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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 14, 1985)
OSU, Washington favored for Pac-10 title By Brent De La Paz Of the Emerald They have installed cages on the floor, but that won’t stop the coaches and players from a free-for-all, which will probably occur this season in the fight for the Pacific-10 Conference basketball championship. The cage area, a 28-foot area marked on the floor, is designed to keep oppos ing coaches at bay from referees, but that doesn’t mean the warfare on the bench will have any reflection on what hap pens on the court. The Pac-10 title is up for grabs. Most of the teams have a serious shot at the top spot, as the days of the John Wooden dynasty at UCLA are all but distant memories. Coaches around the league have said they wouldn’t be suprised if a team won the conference with five or six losses to its credit. Parity in the Pac-10 is a com mon denominator this season when a good portion of the country will be focusing its attention on the Washington, D.C. area, as last year’s NCAA champion Georgetown University tries to make it two in a row with mam moth 6-foot-10 center Patrick Ewing. The Pac-10 doesn’t have an aircraft carrier like Ewing in its conference, but it does have a few outstanding players like Washington’s Detlef Schrempf and Oregon State’s A.C. Green, who can play with the best the nation can offer. The Pac-10, with the fall of UCLA from grace, isn’t respected as it once was. but the teams and the players in the con ference will have a chance to rid themselves of the Rodney Dangerfield syndrome when the expanded 64-team tournament opens play in March. The co-champions of the league last year, Washington and Oregon State, were the only representatives from the league in the tournament, while Oregon participated in the National Invitation Tournament. Both OSU and Washington are early favorites to retain the crown, but there are eight other teams in the league who think otherwise. This Emerald sports writer will analyze the strengths and weaknesses of the Pac-10 and forecast a winner for the upcoming race. The team’s records so far in the Pac-10 race are in parentheses. 1. OREGON STATE (3*0) — Beaver coach Ralph Miller, the second winn ingest active coach behind Washington’s Marv Harshman, has a team that is solid everywhere — except on the bench. OSU, 13-1 overall and ranked 20th by the Associated Press, has good strength inside. Last year’s Pac-10 Player of the Year, 6-9 forward A.C. Green, and 6-foot-10 Steve Woodside form a sturdy foundation to the Beaver front-line attack. Junior Darryl Flowers leads a guard group laden with talent, which has been utilizing Miller’s added new wrinkle to the OSU attack — the three-guard of fense. The only major deficiency with OSU is its bench strength, but Miller, a 32-year veteran of college coaching, will probably find a solution before the season’s end. 2. WASHINGTON (2-1) — All of last year’s hullabaloo over DePaul coach Ray Meyer’s retirement will focus on Husky coach Marv Harshman, who is calling it quits after 40 seasons of coaching. Harshman should have quite a celebra tion with the return of the famed foreign legion called the “West German connec tion” in 6-9 forward-guard Detlef Schrempf and 7-foot center Christian Welp. Both are key to how long Har shman’s retirement party will continue in the NCAAs. The Huskies, 10-4, have good bench strength, but the play of their guards will keep them a notch below OSU. 3. ARIZONA (2-1) — The Wildcats have something cooking in Tucson — and with the right ingredients Lute Olson’s team could land themselves with a Pac-10 Championship. Arizona, 11-4, has the dynamic one-two scoring punch of forward Eddie Smith and center Pete Williams, the Pac-lO’s leading rebounder last season. The Wildcats are also deep at the guard position with Brock Brunkhorst and Michael Tait. Olson’s team was also boosted by the return of 6-7 forward Morgan Taylor, who sat out year because of academic difficulties. Arizona has a lot of talent and a free-wheeling offense, but the only question is if they have enough stamina at the end to push past OSU and Washington. 4. ARIZONA STATE (2-1) — Down in Tempe, the Sun Devils are sharpening up their pitch forks and just waiting for somebody to falter — just a little so Arizona State, 7-6 overall, can take ad vantage of the situation. Pac-10 teams should have a devilish time containing freshman sensation Chris Sandle, a 6-7 forward, who was one of the high school plums coach Bob Weinhauer recruited last season. ASU is generally a young team with a lot of talent. Returning are Pac-10 All Freshman forward Steve Beck and 6-9 forward Jim Deines, a good shooting player, who holds his own against taller opponents. Weinhauer’s youngsters will have a Pac-10 baptism under fire this season, but should receive the dividends down the road. The payoff won’t be this season, but this year’s initiation will come in handy in the future. 5. UCLA (2-1) — The so-called ” Ba taan Death March’’ is over for first-year coach Walt Hazzard and his often criticized UCLA Bruin team. The people in the Westwood area of Los Angeles still haven’t come to grips with the fact there will never be another coach like the legendary John Wooden, who won 10 NCAA basketball championships in 12 years. Four coaches have come and gone since Wooden’s retirement in 1975, and Hazzard, a former UCLA player, has ar rived in Pauley Pavilion seeking his destiny. What Hazzard finds this year may be very unpleasant — the Bruins, 4-6 so far, return only one full-time starter, forward Gary Maloncon. The Bruins’ den isn’t totally empty with the talent of guards Nigel Miguel and Montel Hatcher. However, Hazzard will need a year to get his program instituted in order get UCLA basketball back to its level of excellence it once enjoyed. 6. OREGON (0-3) — The word is out in the league about the Ducks. Last year Oregon caught everyone off-guard and ended the season with, an 11-7 league record, good enough for a third place Pac-10 finish. Unfortunately for coach Don Monson and his crew, the element of suprise won’t be on their side this season, with all the teams in the league doing their homework — so carefully that Oregon, 7-9 for the season, has drop ped its first three league games. Despite the slow start, the Ducks have talent from top to bottom. On top is 7-foot center senior Blair Rasmussen, whose turn-around jumper on the baseline is nearly indefensible. In the middle, the Ducks have 6-7 forward Greg Trapp and enforcer 6-8 Jerry Adams. On the bottom, is a pair of coveted freshman guards in Anthony Taylor and Rick Osborn. The only missing part to this team is a take-charge guy — senior guard Chris Harper was beginning to fill the role until he went down temporarily with an injury. Harper’s return is the key to Oregon’s hopes. 7. SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA (2-1) — Trojan followers are excited for this year’s version of coach Stan Morrison’s basketball team. USC. 8-4 overall, has talent in abundance with four returning starters and thoughts of finishing in the upper echelon of the division after a disappointing 6-12 Pac-10 mark last season. For the Trojans, the big cogs in their machine will be All-Pac ID forward Wayne Carlander and forward Ron Holmes. USC’ also has a crafty point guard in Larry Friend. The Trojans have a lot of offensive weapons and good size. The play of Friend, a 5-11 junior, must be consistent or the Trojans’ horse won’t survive the Pac-10 war. 8. CALIFORNIA (0-3) — Coach Dick Kuchen's California Golden Bears will be climbing their way to the top — but ever so slowly because of a team that was hit hard by graduation. The Bears have one of the smallest front lines in the league with 6-9 freshman Leonard Taylor holding down the area under the basket. Cal does have one of the best guard combinations in Chris Washington and Kevin Johnson. Both can shoot and run the Bear offense to its fullest. But without any 7-foot grizzly up front, the Bears’ guards may have to hibernate before the season is out. 9. WASHINGTON STATE (2-2) — Despite a troublesome first season as head of the Cougar program, coach Len Stevens is seeing some results from last year’s cellar-dwelling (4-14 league mark) season. 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