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

[viciouspenguin]

1. UCLA
2. Washington State
3. Stanford
4. Oregon
5. Arizona State
6. Arizona
7. Cal
8. USC
9. Washington
10. OSU

I think my most debatable picks are ASU at 5, Arizona at 6, and USC at 8.

ASU was a very well coached, rapidly improving team by the end of the team last year with limited talent. They nearly beat UCLA and USC just by being well coached. With more talent (more specifically Harden), their frustratingly slow style, tough D scheme, and excellent coaching, I expect them to be the 2006 WSU of this year. I would put them higher but Oregon fans would get mad at me. I'm personally not very high on Oregon because I think the loss of Brooks will impact the team much more than people think, but I can't rank them any lower since they're obviously still a good team. But I am curious what will happen when those open 3 point shots arent there anymore becuase Brooks isn't breaking down the D and kicking the rock out. I also dont like the idea of Porter running the point permannetly. Taylor and Hairston will need to prove themselves but if they do Oregon is a top 2-4 team, otherwise i put them at middle of the pack in such a tough PAC10

Arizona will not meet expectations this year. Chase will find trouble scoring because all the focus will be on him. All those open looks he had last year will be gone. He's overhyped by the media. The Arizona defense is still soft and weak. The team is inexperienced as well. Most of the players are still raw and very undisciplined. Chase is just an athlete and pretty selfish. Look up Trent Suzuki.

What people don't realize about USC last year compared to this year is the defense. Pruitt, Young, etc. were all excellent defenders. Their offense, leadership, and experience will also be missed obviously. OJ Mayo is not a team player and I expect them to finish near the bottom of the PAC10. SC's defense is horrible this year. In such a deep PAC10 the one man team of OJ Mayo is not going to win. Especially with some of the great defensive teams that will just shut him down with their help D. UCLa, Stanford, WSU, ASU come to mind. If OJ can't beat Mercer by himself, USC is NIT status. It's not going to get much better.

[Dids]

Jared,

Way I see the UO games vs us last year was that we beat you, but Brooks beat us. I have a hard time seeing UO being nearly as good without that guy, he was amazing.

Oh, also because your pet midget chucker is insane, but I assume that's not a repeatable skills, and if it is, I will order Baynes to sit on him.

[BobJoeJim]

Jared, one problem with relying on Malik to step up as the dominant player is that it's dangerous to put the ball in his hands at the end of the game because of his free throw shooting. He looks good so far (have you had a chance to watch the first three games? O-Zone is awesome!), and I think for the first 38 minutes of any given game he will look like the star we've been waiting for him to be. I don't want the ball in his hands at the end of a game though, until he proves he can hit free throws reliably.

You're dead on about the variance point, we live by the three and will probably die by it in a few games this year as well. We're also vulnerable defensively to a good post player, as WMU showed. I still maintain that the number one key to the season is how Porter and Brown can do at the point; there will undoubtedly be drop-off from Brooks, but if we can at least get replacement level play it could be a very good year. If those two struggle badly, though, it will get ugly and with how tough the conference is, we could find ourselves plummeting through the standings. Right now it's still too early to say which way it will go, but road games against St. Mary's and especially against K-State will go a long way toward figuring out this team.

[JaredL]

Unfortunately I live in Pittsburgh so I might not get to see any preseason games. I get a Fox Sports channel that isn't FSNW but some sort of West Coast hybrid. For example they have weekly highlight shows for UCLA and Washington. Annoyingly they don't usually have these shows for Oregon. They show a lot of Pac 10 games so I can watch most of the games on there, some are delayed iirc but I can watch them, but for preseason games especially against crappy teams I don't get them.

Ironically, I am applying for a job as an econ professor at OSU. If I luckbox into that I'll be back in state albeit in a strange situation. I'd be much happier there.

With Malik, I'm referring more to games that are within one possession. Obviously if we are up 5 with half a minute to go his ass should be on the bench or at least he shouldn't touch the ball. Down by 2 with 30 seconds left I think he should get the ball. Even if they should, teams won't foul him on purpose in situations like that.

[JaredL]

Didsy,

My memory may be bad. Especially in Pullman I remember it being a huge turnover fest and generally sloppy game.

Granted, Wazzu were successful with a style that made games look ugly because of the way they play D but certainly that first game was ugly.

[rwperu34]

There's basketball in the Pac-10? When did this start? Do the Sun Devils have a team? [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

[BobJoeJim]

[ QUOTE ]
Unfortunately I live in Pittsburgh so I might not get to see any preseason games. I get a Fox Sports channel that isn't FSNW but some sort of West Coast hybrid. For example they have weekly highlight shows for UCLA and Washington. Annoyingly they don't usually have these shows for Oregon. They show a lot of Pac 10 games so I can watch most of the games on there, some are delayed iirc but I can watch them, but for preseason games especially against crappy teams I don't get them.

Ironically, I am applying for a job as an econ professor at OSU. If I luckbox into that I'll be back in state albeit in a strange situation. I'd be much happier there.

[/ QUOTE ]
You're aware that with a subscription to O-Zone (through GoDucks.com) you would be able to watch all OSN broadcasts online, either live or archived, right? It's $9.95 a month, or $79.95 a year. I'd consider it pretty much essential to any Oregon fan living out-of-state that isn't completely dead broke. Even down here in Ashland I didn't get the first three games televised, but I saw them anyway, and it was good.

[JaredL]

Nice, did not know about that. While I'm approximately dead broke, I may give it a shot.

How good is the quality?

I can hook my computer up to my tv so if the quality is good that would be fantastic.

edit: Also, what is the deal with not all Pac 10 basketball games going? If it's just games I could get on tv that would be fine.

[BobJoeJim]

Quality is admittedly pretty mediocre. You can route it through the TV, I do when I'm at home for a game, but it's a pretty blocky low-res picture. Still, it's good enough that I'm able to ignore the quality and just focus on the fact that I'm watching an Oregon basketball game [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]

[CardSharpCook]

I think you may have been a tad enthusiastic about ASU's chances.