Top to Bottom, Craziness Rules Pac-10

Stanford is still above the fray, though USC and UCLA will try to put a dent in the Cardinal’s unbeaten record in the Pacific 10 Conference today and Saturday.

But watch out below.

The Pac-10 wackiness has been almost unabated.

“My only fear is that the perception around the country will be, ‘How can these teams be beaten by those teams?’ and people will think our league is down,” Washington Coach Bob Bender said. “In reality, I think our league is up.”

Bender’s team is the victim of overly high expectations as well as the bunching of talent that has spurred the craziness.

* Washington, which reached the NCAA Sweet 16 last season, is 0-3 in the Pac-10 after being picked to contend behind Stanford. Start counting the Huskies as a longshot to return to the NCAA tournament. The losses are to Washington State, Arizona State and Arizona.

* Arizona State, picked well back in the pack, is 2-2 under new Coach Rob Evans, with Eddie House and Bobby Lazor leading the way. And the losses? The Sun Devils took UCLA to overtime and fell to USC by two.

* Most surprising is Oregon State, which was supposed to share the cellar with Washington State, but swept USC and UCLA behind the play of guard Deaundra Tanner a season after losing Corey Benjamin to the NBA draft and three starters all told.

“This is a different group of guys here,” Tanner said. “The guys are smarter and more fundamentally sound basketball players and really don’t play with a lot of ego. They play to win, and for the team. I really enjoy playing with these guys.”

What does it all mean? Coaches are saying the bottom of the league is gone, and one statistic supports that: No team has a losing record overall, although Washington State, at 7-7, soon will.

There’s No. 4 Stanford at the top, and everyone else in the middle. Upsets, near-upsets, the whole thing has been chaotic, save for Stanford, which is 13-2 and is beating teams by an average of almost 18 points.

Arizona Coach Lute Olson acts as if he believes Stanford might be the first team to go 18-0 in the Pac-10.

“If they lose, it will probably be a surprise to pretty much anybody,” he said. “I think Stanford has shown they have the depth, experience and ability and size and everything else they need to have to be a step in front of everybody.”

ONE MORE YEAR

This is an era when the college careers of the best players are getting shorter and shorter, as they leave for the NBA after three years, two years--even one, in the case of Saint Louis’ Larry Hughes last season.

But some NBA prospects this season actually have stretched their careers to five and six years, though it’s no trend, only a quirk of coincidence.

The highest-profile player to secure a sixth year from the NCAA for this season is Northwestern center Evan Eschmeyer, a possible All-American who was kept out by foot fractures his first two seasons and would have been drafted after last season.

This season, he’s averaging almost 20 points, 10 rebounds and shooting 61% from the field.

UC Irvine and Cal State Fullerton will face another this week: Boise State’s Roberto Bergersen, the nation’s second-leading scorer at 25.1 points a game. He trails only Texas Pan American’s Brian Merriweather, who averages 26.3.

Bergersen, a 6-foot-6 Jeff Hornacek type, started his career at Washington during the 1994-95 season. He then transferred to Southern Idaho junior college and played one game before leaving school because of family difficulties, as his mother struggled with mental health problems.

He later completed his two-year degree at another school and transferred to Boise State in 1996, successfully petitioning the NCAA to allow him a fifth year this season.

He has made it pay off, with four 30-point games in a five-game stretch.

Another sixth-year player is Iowa’s Jess Settles, who was first-team All-Big Ten three seasons ago but is playing again after overcoming chronic back problems.

THIS WILL ONLY TAKE A FEW SECONDS

Adam Spanich’s two three-point shots in the final 2.8 seconds to lift USC over Oregon were the sort of performance the NCAA record books somehow don’t accommodate.

But it might never have been done before by one person--and almost certainly not so spectacularly, with his steal followed by a half-court heave to win the game.

No. 1 Connecticut also stretched the boundaries of the clock in a game Tuesday against Notre Dame.

The Huskies scored seven points in 2.7 seconds before the halftime buzzer in their 101-70 victory.

“This game, it’s amazing,” UConn Coach Jim Calhoun said, also recalling his team’s comeback in the final 30 seconds against Pittsburgh last month.

“What can happen in 2.7 seconds? What can happen with 18 seconds and you’re down six? You can win the game in regulation.”

Here’s how UConn scored seven points in less than three seconds--but take note, the degree of difficulty wasn’t as high as for Spanich. This required two players and a technical foul.

After a foul against the Irish’s Antoni Wyche and a technical against Notre Dame Coach John MacLeod with 2.7 seconds left, UConn’s Richard Hamilton went to the line and sank all four free throws.

Awarded possession because of the technical, UConn took the ball out, and Khalid El-Amin made a three-pointer.

Seven points, 2.7 seconds.

WELCOME TO OUR ‘PITT’

UConn plays host to Pittsburgh, the team that came closest to marring its unbeaten record, on Saturday. The first game ended with El-Amin jumping atop the scorer’s table after sinking the winning shot for a 70-69 victory, taunting fans he said taunted him during the game at Pittsburgh.

Connecticut complained to the Big East about the Pitt fans’ behavior, claiming that plastic bottles were thrown at the players, but the Big East didn’t uphold Connecticut’s charges.

“Not allegedly, they did [throw bottles],” El-Amin said. “It’s going to be fun Saturday afternoon. They’ll come in and there will be a lot of . . . tension . . . in the air. “When there are triple zeros on the clock, that’s all we’ll need to say.”

QUICK SHOTS

There are plenty of people who expect John Thompson to coach again after “resigning, not retiring” at Georgetown for personal reasons, including his ongoing divorce. Thompson kept the door open in case he wants to coach somewhere “six years from now, or two years from now.” Two might be more like it. As his friend Temple Coach John Chaney said, “If you have a dog that’s lost, leave a crack in the door. He might come home.” . . . Maryland’s Steve Francis will be one of the first point guards taken in the NBA draft if he turns pro after this season, though he doesn’t start at the point for the Terps, playing off-guard in deference to senior point guard Terrell Stokes.

Neil McCarthy, the former New Mexico State coach who is suing the school for breach of contract after being fired in 1997, had a verbal confrontation with current Coach Lou Henson in the El Paso airport last weekend, the Las Cruces (N.M.) Sun-News reported. Henson, the former Illinois coach, said McCarthy “verbally attacked” him. McCarthy’s version: “[Henson] said he just wanted to tell me he didn’t have anything personal against me, that he thought I was a great coach and a good guy and that he didn’t have anything to do with me losing my job, and if he had he would have told me face to face like a man. And I said, ‘Lou, you’ve never told anyone anything face to face.’ ” McCarthy also said he asked Henson if he knew that Henson was nicknamed “the worm.” Expect to hear more from McCarthy when his suit against the school goes to trial, scheduled for Feb. 1.