Pac-10 Tournament: Why Bother?

Arizona’s recent resurgence notwithstanding, the Pacific 10 Conference is going to have difficulty convincing the NCAA Basketball Tournament Selection Committee its conference ranks with the nation’s elite. For awhile, the Pac-10’s balance was its strength this season, but the way the Wildcats have made a shambles of games down the stretch has altered that notion considerably.

For all practical purposes, the Pac-10 tournament championship game scheduled for Sunday at ASU is a foregone conclusion. Arizona has won its last nine Pac-10 games by an average of 21.2 points and should have a home-court advantage as fans make the 100-mile trip north from Tucson.

There’s really nothing to prove this weekend. The Pac-10’s prime contenders for an invitation to the NCAA party can only damage their chances by playing an anticlimactic tournament. Hats off to the Pac-10 presidents for having the wisdom to terminate it.

This is not the ACC or the Big East, where fans go into a frenzy over basketball. Those postseason tournaments gave everyone ideas, but the atmosphere simply isn’t the same in the West. Have you been to a game at USC or ASU lately? UCLA’s fans are like programmed robots. They show up, but they don’t really seem to care. Except for places like Tucson, Berkeley, Corvallis, Las Vegas and Goleta, there isn’t much intensity or emotion for college hoops.

Even Lute Olson, who has done a masterful job bringing back his young Wildcats from an 0-2 conference start to a co-championship, wants no part of the Pac-10 tourney. In fact, he suggests his team’s comeback may not have been necessary if there was no conference tourney.

“Because of the tourney,” Olson explained, “we had to make a tough Pac-10 trip to Oregon in early December. Now, without a tournament next year, we’ll be able to play our conference games when we should, after the first of the year.”

The inference is that the Wildcats might not have suffered back-to-back defeats at the Oregons, Nov. 30-Dec. 2, if the games had been played four or five weeks later. But at least the Pac-10 had an opportunity to delude itself about parity while Dr. Olson required more time to create his monster. Oregon State had a chance to tie for the title, and Cal likely will land in the NCAA tournament for the first time in 30 years.

That’s a healthy situation, of course, but the public shouldn’t be swayed into thinking the Pac-10 is a powerhouse. All of its top teams have weaknesses, though Arizona obviously has the blossoming talent to overcome them. The Wildcats are best equipped to advance in the NCAAs, joining Nevada-Las Vegas and Loyola Marymount as the best teams on the West Coast.

Keep in mind that Arizona didn’t have to beat great teams during its current 11-game winning streak, with the exception of a 78-74 victory over Oklahoma, now No. 1. The Wildcats blew away Cal by 25 points at Berkeley and crushed passive Oregon State by 27 Saturday to tie the Beavers for the championship.

While the Wildcats were demolishing their Pac-10 competition, they ventured out of conference play for three games: losses at Pittsburgh, UNLV and Duke. This doesn’t bode well for the Pac-10 in the tourney, and it’s apparent Arizona’s best days are ahead, when redshirt Chris Mills joins the steadily improving team next season.

Oregon State and Cal are good, not great. UCLA doesn’t deserve NCAA tourney consideration following its collapse. UC Santa Barbara and New Mexico State are more worthy. The Beavers will go as far as Gary Payton takes them. They over-achieved in the Pac-10, but are vulnerable to any tournament team with bulk up front and sharp-shooting guards.

The Golden Bears have made strides in becoming a road-tough team, leading the Pac-10 with a 7-2 road record in conference play, yet their inconsistency remains. How else can you explain a mere 5-4 conference record at home, including blowouts by Arizona, UCLA and Stanford?

Moreover, Cal may not make it to the NCAA tournament if it is eliminated quickly in the Pac-10 tournament. Ironically, Lou Campanelli was a proponent of the conference tournament. Pretenders love the format. It’s a lot easier to win 20 games when you play 35, as the Bears did in 1986-87. Contenders, like Olson, would just as soon sit on their reputation.

Why the Big West and the West Coast Conference went to a postseason tourney is more understandable. They begged for recognition in the shadow of the Pac-10, so the national TV exposure of conference tourney title games proved beneficial for their images.

But those conferences won’t gain with such games this week. Loyola Marymount seemed a WCC tourney cinch until tragedy struck Sunday. It is extremely doubtful the conference will have more than one team in the NCAA event, and the 23-5 Lions have been weakened mentally and physically by the loss of Hank Gathers.

UNLV also has nothing to gain and everything to lose by having to prove itself all over in the Big West tourney this weekend. New Mexico State and UCSB proved the Rebels vincible with regular-season upsets at home, but aren’t likely to down the best team in the West on a neutral court. Early losses by New Mexico State and Santa Barbara this week, however, could hinder their NCAA chances.

It all depends on the draw, of course, but UNLV seems more capable of advancing in postseason play than do the inexperienced Wildcats. Since Loyola Marymount has decided to participate, the Lions’ record-shattering offensive pace is disruptive to teams accustomed to playing conventionally. LMU also is blessed with talented shooters such as Bo Kimble and Jeff Fryer.

UNLV also has firepower, the best power forward in the West (Larry Johnson) and perhaps the region’s finest defender (Stacey Augmon). The Rebels also have Jerry Tarkanian, who annually overcomes distractions to finish strong. He regards the current Rebels potentially his best-balanced team. Who’s to argue? All five starters are averaging in double figures.

The Lions and the Rebels have veteran players on whom you can depend. Arizona isn’t quite to that point yet, but it’s a matter of time. Whether that time will come in the next few days remains to be seen. If not, the Pac-10 will be on the outside looking in again when the NCAA West Regionals are staged in Oakland, March 23-25.