The snapshot that best described the non-conference season for Pac-10 men’s basketball programs was not a Klay Thompson jumper, a Quincy Pondexter dunk or even USC’s monumental upset of eighth-ranked Tennessee earlier this month.
The moment came in the championship-like celebration that erupted shortly after Arizona’s Nic Wise buried a controversial, buzzer-beating 3-pointer for an overtime win.
Over Lipscomb.
It has certainly been a struggle almost every night for the once-proud programs in the Pac-10. After a flood of underclassmen have jumped ship for the NBA in recent seasons, the conference can consider any victory — even one over Lipscomb — reason for celebration.
Through the non-conference schedule, Pac-10 teams went 9-24 against opponents from the so-called power conferences, and 2-13 against ranked teams, with USC’s inexplicable upset of Tennessee on Dec. 19 serving as the first win over a ranked opponent. Along the way, the Pac-10 saw its teams lose to Montana, Cal State Fullerton, Sacramento State and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.
“The whole basketball landscape has changed — because of early entry into the (NBA) draft, because guys want to play right away,” Cal coach Mike Montgomery said. “There’s a lot more parity across the board.”
The preseason struggles will only make the Pac-10 season, which begins today, that much more important. The same conference that sent six teams to the NCAA tournament last spring might be lucky to get three this year.
“There will be a lot of balance, a lot of parity,” said Arizona State coach Herb Sendek, whose team lost leading scorer and underclassman James Harden as an NBA lottery pick. “It’s really hard to predict right now.”
Through it all, defending champion Washington (9-2) looks like the team to beat again. The Huskies spent much of the non-conference season trying to pull the weight of the nine other anchors in the Pac-10.
But even 17th-ranked UW, which was the Pac-10’s lone representative in the Top 25 throughout the month of December, had trouble living up on a national scale. The Huskies did not beat an opponent from a power conference until knocking off Texas A&M just before Christmas.
And yet the Huskies are sitting at the top of the proverbial hill as conference play begins tonight. As both the defending champions and the Pac-10’s only representative in the Top 25, UW is not the sleeping giant it turned out to be in 2008-09.
“We’ll have a bull’s eye on our back,” senior Quincy Pondexter said. “The biggest red bull’s eye — on our back, our chest, our ankle, wherever it takes.
“Everyone’s going to come after you with their best games. It’s not something we’re used to, because (last year) people didn’t have any clue we were going to win the Pac-10 — even when the Pac-10 started.”
The Pac-10 starts again Thursday, and this time the Huskies look like the cream of a relatively modest crop.
“We have a little bit of a different road this year,” Pondexter said. “We’re going to be the hot pick, and we’re going to be ready. I hope to God we’re going to be ready.”
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