***Official Pac-10 Basketball Thread***

[BobJoeJim]

You forgot Oregon State losing to Colorado State... and ALASKA FAIRBANKS. Hehehe. Chuckle chuckle. Guffaw.

[CardSharpCook]

well to be fair, most pundits believed that OSU and ASU sucked at the start of the season. You have 3 tiers in the Pac10; UCLA, WSU, ORE - ARI, USC, STAN, UW, Cal - ASU, OSU. The top tier is 11-0, the second tier is 13-3, the bottom tier is 1-3. Granted, most of the games have been against weak competition, but you can't say that the Pac10 has been "exposed".

[MSUcougar]

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well to be fair, most pundits believed that OSU and ASU sucked at the start of the season. You have 3 tiers in the Pac10; UCLA, WSU, ORE - ARI, USC, STAN, UW, Cal - ASU, OSU. The top tier is 11-0, the second tier is 13-3, the bottom tier is 1-3. Granted, most of the games have been against weak competition, but you can't say that the Pac10 has been "exposed".

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Agree with CSC here... I don't think you can draw conclusions at all from the first couple weeks of the season anyways. USC in particular is really young, and with these mid-majors you sometimes simply run into a team on a hot shooting night or whatever.

It's not as if the other conferences haven't had their share of upsets as well, namely Kentucky, Michigan St and NC State.

I'm not worried about the Pac-10... I think they'll live up to expectations...

ps... intrigued by the UCLA-MSU game about to start... haven't seen UCLA play yet.

[Jameso]

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Wash returns Dentmon, Appleby, Brockman, but to be honest, these players ain't that great.

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I'm undecided on Dentmon, but Brockman looks like he has turned the corner and is ready to lead. Appleby is a huge outside threat and we have a 7 footer in Wolfinger who can also shoot the 3-ball. Overton will take some pressure off of Dentmon and the Dawgs will be back to their old running gunning selves. I think that Brockman will have to carry the team on his back the way Roy did. He's looking pretty good early on--31 points and 18 boards versus Utah's 7-footer. He seems like a nice kid and I hope he does well.

[CardSharpCook]

Great game tonight UCLA-MSU. UCLA doesn't have the lead the entire game until 30 secs to go in the 2nd half. Mbah a Moute for 3!!! to take the lead. freaking awesome. Oh, and Oregon loses to St. Marys. But st. Mary's is supposed to be good.

[BobJoeJim]

I love the ESPN recap that says "Saint Mary's stunned the Ducks", considering Oregon was only favored by 3.5 points. Also, one of my best friends was at the game and he called me before tip-off to tell me the St. Mary's gym is "exactly the same as the South Eugene High School gym". Identical layout, capacity, everything. In light of that I found these quotes from the recap hilarious:

""Firstly, being a freshman coming from Australia, I've never been part of an atmosphere like this before," Mills said."

and "A capacity crowd of 3,500 turned out at McKeon Pavilion with the same kind of energy typical of a rivalry game with Gonzaga."

Still... none of that changes the fact that we lost (albeit with Bryce Taylor not in the lineup), and that I feel completely responsible as obviously my dig at the Beavers jinxed us. I'm a bad fan. I feel so ashamed.

[Semtex]

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Still... none of that changes the fact that we lost (albeit with Bryce Taylor not in the lineup)

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I wouldn't feel too bad. USC lost to Mercer with Hackett out, even with OJ scoring 32. Seeing by their performance the next game with Hackett in, its pretty obvious he makes a world of difference to the lineup.

[Aces McGee]

I couldn't be less impressed weith OJ Mayo in my first two looks at him (in the Anaheim Classic vs. San Diego and Miami Ohio).

He's been playing with no passion or energy at all. He doesn't seem to move off the ball -- although, to be fair, the entire USC offense seems to lack movement. He just looks bored out there.

-McGee

[CardSharpCook]

excited for the games tonight. Ari v. Kansas, and so ill @ USC.

[BobJoeJim]

With Oregon State losing at halftime to Portland, is it too early to ask if the Beavs might go 0-18 in conference this year? You know, what with how they lost to Colorado State and Alaska-Fairbanks already?