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.
As much as anything, though, the speed advantage isn't everything; the UCLA defense still had to do enough. That came to a crashing thud against Washington State. UCLA did force the Cougars to play at a much faster tempo than they are comfortable, but Washington State came away with a 82-81 win at Pauley Pavilion.
This is never why you listen to the stat heads. They will let you down. Just when you start to doubt UCLA, the Bruins go on a huge winning streak with impressive wins. And just when you completely buy in and believe that UCLA has turned the corner, the Bruins lose on the road at Arizona State, 74-67.
Are we ever going to get an accurate read on this team or are we doomed to be on the back end of a trend?
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.
Washington State certainly isn't the team it wa in the past. But you can't overlook the effort Cal showed in Pullman, Wash., Thursday night in a 57-50 win.The Cougars no longer have the superstars they once had, but they still play pretty good defense. Washington State held Bears star guard Jerome Randle to only eight points, well below from his 20-points-per-game average.
Yet, Cal didn't fold.
Instead, other players stepped up. Patrick Christopher scored 22 points, and was 4-of-6 from 3-point range. This is the kind of team effort you can expect from a team coached by Mike Montgomery. This would have been a huge letdown game for Cal in the past. Especially after such a huge win against Arizona State. A trip to Pullman would have easily derailed the momentum of this team under the former regime.
In fact, you can reason that this game says more about Cal's character than its upset win over Arizona State. Look at what Boston College did after it beat No. 1 North Carolina -- it lost to Harvard. But the Bears didn't fold, instead putting up a great effort. This win is pretty impressive and Cal fans, go ahead and get excited about this team.
Just in case there was any lingering doubt as to who ruled college basketball in Washington, Gonzaga erased all doubt with an emphatic 74-52 beating of Washington State. And if a 22-point win doesn't seem impressive enough, realize that Gonzaga held just a slim 3-point lead at halftime.
The win had to be cathartic to Bulldogs fans who long suffered against some pretty good teams from Washington State. Above all of that, Gonzaga proved that they could not only survive against slow-down teams, but actually thrive. And if anything, Gonzaga was getting busy on the defensive end and really forced the action, making the Cougars look pretty bad.
Josh Heytvelt and Jeremy Pargo were once again outstanding. I know I've said this before, but Heytvelt is playing up to his potential and before we anoint Tyler Hansbrough as the greatest player in college basketball, we should give the Gonzaga big man some consideration. I know, it's sacrilege to even mention.
And there was some stat floating out there today that Gonzaga is nearly undefeated when Pargo has more assists than points, but you can forgive him for having only 11 points and 10 assists.
What's really impressive is that Gonzaga is making a joke out of their tough preseason schedule. They have handled Oklahoma State, Maryland, Tennessee, Indiana and now Washington State with relative ease. The Bulldogs will play at Arizona on Sunday, which should be another indicator of how good this team is. But when you look at what they have done, you have to consider this one of Mark Few's best teams ... as we've long contended in this space.
With the fall beginning and college basketball just around the corner, it's time to look back at what our favorite teams did during their summer vacations. Some did some good things; some had a bad time. So let's look back at who did what in our How I Spent My Summer Vacation series.
Today's look is the Pac-10 Conference.
The Pac 10 is coming off a season where six of its members (Arizona State was jobbed) reached the field of 64. And UCLA was bounced in the Final Four, again. Hey, at least it's not the Sweet 16 anymore, UCLA. Although, you have to wonder if the Bruins squandered their best shot under Ben Howland. No matter, the team is loaded again. So you could probably pencil the Bruins in for the Final Four. Just figuring out who will beat them is the kicker.
Let's see how each team did during its summer vacation.
The Big 12 and Pac-10 go into their second year of their cross-conference competition, and have announced this year's slate of games. Most of the games take place in the first weekend of December. Since there is an imbalance in the number of teams in each conference, to allow all of the Big 12 teams to play a Pac-10 opponent, Arizona and Stanford are doubling up and 3 games will be played outside of the series window.
BIG 12/PAC-10 HARDWOOD SERIES
Thursday, December 4, 2008 Oklahoma State at Washington UCLA at Texas USC at Oklahoma
Friday, December 5, 2008 Arizona at Texas A&M
Saturday, December 6, 2008 Baylor at Washington State Oregon State at Iowa State
Sunday, December 7, 2008 Kansas State at Oregon Nebraska at Arizona State California at Missouri
Outside the four-day series window Colorado at Stanford (Sat., Nov. 29, 2008) Kansas at Arizona (Tue., Dec. 23, 2008) Texas Tech at Stanford (Sun., Dec. 28, 2008)
The big games are clearly UCLA-Texas and Kansas-Arizona. The latter being a rematch from last season when Kansas pulled off the win in overtime (to say nothing of the 2003 NCAA Tournament meeting to put Kansas in the Final Four).The Baylor-Washington State game looks like a very underrated match-up featuring two of the best young coaches. Oregon State-Iowa State, however, could be painful on the eyes.
Andy Katz of ESPN.com is reporting that Washington State coach Tony Bennett has decided not to take the Indiana head coaching job after having a conversation with Indiana athletic director Rick Greenspan.
"I thought about it, but I'm not going to pursue it," Bennett told Katz, adding that he wouldn't consider the vacant Cal job either.
A Fox Sports report on Saturday said Bennett had been offered the Indiana job. Bennett has said that he didn't receive a formal offer from Indiana, although most indications are that Bennett was, in fact, Indiana's first choice.
For Indiana, the other names that have been mentioned -- Xavier's Sean Miller, Pittsburgh's Jamie Dixon, Vanderbilt's Kevin Stallings,Tennessee's Bruce Pearl -- may all take a back seat to former Golden State Warriors and Stanford coach Mike Montgomery, Katz reported.
And for Washington State, the fact that Bennett has said no to Indiana and Cal doesn't mean he'll be back. His wife is from Louisiana, and he might consider the vacant LSU job.
NCAA Basketball 
The upheaval at USC and constant defections at UCLA may have sent conference supremacy north.
There is no team in the major conferences that plays a slower tempo than Washington State. Heck, there is only one team 
This is never why you listen to the stat heads. They will let you down. Just when 
UCLA doesn't care much about second place. That was evident on Thursday night as the UCLA put away Cal, 
Washington State certainly isn't the team it wa in the past. But you can't overlook the effort Cal showed in Pullman, Wash., Thursday night in a 
Just in case there was any lingering doubt as to who ruled college basketball in Washington, Gonzaga erased all doubt with an emphatic 
With the fall beginning and college basketball just around the corner, it's time to look back at what our favorite teams did during their summer vacations. Some did some good things; some had a bad time. So let's look back at who did what in our 
The Big 12 and Pac-10 go into their second year of their cross-conference competition, and have 
Andy Katz of ESPN.com is 
