Cardinal Rule: Everybody’s Chasing Stanford

The mission is clear for most teams in this weekend’s Pacific 10 Conference women’s basketball tournament in San Jose.

No, not beating No. 2 Stanford, which pretty much has been “Mission Impossible.”

Instead, depending on how things shake out, chasing more NCAA tournament tickets than the conference has seen in seven years.

Start with the three teams that tied for second behind the conference champion Cardinal: Oregon, Arizona State and USC. Arizona and UCLA also merit consideration.

For all six to get in would be unprecedented; the Pac-10 has never sent more than five teams to the NCAA tournament, and the last time that happened was 1998.

Which means once Washington, California, Washington State and Oregon State complete the first-round games on Friday, the stakes are high.

“I hope at least four teams get in,” Arizona Coach Joan Bonvicini said. “A lot depends on how teams are playing down the stretch. The RPIs and overall records are similar, so it depends on who is playing strong down the stretch.”

Oregon Coach Bev Smith feels the conference deserves better.

“If you look at our nonconference wins, we did a great job,” Smith said. “That was a knock on us [before] from the selection committee.

“I think the committee has to pay attention to four or five teams. We have earned that, and we’re ready to get in there and play with a strong force.”

UCLA and USC are guaranteed nothing.

Even though the sixth-seeded Bruins have nonconference wins over ranked teams Texas and Purdue and were also ranked for a month, they look like a cold team. After losing standout forward Noelle Quinn to a knee injury, they dropped four of their last five and eight of their last 13. At 16-11, they may need to at least reach the tournament championship game for an NCAA invitation.

Their first game is Saturday against third-seeded Arizona State, which beat UCLA twice during the regular season.

The Bruin players are feeling the pressure.

“This team does have a lot of confidence,” said guard Nikki Blue, the conference’s leading scorer (18.8). “But coming off these last two losses to Stanford and USC, we have to get right back on track. We have to go into Pac-10 with a winner’s mentality.”

USC (18-9) has had a surprisingly good season. But the fourth-seeded Trojans don’t have the kind of eye-catching nonconference win the selection committee likes to see, unless you count the victory over Texas Christian, but the Horned Frogs were out of the Top 25 when that game was played.

Even if USC, which plays its first game Saturday against fifth-seeded Arizona, believes it has done enough to make the NCAA tournament, it can’t afford to be blase.

“I was thinking of the [NCAA] criteria, but we just go play and not worry,” Trojan Coach Mark Trakh said. “There is a sense of urgency, but we’ll see how it all plays out, win or lose.”

The Trojan players are confident.

“I think we’ve done enough, but winning at least one game in the Pac-10 tournament would ensure we get a look,” center Kim Gibson said. “That’s all I can say right now; we have to be given a look. But we’re not going to San Jose satisfied with what we’ve done.”