Thursday, November 19, 1998
Pac-10 conference casts green, seasoned talent
PREVIEW: Top-ranked teams go head-to-head for championship
title
By Brent Boyd
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
The Pac-10 basketball conference has a lot to live up to this
season.
Two national championships in the past four years, three Final
Four appearances in the same time span, and four teams in the Sweet
16 a year ago – these are accomplishments that would make any
conference proud.
The scary thing is, the Pac-10 may be even better this year.
Only a week into the season, conference teams have gone 9-1, and
already four are ranked among the top 14 in the nation – Stanford
(3rd), UCLA (11th), Arizona (12th), and Washington (14th).
The Atlantic Coast Conference is the nation’s closest, with four
teams in the top 24.
The general consensus is that this year’s conference is actually
divided up into four tiers.
Returning all five starters from last year’s Final Four team,
Stanford is the overwhelming favorite – the Cardinal received 36 of
a possible 37 first-place votes in the preseason Pac-10 media
poll.
Meanwhile, veteran Washington and youthful squads from UCLA and
Arizona should fight it out for the second through fourth spots. It
would be a surprise if any of these teams failed to receive an NCAA
bid.
Next up is the quadrant of California, USC, Oregon and Arizona
State. All these teams have the talent to make some noise but are
also marked with uncertainty and may be prone to periodic
struggle.
If any of these teams have a break-out year, a fifth conference
bid to the Tourney could await.
Finally come the trailers of the Pac-10 – Washington State and
Oregon State. A postseason run by either one of these teams would
be a shock.
As a whole, the conference is a mixture of the old and the
new.
Gone are Miles Simon, Micheal Dickerson, and Mike Bibby of
Arizona as well as the UCLA trio of Toby Bailey, J.R. Henderson and
Kris Johnson.
Corey Benjamin won’t be returning to Oregon State. Other
graduates include WSU’s Carlos Daniel and ASU’s Ahlon Lewis and
Jeremy Veal.
The graduates will be replaced by members of recruiting classes
at UCLA and Arizona that rank among the best in the nation, as well
as strong newcomers at USC, California and Oregon.
Add in the fact that Stanford returns its top 10 players from
last year’s 30-5 team and that Washington has four starters
(including all-Pac-10 center Todd MacCullough) back from its Sweet
16 team. Then there are Baron Davis and Earl Watson, who will
return to make a formidable backcourt in Westwood. All of this
should result in one exciting season of Pac-10 basketball.
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