Bruins in Final Four

The UCLA Bruins turned it on vs #1 seed Memphis to advance to the final four with the win. UCLA now faces red hot LSU, who's interior domination has vaulted the Tigers to the final four as well with big wins over Duke and Texas. Earlier in the tourney UCLA made an improbable comeback vs Gonzaga, the Bruins overcame a 17pt deficit and led for less than 30 seconds of the game.
This will be UCLAs 16th appearance in the Final Four, tying UNC for the most ever! The Bruins have won 11 titles, the most ever! Joning the Bruins and Tigers are the Florida Gators and the George Mason Patriots.


By the Numbers:
Pac Ten tourney record so far:7-3
No. of Pac Ten teams in sweet sixteen: 2
No. of Big Ten teams in sweet sixteen: 0
No. of Overtime games in tourney: 5
Buzzer Beaters (for tie or win): 4

Bruins, Huskies advance to sweet sixteen.

UCLA and Washington have advanced to the sweet sixteen. The Huskies took down last years final four runner up Illinois 67-64, rallying from a late 10 point deficit. UW faces UCONN in the round of 16. The Bruins held on late to defeat the Alabama Crimson Tide 62-59 despite missing 7 of 8 free throws down the stretch, UCLA faces Gonzaga in the round of 16. Arizona faces #1 seed Villanova Sunday morning and can make it three Pac Ten teams in the sweet sixteen with a win. The Pac Ten is 5-1 in the tourney thus far.

Pac Ten 3-1 in 1st Round.

The Pac Ten posted a very impressive 3-1 record in the first round of the tourney. UCLA hammered belmont 78-44, Arizona cruised by Wisconsin 94-75 and UW dispatched Utah St. 75-61. CAL was the lone loss, as they fell to NC State by a score of 58-52. UCLA and Arizona looked very impressive in their wins. UW kicked it into gear in the final 10 minutes to finish strong.

Big Dance Set

The Pacific Ten conference has 4 teams in the big dance this year. The seedings pretty much worked out as I predicted on March 3. UCLA finished the season strong running the table in the Pac Ten tourney and defeating CAL handily in the conf championship game. UCLA ends up with a much coveted #2 seed (I predicted a 3/4 seed) and perhaps the easiest region (if such a thing exists) If Gonzaga or Memphis struggle the Bruins could be in the elite 8 or dare I say the final four. UW went out a bit early in the conf tourney and has struggled defensively at times, UW is a finesse team with very good quickness and scoring capability, they may be in for a tough time as they will most likely face Illinois in round 2. UW recieved a 5 seed, I predicted a 5/6 seed. CAL made a good run in the tourney and came back from a double digit deficit late in the first half vs the Bruins, but got run in the second half. CAL also has an extremely tough first round game vs a potential bracket buster in NC State. CAL is a 7 seed I predicted they would be an 8/9 seed. Arizona rounds out the conf teams and is an 8 seed, yours truly predicted they would be a 7 or 8 seed. The Cats face a dangerous Wisconsin squad and without suspended forward Hasaan Adams, the Cats may be heading for one of their infamous early round exits. Then again, it was an unheralded #5 seed led by Freshman Mike Bibby and Richard Jefferson that ran the table to win it all in 1997.

Heres how I predict the Pac Ten finishing in the tourney.

UCLA- Loses to Duke in Final Four (Ben Howland and a relatively healthy squad step up bigtime)

CAL-Loses to NC State in round 1 (CAL guards inconsistent, not enough help for Leon Powe)

Washington-Loses in second round to Illinois (Defense inconsistent , not physical enough for Illini)

Arizona-Loses to Wisconsin in round 1 (Cats chemistry not there, missing Adams and lackluster play from Mustafa Shakur)

Former Sun Devil Football Player Heads To Iraq

Jeremy Staat , who played football for the Arizona State Sun Devils, was a friend and teammate of Pat Tillman. He said that Tillman was influential in his decision to join the Marines and serve his country. Jeremy graduated Marine boot camp today and will head to Iraq for a 14 month deployment. Jeremy was drafted in the second round of the NFL draft in 1998 and played 5 seasons in the NFL for the Pittsburg Steelers and St. Louis Rams.

