Opinions of nation’s best conference go coast to coast

After years of choking on the letters ACC, Pacific 10 Conference coaches can say their league has arrived and get no argument.

There should be no more complaining about East Coast bias or late television games on Fox or whether the Atlantic Coast Conference deserves that many teams in the NCAA tournament.

The Pac-10 is the best conference in the country, and there isn’t much debate.

The arrivals of USC freshman O.J. Mayo and UCLA freshman Kevin Love make Los Angeles a national focal point, but it’s the overall strength of the league and its returning players that solidify it.

UCLA Coach Ben Howland, fresh off two trips to the Final Four, can count the future first-round NBA draft picks playing in the league on his fingers, but he needs both hands.

“The most players ever drafted in the first round out of any league was eight in 1995 from the ACC,” Howland said. “I think the Pac-10, we’ll be right there next year.”

Why do statistics like that matter? Recruiting the next bunch.

“The ACC’s ridden that for a long time,” USC Coach Tim Floyd said.

Howland also counts the teams he believes can make the NCAA tournament, and believes it could be more than last season’s six, which tied the most in league history.

“I think this year our league has a chance to have seven, which would be a first ever,” Howland said. “That would be 70% of your teams getting in, which says a lot about your level of play.

“I think 13-5 might win the Pac-10. That’s how good I think it is.”

Floyd, sitting nearby, listened closely.

“I hope you’re right about seven teams getting in, because they’ve got us picked seventh,” he said.

There might be no better indication of the rise of the Pac-10 than what is going on at Arizona.

It’s as if someone pulled the conference out from under the venerable Lute Olson.

Olson, at 73, is tugging back.

The arrival of Howland, Floyd and Washington State’s Tony Bennett has turned the Pac-10 from a league built on offense, quickness and finesse into one that requires defense, more deliberate play and a certain amount of brawn, with a host of talented front lines.

After a 20-11 season at Arizona last season that included an 11-7 Pac-10 record and a next-to-last finish in scoring defense, Olson made a move that was unpopular in many circles.

He asked his longtime top assistant, Jim Rosborough, to take a non-coaching position on his staff, and hired former college and NBA coach Kevin O’Neill to return to Arizona to handle the defense.

Rosborough refused, telling a Tucson reporter he had become “a non-person,” and took a job as special assistant to the athletic director.

Olson’s move didn’t score high on the loyalty scale, but it was clear Arizona needed some kind of change to keep up with a conference that he says is the best it has been in his 25 years at the school.

“We just felt that the defense needed to be shored up,” Olson told reporters at Arizona’s media day. “And I’m at the stage where I can’t -- I need to have somebody on that other end that I know. And I know Kevin from the job he did with us before, and his reputation. It’s been 18 years, but he’s been at three Division I schools and he’s been in the pros. And there’s no question his influence has been felt already on the defensive end.”

Even with NBA lottery prospect Chase Budinger back for a sophomore season and freshman guard Jerryd Bayless being compared to Mike Bibby, Arizona is about fourth in the Pac-10 pecking order, behind UCLA -- the national preseason No. 1 in some rankings -- as well as Washington State, with four starters back from the surprise 26-8 team that reached the NCAA tournament’s second round, and Oregon, with every starter except Aaron Brooks back from the 29-8 team that lost to Florida in the Elite Eight. And if Tajuan Porter hadn’t shot an uncharacteristic two for 10 from three-point range in that game, maybe, just maybe, Florida wouldn’t have won another national title.

USC, with freshman Mayo and sophomores Taj Gibson and Daniel Hackett, has plenty of talent. So does Stanford, although the imposing front line of 7-footers Brook and Robin Lopez and 6-8 Lawrence Hill took a hit when Brook Lopez, who could have jumped to the NBA, returned to school but failed to qualify academically for the fall quarter.

Washington lost 7-footer Spencer Hawes to the NBA after one season and needs to overcome its road woes of a year ago.

Arizona State makes coaches nervous, with Coach Herb Sendek starting to bring in such players as Lakewood Artesia standout James Harden.

California is trying to bounce back after a spate of injuries, including foot surgery for center DeVon Hardin.

And finally, Oregon State Coach Jay John, in a seemingly desperate attempt to save his job, took in forward C.J. Giles from Kansas after he was kicked off the team for a pattern of off-court misdeeds. He can become eligible in December.

Only a season ago, people kept trying to get Sendek, who had coached at North Carolina State, to compare the Pac-10 to the ACC. He usually demurred. He sounds ready now.

