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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 6, 1982)
sports Photo by BoD Baker Jerome Williams and the Ducks are playing the best basketball of Jim Haney’s four years as head coach of Oregon Best and rest of Pacific 10 basketball UCLA, Oregon State will dominate league The following Pacific 10 ConteMnee basketball preview rapraaants Emorald sportawriter Donald Coulter's ■Nhjsrtlws view of the conference race that already has kad a law surprteea. With most teams already having completed tee league games, Oregon and Washington share first place with Oregon State with 2-0 conference records, while UCLA sits In the cellar at 0-2. By DONALD COULTER The 1981-82 basketball season be remembered as a banner year for the Pacific 10 CoiiHWlice Consider this • When was the last time the conference was not repre sented in the Top Ten of the national polls9 Since UCLA lost two of its first three games in early December, it has been five weeks since a Pac-10 team made tha Top 10 You’d probably have to go back to the late 1950s (before California won the national championship in 1959) to find a comparable drought. • It's very possible the NBA won't choose any Pac-10 seniors in the first round of its draft next June There are no ringers in the league this year Unless Mark McNamara continues to average 25 points a game for tha rest of the season, or the pro scouts overlook Dwight Anderson's poor defense it could be a whitewash for the Pac-10 • Idaho, of the not-so-migbty Big Sky Conference, defeated four Pac-10 teams in December by an average of 21 points Granted. Idaho is a solid, well-diciplined team. But still, there's no way that Idaho should be carving up the Pac-10. Any other year they would do well to win one maybe two, of those games • In addition, UCLA, the Pac-10'smost talented team, has been placed on probation by the NCAA The Bruins won't be able to play in the NCAA tournament, and they are ineligible for the conference championship It's definitely an off year for Pac-10 basketball, but with UCLA out of the picture, most experts agree the conference race should be up for grabs "UCLA should win the conference," Oregon head coach Jim Haney said before the Bruins were placed on probation, "but the other nine teams are all pretty even No one else stands out" "The whole thing is up for grabs,' agrees Artroria State head coach Ned Wulk "The conference is evenly spread out. How teams take advantage of their home courts could be a deciding factor " Wulk is right Of the nine games played on the first weekend of conference play, the visitors won only twice And one of those two wins came in overtime So the conference championship — and the two or three spots available for the NCAA tournament — will probably go to the teams who can play extremely well at home and hold their own on the road Without being foolish enough to pick a numerical finish tor each of the conference teams, here’s a look at the Pac-10’s caste system UCLA <0-2 In the conference, 6-4 overall) has so much talent it could probably compete tor the NBA’s Pacific Division title. But talent does not win games by itself, as the Brums’ two losses last weekend point out Still, UCLA $ disaster in tht state of Washington was understandable After thumping Notre Dame. DePaul and Maryland on national television over the past few weeks the Bruins were due tor a letdown at the start of a conference schedule that is meaningless to them. UCLA’s Mike Sanders is the essence of a great team player The 6-6 senior forward leads the Bruins in scoring (17.7) and rebounding (7.7), but he’s just another face on a team loaded with all stars Sanders Is surrounded by the likes of Kenny Fields. Rod Foster, Michael Holton and Darien Daye. In addition to Stuart Gray, the 7-toot freshman center who was the focus of college recruiting battles last year How this team has lost four games already la an enigma Considering that OREGON STATE (2-0, 9 2) lost three seniors to toe NBA from last year's 26-2 squad, the Beavers should be contending tor toe second division instead of first piece But Ralph Miller has ones again assembled a cast tost will be tough to stop from winning a third-straight conference title The key to OSU't success In recent years has been defense And Miller says this year's team plays stronger defense than his squad which was rated number one In toe nation tor most of last season The Beavers’ swarming defense makes even good teams look disoriented by forcing them into taking bad shots and making turnovers After a sluggish month of December, 6 6 sophomore forward Charlie Sitton came to life against toe Aritona teams last weekend Sitton shares toe spotlight with senior guard Lester Connor, who is one toe most underrated guards in toe country Connor leads the Pac-10 in steals and isamong toe leaders In assists And in 6-8 forward A C Green M#er has one of the best freshmen in the Pac-10 Respectable U*C (1-1, 7-4). In terms of consistency, It fs a different matter USC split a pair of overtime games infie state of Washington last weekend that it should havtf won easily Atrocious free throw shooting (25 of 47 for 53 percent) didn't help the Trojans in those two games Senior guard Dwight Anderson is one of the most impres sive shooting and Oah-handiiny guards m the cosptry Ander son. who transferred to USC last year from Nftntucky, is averaging almost 24 points a game The Trojans start a pair of veterans alongside Anderson — forward Maurice Williams and guard Jacque Hill — and a couple of freshmen in Wayne Cartander and Ken Johnson Look at who's tied for first in the Pac-10 standings? And look at who they had to beat to get there! WASHINGTON (2-0. 9-2) looked questionable at best going into the confernce opener, having fattened its record on a diet of schools that aren’t exactly college basketball powers But the Huskies made short order of USC and UCLA last weekend The sweep over the Los Angeles schools, the first for Washington since 1977, was engineered by forward Kenny Lyles and guard Steve Burks Lyles scored 24 in the overtime victory over USC Saturday night, while Burks pumped in 17 in the 56-50 win over UCLA Monday night Another key for the Huskies is 6-8 senior forward Dan Caldwell, who is averaging 15.9 points per game Too Young? STANFORD (0-1.5-5) always seems like it is one year away from being a good team. Once again, the Cardinals are a young squad, but this time around they have a good amount of talent to compensate Stanford returns all five starters, including sophomore center John Revelli At 6-8, Revelli would be a forward on most teams, but he manages to average a respec table 17 points and 10 7 rebounds in the post for Stanford OREGON (2-0, 7-4) has improved almost 100 pecent from the clods that stumbled to victories over St Martin's and Cal-Riverside in December Jim Haney's young-but-talented team is playing with confidence now. giving McArthur Court fans perhaps the most exciting basketball of Haney 's four years as head coach But for the Ducks to finish in the first division, they need to play much better defense and learn how to win on the road Now a senior. Mark McNamara is finally starting to develop into the quality center CALIFORNIA (1-0, 7-3) hoped he would be. McNamara is shooting almost 70 percent from the field this season, and poured in 30 against Stanford last week McNamara is joined by guard Butch Hays and forward Michael Chavez — both are averaging about 10 points a game — on a youthful team that returns nine players from last year Also-rans If its two fiascos last weekend are an indication, this year's version of ARIZONA STATE (0-2, 5-6) is a far cry from team of the last two years All that remains of the team that appeared in two straight NCAA tourneys and spent most of the last two years in the top twenty is guard Lafayette Lever — who is averaging 17 2 points per game — and that's not enough Intrastate rival ARIZOUA (0-2, 5-6) has a fine guard of its own, 6-3 sophomore Jeff Collins, but the Wildcats probably won’t win a road game alt year Neither will WASHINGTON STATE (1-1, 7-7), which has already played its game of the year by stunning UCLA in triple overtime Among the Cougars' losses this year were games to Oklahoma City and Eastern Montana (Eastern Montana?) 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