Pac 10 teams in the Tournament...

sundevilscott

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I think that the 2 teams that will be left out of the Pac 10 Tourney will be SC and UO which happen to be at the bottom of the conference. ASU is doing exactly what they don't need to do and that is to lose the home games. The 3-1 record against the NoCal teams really helped but the 2 losses at home to the SoCal teams really hurt.

I honestly think that the only 2 teams that have a chance at winning the Pac-10 tourney are the 2 big dogs. UW and that other team ;).

Now I am more of a football guy but how many teams from the pac should we expect in the Big Dance?
 

MaoTosiFanClub

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Key things to look at are how a team finishes over their last ten games and RPI. An RPI in the Top 40 is basically a guaranteed berth so right now only UA, UW, and UCLA would likely be the only definites in the Dance with Stanford and ASU being bubble teams.

But both Stanford and ASU's RPI is on the 40s so their destiny is in their own hands although knowing ASU's lack of consistency it wouldn't hurt for ASU fans to be cheering on mediocre teams they beat early in the season (Vandy, Temple, Oregon) to put on a run in February to improve their own RPI.
 

WizardOfAz

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MaoTosiFanClub said:
But both Stanford and ASU's RPI is on the 40s so their destiny is in their own hands although knowing ASU's lack of consistency it wouldn't hurt for ASU fans to be cheering on mediocre teams they beat early in the season (Vandy, Temple, Oregon) to put on a run in February to improve their own RPI.


ASU early season foes current RPI:

UTEP 60
Vandy 71
Temple 91
 

ajcardfan

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The Pac 10 tourney has yet to have an upset champion since it started up a couple of years ago. Every year, there's at least one or two shockers in conference tournaments. The Pac 10 is due.

My darkhorse for the Pac 10 tourney is Washington St. They are a tough team to play stylewise, and if they get hot from 3 range like they did against UofA they can definitely do it.
 

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Wazzu? Well, they did beat a hungover (literally) Arizona team but I don't think they can win three in a row against sober teams. That being said never bet on Arizona in the conference tournaments because Lute's apathy towadrs them occasionally rubs off on his team. UW is the easy favorite while I could see ASU, UCLA, and Stanford making runs. OSU, Cal, and Wazzu ain't gonna happen.
 

ajcardfan

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MaoTosiFanClub said:
Wazzu? Well, they did beat a hungover (literally) Arizona team but I don't think they can win three in a row against sober teams. That being said never bet on Arizona in the conference tournaments because Lute's apathy towadrs them occasionally rubs off on his team. UW is the easy favorite while I could see ASU, UCLA, and Stanford making runs. OSU, Cal, and Wazzu ain't gonna happen.

Well, if everyone thought that Wazzu had a chance they wouldn't be a "dark horse" would they? It's not likely, I'm well aware of that. I'd just like to see a tournament that doesn't put me to sleep for once more than anything.
 

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Updated RPI
UW - 7
UA - 10
UCLA - 32
Stanford - 43
ASU - 50
Wazzu - 68

Evans better go 4-2 with a win against UA or UW if he wants to teach the Pac-10 how to play defense in Tempe next year. A loss to a sorry USC team on Saturday would likely end any shot at the tourney. UCLA looks like a lock unless they fall apart while a win on Saturday would help their eventual seed greatly. Stanford also needs to put together some good wins.

And I forgot to mention, props to Steve Lavin on the ESPN College gamenight program last night giving props to the Pac-10 even dropping the fact that the conference is underexposed thanks to being on Fox Sports Net. Even said Salim Stoudamire is a better shooter than JJ Redick which I'm sure caused Vitale to have a heart attack. The guy might be a mediocre coach, but I like having someone around ESPN to remind the voters what's west of the Mississippi.
 
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WizardOfAz

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After this weekend's games:

Pacific-10 Standings:

Arizona 11-2
Washington 10-3
Stanford 7-5
UCLA 7-6
Oregon St. 6-6
California 5-7
Arizona St. 5-8
Washington St. 5-8
Oregon 4-8
USC 3-10
 

Russ Smith

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ESPN has some poll on their site that makes you pick whether a team gets an at large bid or not based on RPI, record, record in last ten, conference record etc. But they don't tell you the name. It's pretty interesting, about 70% of the people voted no on UCLA because they didn't know it was UCLA.

The losses to Stanford and Cal back to back really hurt them, I figure UCLA needs to win 4 of the last 6 and at least once in the conference tourney to get in now. Bay area, Oregon, USC and Notre Dame.
 

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Russ - UCLA should be fine if they take care of business. No team in the Top 40 RPI has ever not made the Tourney so they'd be in if the season ended today. Also remember they get Stanford without Grunfeld and the Pac-10 tourney will be played close to home.
 

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Huge win for Stanford today that also greatly helps ASU. As long as Stanford stays in the Top 50 in RPI and ASU pulls off a miracle against either UW or UA they're likely in.
 
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