“I’m a wily, two-year veteran of the Pac-10. It was awfully good last year,” he said. “I don’t think you could talk to one guru who doesn’t say that it’s even better this year. I don’t think if you went to media day on one campus in the Pac-10, they wouldn’t feel like, ‘Hey, we’re going to be better than we were last year.’

“One through 10, I think that would be unanimous. The best teams in college basketball are going to be visiting Wells Fargo Arena this year.”

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robyn.norwood@latimes.com

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PACIFIC 10 SCOUTING REPORT

ARIZONA

* Last season: 20-11, 11-7.

* Key players: F Chase Budinger, 6-7, So. (15.6 ppg; 5.8 rpg); G Jerryd Bayless, 6-3, Fr. (McDonald’s All-American from Phoenix is expected to start at point guard as a freshman); G Jawann McClellan, 6-4, Sr. (9.6 ppg; 37.8 3-pt FG%).

* Opener/home opener: Nov. 13, 6:30 p.m. vs. Northern Arizona.

ARIZONA STATE

* Last season: 8-22, 2-16.

* Key players: F Jeff Pendergraph, 6-9, Jr. (12.1 ppg; 9.1 rpg); G James Harden, 6-4, Fr. (Lakewood Artesia standout was the first McDonald’s All-American to sign with ASU out of high school since 1984); C Eric Boateng, 6-10, So. (Transfer from Duke was a McDonald’s All-American in 2005)

* Opener/home opener: Nov. 19, 8:30 p.m. vs. Illinois at Lahaina, Hawaii; Nov. 26, 6 p.m. vs. Cal Poly San Luis Obispo.

CALIFORNIA

* Last season: 16-17, 6-12.

* Key players: F Ryan Anderson, 6-10, So. (16.3 ppg; 8.2 rpg); C DeVon Hardin, 6-11, Sr. (Averaged 10.7 points and 8.4 rebounds in 11 games before missing remainder of season because of stress fracture in foot.)

* Opener/home opener: Nov. 14, 7:30 p.m. vs. Southern Mississippi.

OREGON

* Last season: 29-8, 11-7.

* Key players: G Tajuan Porter, 5-6, So. (14.6 ppg; 43.7% 3-pt FG%.); G Malik Hairston, 6-6, Sr. (11.3 ppg; 6.0 rpg); G Bryce Taylor, 6-4, Sr. (14.1 ppg; 51.7 FG%); F Maarty Leunen, 6-9, Sr. (10.8 ppg; 8.2 rpg).

* Opener/home opener: Nov. 10, 4 p.m. vs. Pepperdine.

OREGON STATE

* Last season: 11-21, 3-15.

* Key players: F Marcel Jones, 6-8, Sr. (15.3 ppg; 5.7 rpg); F/C C.J. Giles, 6-11, Jr. (Transfer from Kansas who was dismissed from Jayhawks program for off-court behavior can become eligible Dec. 8.)

* Opener/home opener: Nov. 15, 9:30 p.m. vs. Colorado State at Fairbanks, Alaska; Nov. 23, 7 p.m. vs. Idaho State.

STANFORD

* Last season: 18-13, 10-8.

* Key players: F Lawrence Hill, 6-8, Jr. (15.7 ppg; 50.9 FG%); F Brook Lopez, 7-0, So. (12.6 ppg; 6.0 rpg; academically ineligible for fall quarter); C Robin Lopez, 7-0, So. (7.5 ppg; 2.4 bpg).

* Opener/home opener: Nov. 9, 7 p.m. vs. Harvard.

WASHINGTON

* Last season: 19-13, 8-10.

* Key players: F Jon Brockman, 6-7, Jr. (14.2 ppg; 9.6 rpg): F Quincy Pondexter, 6-7, So. (10.7 ppg; 4.0 rpg); G Ryan Appleby, 6-2, Sr. (10.5 ppg; 43.3 3-pt FG%).

* Opener/home opener: Nov. 13, 8 p.m. vs. New Jersey Tech.

WASHINGTON STATE

* Last season: 26-8, 13-5.

* Key players: G Derrick Low, 6-2, Sr. (13.7 ppg; 39.9 3-pt FG%); G Kyle Weaver, 6-6, Sr. (11.2 ppg; 4.6 apg).

* Opener/home opener: Nov. 9, 6:30 p.m. vs. Eastern Washington.

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robyn.norwood@laimes.com