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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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