Through much of its post-UCLA-glory-years history, the Pac-10 Conference has been regarded nationally with much the same fervor as the TV timeout. It might be a water-polo conference, or a women’s volleyball conference, or a softball conference, but it didn’t have much cachet in basketball.
Can we be so brash as to suggest that’s changing? Ben Howland’s UCLA team unexpectedly made the 2006 finals, the first Pac-10 team in five years to play in the Final Four. Lute Olson still occupies the basketball office in Tucson.
Washington has made a meteoric ascent onto the national scene. New coaches like Tim Floyd of USC and Herb Sendek represent know-how and seemingly, can-do.
Maybe it hasn’t arrived yet, but the Pac-10 appears to be in transit. Ten questions for 2006-07, divided into 10 teams:
1. Can freshman forward Chase Budinger be the nova that points the Wildcats toward a sixth Final Four for Olson? (And a sub-plot: Will Mustafa Shakur be the point guard to do it?)
2. Will Arizona State fans be able to contain themselves until next season, when highly regarded Sendek recruits like guards James Harden and Jamelle McMillan and Duke transfer Eric Boateng are ready for action?
3. Can California point guard Ayinde Ubaka (14.5 ppg) and big man Devon Hardin get the Bears where they couldn’t go with Leon Powe? For all the buzz around Powe – a second-round NBA draft pick – Cal accomplished only modestly during his injury-plagued blue-and-gold tenure, not winning an NCAA game.
4. Will Oregon ever occupy a place that coach Ernie Kent’s ample recruiting seemed to portend a few years ago? A start would be getting point guard Aaron Brooks and forward Malik Hairston to play to expectations. Otherwise, the hot seat underneath Kent becomes positively blistering.
5. When will it happen at Oregon State, the league’s most long-suffering member, having failed to make the NCAA tournament since 1990? An off-season issue amplifies the struggle coach Jay John is having getting things launched.
Point guard Brett Casey says he was told a scholarship would await him if he walked on as a freshman. He did, but a year later, no scholarship, so he said goodbye and went to the baseball team, extracting one good shooter from the OSU offense. It wouldn’t be that much of an issue if (a) Casey’s dad weren’t the OSU baseball coach, and (b) if the Beavers hadn’t earned such cachet by winning the 2006 national title in the sport.
6. How fast will Stanford’s infusion of new talent make a difference? It’s a new era there, with Nos. 1-4 scorers Matt Haryasz, Chris Hernandez, Dan Grunfeld and Tim Morris gone, giving way to 7-foot twin freshmen Brook and Robin Lopez and swingman Landry Fields. Brook Lopez had surgery over the summer to repair a herniated disk and might not be ready until the conference season.
7. Might UCLA suffer with the steady hand of point guard Jordan Farmar now off to the NBA? Sophomore Darren Collison, quicker but more scattered, is the heir on a team rich in forwards and strengthened by the return from hip problems of 6-5 Josh Shipp, whom some thought was the Bruins’ best player before last season.
8. How will USC be affected by the multiple transitions around it? On May 14, point guard Ryan Francis was shot to death on a return home to Baton Rouge. Guard Gabe Pruitt, worth 16.9 points a game last year, is academically ineligible for the first semester.
Meanwhile, the Trojans should get a boost in moving from the grimy Sports Arena to the 10,258-seat Galen Center.
9. Can Washington calibrate it just so that freshman center Spencer Hawes is richly successful in his first season, but not enough that he doesn't want to return for a second one? The gifted, 7-foot Hawes would have been a medium lottery pick last year if eligible, and he’s assumed to lead the Huskies to at least the prominence they’ve recently attained under Lorenzo Romar. Hawes underwent arthroscopic knee surgery Oct. 10 and was likely to be out until about Nov. 1.
10. How deep will the growing pains be for Washington State as it makes the handoff from retired coach Dick Bennett to his son Tony? The younger Bennett wants to push the ball more, but it’s iffy whether he’s got the athletes to get it done. One is Tulane transfer guard Taylor Rochestie, a member of the Conference USA all-freshman team two years ago.
