Stop the Pac-samty: Tournament will hurt Pac-10
Monday, the presidents
of the Pacific-10 Con
ference schools voted
to institute a postsea
son basketball tournament for the
second time in conference history.
Uh-oh.
So, let’s imagine a scenario here.
It’s the 2001-02 season. The Ducks
are on the cusp of making the
NCAA Tournament, fourth or fifth
in the conference, one of the fabled
“bubble” teams. Washington State,
meanwhile, is dead last in the Pac
10. The teams travel to the “Pac-10
Tournament,” and the Cougars win
it all, beating top-ranked Arizona
in overtime. They get the automatic
bid that comes with the tourna
ment victory, while Oregon is
pushed out of the bubble and
watches the Big Dance from home.
This has happened. This hap
pens. This will happen.
It happened at last year’s Confer
ence USA Tournament. You may
have heard about St. Louis’ miracle
run, beating Cincinnati and Keny
on Martin on the way to the C-USA
tournament win and an automatic
NCAA Tournament bid. What you
didn’t hear is that as a result, Tu
lane, with a 20-11 overall record,
went to the National Invitation
Tournament instead of the NCAA
tournament. Four C-USA teams got
bids for March Madness last year.
One of them was 19-14 St. Louis.
They say they want the tourna
ment so the Pac-10 will be in the na
tional spotlight for the week between
the end of the regular season and the
start of the NCAA Tournament.
Did you know the MAC (that’s
the Mid-American Conference for
all you non-athletic directors out
there) has a postseason tourna
ment? Do you know who won it
last year? Neither do I. For $50,000,
tell me who won the Mountain
West Conference tournament last
year. I bet most people can’t even
remember the champions of the
bigger conferences. Name for me
the 2000 Big East Tournament
champion (it was St. John’s), or the
Southeastern Conference Tourna
ment champion (Arkansas).
My point is, every conference and
its mother is having a postseason
tournament, so why would a Pac-10
tournament suddenly thrust the
conference into the national spot
light? The answer is: it won’t. In fact,
the only conference left without a
tournament is the Ivy League.
Call me old-fashioned, but I tend
to think there’s nothing wrong with
being different.
Stanford coach Mike Mont
gomery agrees.
“So, what, we just do what every
one else does?” Montgomery said
Monday. “Is that the rule of thumb?”
They say the tournament will add
excitement to the end of the year.
They say that no longer will we have
meaningless end-of-the-season
games, when the Pac-10 Tourna
ment will be just around the comer.
You know, I didn’t find last year’s
Arizona-Oregon game, with possi
ble NCAA berths on the line, very
exciting.
Or last year’s second-to-last
game of the season, Stanford at Ari
zona, with the Wildcats needing a
win to share the Pac-10 title and
pulling it out, 86-81, at home?
Booo-rring.
Think UCLA at Stanford on the
same weekend as Arizona-Oregon.
Bruins pull it out by one point in
overtime and make it to the NCAA
Tournament on the weight of that
win, even though they had the
same record as Arizona State.
Please, I’m falling asleep here.
But now, thanks to the wonder
ful Pac-10 Tournament, those
games will mean next to diddly
squat. Arizona will go into that
Stanford game with less intensity.
Ah, they figure, we’ll just get them
in the tournament. On the flip side,
Stanford will play with less inten
sity in the tournament, because
they’ll already have a trip to the
NCAAs wrapped up, and most
likely its seeding in the tournament
will be the same as well.
Last year, St. Louis ended up as a
nine seed in the Big Dance despite
the C-USA title, and Cincinnati
ended up a two seed, despite going
out in the first round of the C-USA
tournament.
In the end, the Pac-10 Tournament
is about conformity. But why not be
different? If all the other conferences
jumped off a 60-footbridge, would
you? The Pac-10’s answer is a re
sounding, “Heck, yes!”
Peter Hockaday is a sports reporter for the
Emerald. You can reach him at phocka
day@yahoo.com.
Basketball
continued from page 7
will take place every year at the Sta
ples Center in Los Angeles. The
women’s tournament will include all
10 teams and will be hosted by a Pac
10 school on a rotating basis.
With the women doing so well in
attendance, McArthur Court would
be an obvious choice to be one of the
first schools to host.
“Obviously, this could be a great re
ward for the women and how much
success they’ve had here,” Oregon
athletic director Bill Moos said.
Not everyone is as pleased. Ari
zona men’s head coach Lute Olson
and Stanford head coach Mike
Montgomery have been two of the
most vocal opponents. Montgomery
didn’t hide his feelings Monday
when addressing the issue.
“Gee it’s great — can’t wait,” Mont
gomery said. “Really, what do I want
to say? I’m disappointed. There’s just a
lot of things that I have trouble with. ”
When asked if there was any spe
cific conditions that would have led
him to sway his viewpoint, Mont
gomery replied: “I don’t know what
they would be.”
The Oregon basketball players
seemed to be pretty pleased with the
news after Monday’s practice at
McArthur Court.
“It’s exciting because anyone can
win it and go to the tournament,” said
freshman point guard Luke Ridnour,
who mentioned how he grew up
watching the Atlantic Coast Confer
ence tournaments on television.
Some Ducks hadn’t even heard
about the possibility of the games.
“It was a shock to me,” junior
guard Anthony Norwood said.
“Freddie [Jones] came up to me dur
ing practice and was like, ‘Hey,
we’re having a Pac-10 tourney.’ And
I was like, ‘For what? Volleyball?”’
Senior David Jackson was pleased
with the news because he remem
bers the importance of the league
games back when he played on
Utah’s Final Four team in 1998.
“It gives you big game experience,
which is helpful as you go through
the Big Dance,” Jackson said.
Also Monday, the league passed
the right to have a year-long training
table, enabling athletes from all
sports to have one free meal per day.
The Pac-10 was one of the few con
ferences not to have it year-round
and Kent admitted that many
schools used that to their advantage
during recruiting battles.
“Both decisions were huge [tour
nament and training table] because
we’ve been hurting and football has
been hurting with recruits because
of no training tables,” Kent said.
Said Ridnour, when hearing the
news of free food: “That’s awe
some.”
#1 ii
Erin Swanson-Davies Emerald
Women’s basketball fans get their first look at transfer guard Edneisha Curry (right), guarded by starting point guard Kourtney Shreve.
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