Show Me The Money!

Athletics has become huge business as well as a huge expense for universities.
Schools are spending a ton of cash on sports today. And as you probably guessed, most of that money is generated from Football. Basketball is the second most profitable sport.Here is a link to the most profitable.
The largest among these is The Ohio State University who has an annual athletic budget of around 90 million. By comparison, USC has an annual athletic budget of around 53 million. Here are the top athletic programs of the pac tens budgets in accordance with their Sears Directors Cup Finish.
USC 53 million (#10 in Directors Cup), UCLA 42 million (#3 Directors Cup),Washington 41 million (#14 Directors Cup),Oregon 40 million (#54 Directors Cup), Arizona State 30 million (#11 Directors Cup), Arizona 29 million (#12 Directors Cup). Some other universities to compare : Texas 70 million (#2 Directors Cup), Tennessee 66 million (#8 Directors Cup), Florida 64 million (#6 Directors Cup), Michigan 60 million (#16 Directors Cup),Georgia 43 million (#7 Directors Cup). It seems the Pac Ten lags a bit in spending , but is getting the greatest ROI. Here is a list of graduation rates for Division 1 football schools.

ASU Frosh named national Player of the Week.

Arizona State Freshman Ike Davis named college baseball's national player of the week, Ike was 1-0 on the mound and belted two grand slams. ASU was 4-0 on the week defeating Texas Tech and sweeping Auburn.

Bruins win regular season title.

The Bruins claimed their first Pac Ten basketball title in 9 years by defeating Stanford 75-54 Saturday. The Bruins will look to run the table in the Pac Ten tourney with a #1 seed, they will open vs Oregon State. UW is the #2 seed.

Oregon looking for Sept 23rd Opponent

Oregon A.D. Bill Moos is 'outraged' by the decision of Utah State to drop a game in Eugene next September instead the USU Aggies will travel to Provo Utah, to face BYU. Oregon is seeking an opponent for the slot.

March Madness

As we near the end of the college basketball regular season there is a distinct difference between the upper pac ten teams (UCLA,UW,CAL,UA,STAN) and the lower tier teams (USC,ORE,WSU,ASU,OSU). This season all ten teams will be participating in the tournament. I expect the tourney results to mimic the regular season as there is virtually no shot at any of the lower tier teams to win a game except for USC.
First lets look at the contenders (who will be in the Big Dance)

UCLA-Ben Howland is back and this time he has UCLA primed for a conf championship and a legit shot at a 2 or 3 seed with a strong finish, the Bruins
have a good core of talent and offensive firepower, Farmar is the on the court leader and he has a host of playmakers at his disposal, UCLA transitions well and can score from all over the floor.

Washington-The Huskies score , score and score, they are fast, athletic and did I mention can score a lot of points. Led by Sr. Brandon Roy, this team has talent and post season experience, they should get further in the dance than last season.

CAL-The Bears have a great inside game, led by Leon Powe, and some power on the glass, they must get good play from their guards to compliment the size inside.

UA-The Cats have seemingly underachieved this season and have struggled on the road and with team chemistry, they have some great athletes, but must get better play from Shakur and hit the outside 3's to go deep in the tourney.

Stanford must win down the stretch and get to the conf championship IMO to make it to the tourney, the Cardinals 15-11 overall mark is a bubble set to burst without a late season run.

Heres how I see the seeding looking like right now:

UCLA (RPI 15) 23 wins : 3/4 seed
UW (RPI 30) 23 wins: 5/6 seed
UA (RPI 20) 18 wins: 7/8 seed
CAL (RPI 50) 17 wins: 8/9 seed

Bubble watch : Stanford

Pac Ten Football:

Next season the Pac Ten goes to a round robin schedule, which means, each team will play the other 9 conf members, in the past there was only 8 conf games and with no conf championship there were often ties that could not be decided by head to head. This new format will allow an undisputed conf champion every season.
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