Are the Tigers Living At-Large?

Pacific is in uncharted territory and eager to take another big step for itself and the Big West Conference.

The 24th-ranked Tigers this week entered the Associated Press Top 25 poll for the first time in team history, and they’re definitely deserving.

Pacific, 18-2 overall and 12-0 in the Big West, has won 14 games in succession, a school-record 25 consecutive in conference and 37 of its last 41 overall. Two of the losses in that span were against perennial power Kansas.

The impressive run has stirred interest in the tiny Stockton school that upset Providence in last season’s NCAA tournament, and that’s good news for Coach Bob Thomason, who hopes the tournament selection committee notices the buzz.

Even if Pacific loses in the Big West tournament, Thomason, who also guided his alma mater to the 1996-97 NCAA tournament, said it deserves an at-large bid in the 65-team field.

The Big West isn’t a marquee league, but Pacific could receive star treatment.

“Should we get an at-large bid? Absolutely,” Thomason said. “When you look at what we’ve done, who we’ve played and how consistent we’ve been, there’s no question that we should. There’s no reason that we shouldn’t.”

The Big West has historically received only the bid awarded to the winner of its conference tournament. It last had an at-large berth in 1993.

The Tigers are eager to start a trend.

Pacific is 28th in Ratings Percentage Index (RPI) and 53rd in nonconference strength of schedule, which are among the criteria the NCAA uses in selecting the tournament field. Those numbers should help Pacific counteract the negative effects of membership in the Big West, whose RPI is 19th among 32 Division I-A conferences.

Even decision makers with short memories probably haven’t forgotten Pacific’s eye-opening first-round performance against Providence last season.

Pacific, seeded 12th in the St. Louis Regional, stunned the fifth-seeded Friars, 66-58, at Kansas City, Mo. Kansas ended Pacific’s winning streak at 16 in the second round, 78-63, but a point was made.

“We showed we could play,” standout junior forward Christian Maraker said. “We worked hard to get respect last year, and we proved we could play.”

The Tigers have taken even greater strides this season despite having to replace guard Miah Davis -- last season’s Big West player of the year -- from a squad that set a team record for victories at 25-8, tied Utah State for the Big West regular-season title at 17-1 and defeated Cal State Northridge in the tournament championship game.

The Tigers again have foreign players in key roles, though no one the caliber of 7-footer Michael Olowokandi, whom the Clippers selected with the No. 1 overall pick in the 1998 NBA draft.

Maraker, from Varberg, Sweden, leads the Tigers in scoring with an average of 14.2 points and is second in rebounding at 6.8. A skilled shooter, Maraker makes 53.2% of his field-goal attempts, 43.9% of his three-point shots and causes major defensive problems for the Tigers’ opponents because of his size (6 feet 9) and shooting range.

Senior center Guillaume Yango, originally from Paris, was not even a starter in junior college.

However, he averaged 17.4 points and 6.7 rebounds in his final seven games last season, and 10.8 and 5.8 overall with a team-high 35 blocked shots. Yango, who provides inside presence and toughness, is second to Maraker in scoring at 12.7 points and leads the team with 6.9 rebounds.

Senior forward Jasko Korajkic is from Jonkoping, Sweden. Another good shooter, Korajkic averages 8.8 points and 4.9 rebounds.

Senior David Doubley has made a smooth transition to point guard from the other backcourt position. Doubley averages 12.6 points and a team-high 4.2 assists, and usually makes sound decisions, important in Thomason’s disciplined offense.

“We’re a good team,” Maraker said. “I don’t think we’re right there as we were at the end of the year last year, but we’re getting there.”

Thomason, Pacific’s winningest coach, helped the process in scheduling quality nonconference opponents.

Pacific has road victories against Western Athletic Conference members Nevada, Fresno State and San Jose State. The Tigers’ only losses this season are to Kansas, 81-70, at Lawrence, Kan., and San Francisco, 67-64, at Stockton.

Pacific will face another WAC team, Texas El Paso, on Feb. 19 in the featured game of ESPN’s Bracket Busters series.

In addition to facing better competition than what they might encounter in the Big West, the Tigers’ nonconference schedule could provide an additional benefit in the NCAA tournament selection process.

The selection committee last season snubbed 25-3 Utah State, which lost to Northridge in the Big West tournament semifinals, because of its weak nonconference schedule.

The Tigers’ scheduling should have the opposite effect, Thomason said.

“Utah State did not play a very good schedule last year,” he said. “We played at Nevada and won, at Fresno and won, and at Kansas. We played Duke and St. Joe’s last year, so we’ve played some people.

“What we did last year in the tournament is going to help, and the negative publicity that Utah State got in not getting in is also going to help.”

Of course, it’s moot if the Tigers win the Big West tournament, which they would still prefer to do.

“We deserve to go no matter what happens in the [Big West] tournament, but Utah State deserved to get in last year and they didn’t because we’re the Big West,” Maraker said. “You can’t expect to get in for free, so we want to win the tournament and make sure that we’re in.”

And Then There Was One

Notre Dame’s 68-65 upset Tuesday of fourth-ranked and previously undefeated Boston College leaves top-ranked Illinois as the lone undefeated team.

The 24-0 Illini on Wednesday outlasted Michigan, 57-51, at Ann Arbor, Mich.

“We’ve had some downers this year, but the kids keep responding,” Illinois Coach Bruce Weber said.

“We’ll have another downer here somewhere, I don’t know when, but I’m sure someplace we’ll play not quite up to the way we’ve been playing. Then that’s going to be another test.”

Road Woes

Indiana is 1-4 on the road in the Big Ten Conference.

The Hoosiers (10-10, 5-4 in the Big Ten), playing without injured leading scorer Bracey Wright and starting four freshmen, dropped their third in a row on the road Sunday against Illinois, 60-47.

“It’s tough on the road and we’re a young team, but we all know that,” said freshman forward D.J. White. “We’ve just got to come into the road games with a focus that the people on that bench are the only ones who care about us.

“We just have to realize nobody is going to help us out on anything, and then we just have to go play.”