The upheaval at USC and constant defections at UCLA may have sent conference supremacy north.
The NBA draft's early entries have one month to return to school (June 15), but it doesn't appear any of the Pac-10 entries are coming back. Six underclassmen -- USC's DeMar DeRozan and Taj Gibson, UCLA's Jrue Holiday, the Arizona duo of Jordan Hill and Chase Budinger and Arizona State's James Harden -- will participate in the draft combine beginning May 28 in Chicago, and none are likely to return to their schools. Even Holiday, a projected late first-rounder, is reportedly close to hiring an agent and remaining in the draft.
Stanford has ruled the Pac-10 Women's basketball landscape for the past 20 years, and California and Arizona State have recently emerged to make the conference a three-team scramble for supremacy. But two recent hires by Oregon and USC have made it apparent that women's basketball is indeed becoming a higher priority on the West Coast.
On a night when the University of Arizona honored famed coach Lute Olson during halftime, something became very clear as the ceremonial speeches ended and the basketball began. If the Wildcats want to continue their NCAA streak of 25 consecutive tournament appearances, they would need more than an uplifting video (it got dusty in my apartment) and the memory of a coach that has been through a lot the last two years. The Wildcats need a W.
It wasn't happening, as Jerome Randle absolutely murdered the 'Cats in the second half, helping California (22-8, 11-6) improve to third in the Pac-10 with the 83-77 win and put the Wildcats in another uncomfortable position similar to last season -- leaving their March Madness dreams up to chance.
It takes a lot of work, effort and luck to go winless for the year in a conference. It means dropping heated rivalry games. It means not being able to win at home. It means the team is beyond bad, but also unlucky. Oregon has been all of that this year. Finally, though, the Ducks broke through by beating Stanford 68-60.
This game was an immovable object meeting an irresistible force -- only not. Oregon had been winless in the Pac-10, while Stanford was winless on the road in the conference. Something had to give and in the end it was the Cardinal.
Arizona State was swept by the Washington schools over the weekend, and now fans in Tempe might be growing concerned that Herb Sendek's bunch is close to being on the bubble. But let's not push the panic button just yet.
In the latest Bracketology, Arizona State is a No. 8 seed, the lowest seeded team of any of the Pac-10 schools. And that's kind of a surprise. Cal is a No. 7 seed despite losing four of its last five games. In fact, the Golden Bears lone win during that stretch is over Oregon (more on them in a second).
Joe Lunardi has Baylor, St. Mary's, BYU and Penn State as his last four teams in the tournament. So that should show that the Sun Devils are safe. For now.
UCLA doesn't care much about second place. That was evident on Thursday night as the UCLA put away Cal, 81-66. If Cal thought it smelled blood in the water, Thursday's game was nothing but a clever ambush by the Bruins.
UCLA played like a desperate team trying to send a message. The passive, eight-pass and settle for a horrible shot offense was flushed. Darren Collison was driving to the basket, drawing fouls and converting free throws to finish with 18 points. In fact, UCLA shot 91 percent from the line. The Bruins played defense like a Ben Howland team, forcing 16 turnovers. In short, it was the kind of dominating performance that fans in Westwood have come accustomed to.
UCLA not only crushed its NorCal rival, but also sent a message to the rest of the conference that they were still a the alpha male of the conference. The Bruins also moved into their rightful place -- that being first -- after Washington lost at Arizona. (Somebody must have been looking ahead, right?) Seems silly that a team like UCLA would need a conference win in January, but the freshman really did. Guys like Jrue Holliday, who had 13 points, needed to step up.
The leading question now is if UCLA can match the intensity against Stanford on Saturday.
This wasn't the way the season was supposed to go for the Bruins. Despite losing a bevy of talent, UCLA was still expected to stand tall. The Bruins don't rebuild, they reload. The freshman class led by Jrue Holiday was supposed to be Ben Howland's best yet and the team was supposed to look forward to a fourth consecutive Final Four.
But it hasn't worked out that way.
