team comment” . . . if the Texans take Bush and let’s say New Orleans goes with Young then how far does Leinart slip? The Jets could use a QB but with Pennington’s cap number how can they afford to take Leinart? Wonder if he ends up in a place like Arizona now, tough luck for a guy who would have been the #1 pick of last years draft . . . Carroll made a bunch of poor decisions that really aided Texas . . . one not calling the time out in the first half when Texas scored on the Young pitch where he knee was down, they had timeouts to burn and by calling one it could have given the replay guys more time to review the play . . ., Leinart’s dive on 4^th a field goal would have been warranted and would have put USC in OT at worst based on the final score. . . going for it on the much discussed 4^th and one run with White I respect the call but thought it was way wrong . . . first of all if you punt Texas will have to drive at least 80 yards in less that 45 seconds when Texas had only two plays in the arsenal short passes or Young runs, why give them a 25 yard head start? Second everyone in the world knew the play call, why not have Bush in the backfield as well to at least give the Texas defense something else to think about . . . not having a spy on Young on the TD score was unbelievably dumb, Carroll calls the defensive plays that goes on him . . . Finally the callingof the timeout on the 2 point conversion . . . you know you need a field goal regardless, the time out was more valuable than the points I thought . . . had USC had another timeout they could have gone over the middle on the last play and had they completed it may have had a chance for a long field goal . . . When it comes down to it though USC played the same type of ball they have all year, keeping opponents in the game because of their suspect defense and not killing enough clock and making first half mistakes and then hoping that the O could bail them out in the end. We saw this model work against Notre Dame, ASU and Fresno but it finally caught up to them against Texas.

Some Holiday Bowl thoughts, football season memories and hoops power pol

First up got to say that I am very happy with a 10-2 finish for Oregon and I give all the credit in the world to Oklahoma for playing a great game. Bellotti went with what had worked in the last 3 ½ games that is going with the rotation on series rather than the hot hand . . . I disagree and like the hot hand theory (Dixon was useless after getting pulled after taken Oregon down the field twice though only 7 points arose from it) . . . well had the Ducks managed anything offensively in the 3^rd quarter they wouldn’t have been in the position for a miracle to arise even to get back in to the game at the end. I would have liked to see some more screens done to mitigate the OU pass rush and I really disagreed with the toss sweep on 3^rd and 1 where the Ducks got stuffed. Hats off to Oklahoma and even more so hats off to the Ducks! Nice job by Bellotti by admitting changes needed to be made and hiring Crowton, hats off to the players for playing as a team and not as individuals, hats off to Senior leadership (Clemens, Trucks, Day, D Will, T-Dub, Devan Long etc). Next year presents a very challenging schedule but I think the Ducks will be highly competitive this year.

Power Poll for the Week of 1/2/06

Hmm some shakeups here I would say with the start of the Pac 10 Regular Season

1. Arizona (3) . . . the double OT thriller was a classic and it took some huge shots by Roy to keep UW from losing earlier . .. Lute has to consider this as one of his greatest Pac 10 games of his amazing career. RPI now loves the Cats and they have to be the new favorite to take the conference crown
2. UW (1) . . . Tough loss no reason to hang their heads . . . soft schedule may not have prepared them for the challenge UA brought
3. Cal (5) . . . They beat UCLA in Pauley so I have to consider them legit
4. UCLA (2) . . . Slipped up against Cal . . . still I see them as a very solid NCAA team in a conference that has moved from 11 to 6 in RPI over the last 3 weeks
5. USC (4) . . . Beating Stanford used to mean something
6. WSU (7) . . . Another team that the computers like . . . I think they will rally win 6-8 games in the Pac 10 and go to the NIT which in Pullman is quite an accomplishment
7. Stanford (6) . . . if they can’t sweep the Oregon schools at home they will drop to #10 in my book which is where RPI ranks them
8. Oregon (10) . . . they beat the Beavs at home in what might be the last time they are a favorite this year outside of ASU at home
9. Oregon State (8) . . . played Oregon tough but this team is pretty short on talent, I do think they will return the favor to the Ducks in Corvallis
10. ASU (9) . . . I haven’t seen this team play but they were not competitive in their trip to Washington