The PAC 12 has 3 teams in the Sweet 16. This is a strong showing and makes the PAC 12 look like a strong league despite the naysayers who have been proved wrong. USC made a strong showing against Baylor and lost 82-78, But UCLA,Oregon, and Arizona, made it, Of these three remaining teams ,Arizona and UCLA have a chance to win it all Oregon lost a top player Boucher whose shot blocking and interior loss will hurt Oregon.This has been a good year for the PAC 12 which may only get better as the Big Dance continues.
PAC 12 showing is strong
- Thread starter ElComanche
- Start date
The showing by Oregon, UCLA and Arizona definitely helps the image of our league when outsiders are looking at us. USC represented the conference strongly as well and losing by four to a very good Baylor team is nothing to be ashamed of. Unfortunately, we all know that the quality of the teams in our conference dropped precipitously after the Top 3. USC was talented but inconsistent and everyone else was nothing to be excited about. The rest of the conference was either not invited to the post-season or got bumped out immediately.
The ACC got 9 "very strong teams " in. They have one left. The PAC 12 has three and almost a fourth from four teams invited. I guess the problem with ACC teams is that they played each other too often? I was wondering as to how many games the "wulffian Teams or bottom feeders" won against the top four teams in the PAC 12? I am too tired to look it up but it may be interesting. Some posters have said stuff about USC being "inconsistent and other stuff. What does that say about the Michigan team whom people are celebrating?it seems that some people make excuses and fail to really look at how strong the PAC 12 showing has been .
The top half of the ACC was undoubtedly over-rated and the top 1/3rd of the Pac-12 was under-rated. As for how Pac-12 teams played against their NCAA tournament brethren during the regular season (in reverse order of finish):
OSU: 0-6
UW: 0-7
WSU: 0-7
Stanford: 0-7
ASU: 1-6
CU: 1-5
Cal: 1-5
USC: 1-5
Utah: 1-4
UCLA: 3-3
UO: 4-1
UA: 3-2
I probably missed someone or inadvertently included a conference tournament game somewhere, but yeah, the bottom half of the conference went something like 2-38 against the top half of the conference and the bottom 1/3rd of the conference was 0 fer. For a different perspective, this is how conference teams played against the rest of the conference:
NCAA
UA: 13-0
UO: 12-1
UCLA: 12-0
USC: 9-3
NIT
Utah: 10-3
Cal: 9-3
CU: 7-5
Staying at Home
ASU: 6-5
Stanford: 6-5
WSU: 6-5
UW: 2-9
OSU: 1-11
USC is the clear outlier of the bunch. They were prone to losses to bad teams and struggled against the top of the league. They did go 13-0 in their OOC with wins against A&M, SMU, and BYU. That got them into the NCAA tournament. The other three pretenders played well in games against the bottom half of the league but were mediocre in early OOC play (and post-season too). Utah and Cal were definite NCAA teams if they could have faced more scrubs like the bottom half of our league. Any way you want to look at it, this was a three team race with USC getting an NCAA play-in game based on their early performances. They showed that teams outside the top 3 aren't necessarily terrible, but that doesn't say anything for the bottom five of the league that really were just as bad as they looked. Our conference was almost a three bid league this year for a reason. The bottom half of the league sucked against anyone with a heartbeat, in and out of conference.
Thanks for compiling and analyzing all that work. It may be easy for some but a nightmare for others to analyze the statistics.It is interesting in that udub and OSU did very poorly this year.USC looked like it did very well but struggled against the top tier teams in the conference ,too bad they were not in the "strong ACC" which flopped miserably. It sure looks like Oregon with Boucher may have had a real chance to make the Elite 8 this year.
Funny how the argument about how great the pac-12 is and pointing to the top 3-4 teams showing in the NCAA tournament seems to be the same argument fans of SEC football point to regarding the overall strength of their conference.
Glad Cougar
Glad Cougar
Yes and most people accept that . it helps more in that in basketball the teams are likely to play each other in the Tournament. Just think if one believed the hyperbole put out by the ACC and reporters. If North Carolina wins then may be it is more like that . However hardly anyone has come out and said that the PAC 12 is the "best" conference.If two PAC 12 teams advance into the Elite 8 then maybe people will start talking I was watching the USC game and some TV idiot said something about the "toughness" of the eastern teams. Well USC came out and kicked their ass after the halftime break. The stereotypes will exist until they are beaten into the ground.
There are good basketball player everywhere. Texas has had great high school players. Just look at the "Fab 5' and the Texas influence California has many players and all of the conferences recruit players from Texas,California and many places in between.
Recruiting is never an at the UW with the Seattle pool, California, and Hopkin's has recruited all over the country at Syracuse. Biggest knock for Hopkins is having never run his own program. It's a significant jump from assistant to head coach. Any head coaching experience is helpful because the responsibilities aren't the same. It does look like he is in the process of putting together a good staff.
He's described as hard working, passionate, compassionate, and sincere in an article from the Times. Ok, great but how will that translates to being a head coach in a deep conference like the Pac 12? His first offer for 2018 is out to Mater Dei (Hopkins HS) PG Spencer Freedman. A short and smallish PG whose not incredibly athletic but checks off all the elements of a good college PG to lead a program to me. Looks like a great shooter as well. He also has offers from Harvard and USC among others.
Hopkins is the kind of coach that would fit great in Pullman.
He's described as hard working, passionate, compassionate, and sincere in an article from the Times. Ok, great but how will that translates to being a head coach in a deep conference like the Pac 12? His first offer for 2018 is out to Mater Dei (Hopkins HS) PG Spencer Freedman. A short and smallish PG whose not incredibly athletic but checks off all the elements of a good college PG to lead a program to me. Looks like a great shooter as well. He also has offers from Harvard and USC among others.
Hopkins is the kind of coach that would fit great in Pullman.
Well he is at udub and i hope he falls flat on his face. He needs to continue the great work,Romar did in his last two years.
Hope he falls flat as well. More importantly hopefully we keep getting better and better in Pullman.
