Still Searching For Respect

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The Pac-12 Conference was able to set a record this month as for the first time in the 100 years of the conference, seven schools qualified for the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament. For a longtime the Pac-12 has been seeking respect in the face of the perceived “East Coast Bias”. But since the NCAA Tournament began last Tuesday, the Pac-12 has taken it on the chin as only the Oregon Ducks are still dancing as the conference’s opportunity for respect has gone out of the window in 2016. The Pac-12 is home to some schools that have storied histories when it comes to basketball as no program in the nation has won more national titles than the UCLA Bruins while over last 30 years, the Arizona Wildcats have been one of the nation’s elite programs as they’ve sent dozens of players to the NBA while also winning a national championship in 1997. And although that the Pac-12 did have a stellar season overall, there’s still some work that must be done.

Something that helps a conference gain notoriety is consistent deep runs in the NCAA Tournament. The glory days of the Big East Conference were in the 1980’s as they became the first and only conference to date to send three schools to the Final Four in 1985. The Atlantic Coast Conference has a storied basketball history that is continuing this March as a record six schools have made it to the Sweet 16. And since 1999, the Big Ten Conference has seen six of its schools reach the Final Four with the Michigan State Spartans and Wisconsin Badgers making it last year. And whereas the Pac-12 is a power conference, they have been unable to keep up as they’ve never been able to send multiple teams to the Final Four in the same year.

One thing that has hurt the Pac-12 in the NCAA Tournament is the inability of teams to adjust out of their time zone. Since 1993, the Pac-12 has seen its members make eight appearances in the Final Four. But in those eight appearances, only Arizona in 1997 and 2001, along with the Stanford Cardinal in 1998 won a non-West region to get there. However this time around the Pac-12 could have simply been a victim of bad luck.

The Pac-12 went 2-5 in the first round of this year’s tournament with some bad breaks along with some tough match-ups. The Wildcats were the six-seed in the South Regional and they received a tough draw in the first round against the Wichita State Shockers. It was just three years ago that Wichita State made the Final Four and led by senior guards Ron Baker and Fred VanVleet, they got past Arizona 65-55 in the first round. The Southern California Trojans received their first tournament bid since 2009, but a late season swoon on their part led to them being an eight-seed in the East Region. The Trojans drew the Providence Friars in the first round, and in a typical eight-seed versus nine-seed affair, it came down to the wire with Providence scoring the winning basket as time expired. By the time that the tournament rolled around, the California Golden Bears were decimated by injuries. And although that California was a four-seed in the South Region, they were shut down in the first round by the Hawaii Rainbow Warriors 77-66. The seven-seed versus ten-seed first-round contests are always toss up, and for the Oregon State Beavers who were making their first tourney appearance since 1990, the lower seeded Virginia Commonwealth Rams were too much for them. The Colorado Buffaloes took a nine-point lead over the Connecticut Huskies to the locker room in their first-round meeting before they struggled in the second half and lost 74-67. The Utah Utes were the three-seed in the Midwest Region. But after Utah was able to get by the Fresno State Bulldogs in the first round, they were throttled by the Gonzaga Bulldogs who were the 11-seed by a score of 82-59 as it is now up to the Oregon Ducks to carry the Pac-12 banner.

But even though that the 2016 college basketball season will more than likely not finish in the fashion that the Pac-12 envisioned, all is not lost for “The Conference of Champions”.

Sean Miller

This was a down year for Arizona, but head basketball coach Sean Miller can rest a bit easier knowing that he has one of the top recruiting classes in the nation headed to Tuscon which includes small forward Rawle Alkins. Cuonzo Martin just finished his second year as Cal’s head basketball coach, and if he is able to get pair of talented freshman forwards Ivan Rabb and Jaylen Brown to return to Berkeley, he could have a top ten team on his hands in the fall. Although that the Trojans were happy to make their first NCAA Tournament appearance since 2009, head basketball coach Andy Enfield only had one senior on his team with the potential of five players who averaged in double-digits this season in points returning to Los Angeles. Utah will more than likely see sophomore power forward Jakob Poeltl forego his final two years of eligibility and declare for the NBA Draft, but head basketball coach Larry Krystowiak has brought the program back to the level that it once was under former head coach Rick Majerus. In the four of the last five years, the Colorado Buffaloes have made the NCAA Tournament under head basketball coach Tad Boyle while you cannot expect UCLA to have another bad season under head basketball coach Steve Alford; especially since he has a pair of highly touted freshman coming to Westwood in power forward T.J. Leaf and point guard Lonzo Ball. The Arizona State Sun Devils showed signs of improvement in their first year under head basketball coach Bobby Hurley while Oregon State is no longer a pushover in the conference. The Washington Huskies always appear to be on the cusp of taking that next step under basketball coach Lorenzo Romar and the Washington State Cougars are looking to become relevant in the conference while the Stanford Cardinal are searching for a new head basketball coach since Johnny Dawkins was recently fired.

The West Coast is littered with talented high-school basketball players ranging from San Diego all the way up the Pacific Coast to Seattle. Some of the Pac-12 schools have some of the best facilities in the nation, and now it is just a matter of everything consistently coming together in the month of March where the conference continues to bring up the rear.

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