The Bruins are 15-4, 5-2 in the Pac-10 and ranked No. 17 in the country. That's a good year. If you are Oregon State, or one of the other teams in the Pac-10. But this is UCLA. A place where only championship banners hang from the rafters. Something, however, is way worse for UCLA. Something nobody in Westwood is comfortable talking about.
You thought that 13 freshmen in the NBA Draft was a lot, compared to 8 last year? Wrong. The big leap came from the number of sophomores who have had their fill of college. Last year, only 5 sophomores turned pro. Not this year. Like the freshmen, the lucky 13 are not going back to their school.
D.J. Augustin, Texas
JaVale McGee, Nevada
Brook Lopez, Stanford
Robin Lopez, Stanford
Russell Westbrook, UCLA
Marreese Speights, Florida
Ryan Anderson, Cal
Darrell Arthur, Kansas
Derrick Caracter, Louisville
Walter Sharpe, UAB
*Jason Bennett, Tallahassee Community College
*Keith Brumbaugh, Hillsborough Community College
*Kiwan Smith, Redlands Community College
Even if you don't count the 3 players who got through community college, that's still a 100% increase over last year. Most of the players nearly came out after last season.
It seems that in year two of the one-and-done restriction, the freshmen and sophomores are beginning to charge back into the draft. Makes those columns from last year talking about how upperclassmen were making a comeback in the NBA draft look a little dated. UPDATE: According to the official list by the NBA on the Draft, Caracter, Bennett and Smith all pulled their names before the deadline. That drops the number to 10 sophomores. Still a significant jump, but a little lower.
The funny thing about that is Stanford just hired former Blue Devils player and assistant Johnny Dawkins to replace Johnson. Even at the press conference, Dawkins said that he wouldn't be surprised if Plumlee chose to go to Duke.
Still, it probably wasn't Dawkins who steered him over to Duke. Plumlee will have a close friend with him in Durham -- his brother. Mason Plumlee, who is a rising high school senior, had already committed to join the Blue Devils in 2009.
The older Plumlee is quite a get. He's 6-10 and has that typical Duke perimeter game of recent big men. His size is sorely needed on a team that lacked it last year. Kyle Singler did a valiant job trying to defend in the paint but he, at times, was overmatched and it took away from other aspects of his game.
Plumlee may not be ready physically to match up against the better big men in the ACC, but he will join fellow recruit Olek Czyz and Singler for what should be a much improved front line.
Bowlsby said one of the first people he spoke to about the open job at Stanford was Krzyzewski and that he asked Krzyzewski about both Dawkins, who was Krzyzewski's right-hand man for 11 seasons, and Duke assistant Steve Wojciechowski.
"At that time, Coach Krzyzewski said that Johnny was a likely successor to him [at Duke]," Bowlsby said.
Coach K has at least another ten years left in him to coach, so it wasn't like Dawkins was going to get a good look at it anytime soon. I think Dawkins is a great hire (albeit an inexperienced one) for the Cardinal program and would be the kind of guy that would stick around for a while.
NCAA Basketball 
The upheaval at USC and constant defections at UCLA may have sent conference supremacy north.
On a night when the University of Arizona honored famed coach 
It takes a lot of work, effort and luck to go winless for the year in a conference. It means dropping heated rivalry games. It means not being able to win at home. It means the team is beyond bad, but also unlucky. Oregon has been all of that this year. Finally, though, the Ducks broke through by beating Stanford 68-60.
Arizona State was swept by the Washington schools over the weekend, and now fans in Tempe might be growing concerned that Herb Sendek's bunch is close to being on the bubble. But let's not push the panic button just yet.
UCLA doesn't care much about second place. That was evident on Thursday night as the UCLA put away Cal, 
This wasn't the way the season was supposed to go for the Bruins. Despite losing a bevy of talent, UCLA was still expected to stand tall. The Bruins don't rebuild, they reload. The freshman class led by Jrue Holiday was supposed to be Ben Howland's best yet and the team was supposed to look forward to a fourth consecutive Final Four.
You thought that 
Incoming freshman power forward Miles Plumlee wanted a release from his letter of intent when Stanford head coach Trent Johnson left for LSU.
I guess 
