It's just amazing. When they announced that he was joining the team, I really didn't think he'd be able to be effective game in and game out in the Pac-12. Now he's probably my favorite player on this team. So glad that he's having so much success.
Printable View
Now two games of separation between #2 and #9.
Utah controls its destiny as far as first round bye goes.
I assume ucla beats us in a tiebreaker due to their win over Arizona.
The results last night were very good for the Utes, and we are now positioned to make a major move in the league, if we can just keep winning. If the Utes were to sweep UCLA and USC at home next week (assuming beating WSU on Saturday), then at least one of those teams is a lock for 7 loses (b/c they play each other the last game of the year). If we end up in a tie with UCLA, yes, they'd take the tiebreaker due to their win over Arizona. With USC, it is much more cloudy right now their best wins are a sweep over Oregon. Our wins over Washington may trump those in a tiebreaker, but it will all depend on how those teams end up in the standings. They play the last game of the year. Should be an interesting stretch.
Big 4 game stretch for us. Here's what's on the line:
1) The NCAA tournament.
2) We can play our way to AT LEAST a 3-seed in Vegas. There's no real difference between a 2 and 3 seed - both would open against good teams, and both would avoid Arizona for as long as possible.
3) 1st team all conference for Justin Bibbins
4) COY for Coach K. Utes were picked 7th in the preseason poll. UW was picked 10th. ASU was picked 6th. Is any other coach in the running?
5) Revenge. We lost by a combined 58 points to UCLA, USC, and CU this season.
Well, if you are in the east there is a big difference...I think the 3/6 game tips at midnight eastern!
Agree though, should be a fun stretch...please please please take care of business at WSU.
I know the tournament committee doesn't really look at last 10 anymore, but if the Utes could somehow go into Vegas having won 7 in a row, that'd be something, certainly not nothing.
I follow a guy on Twitter, Jerry Palm, who insists that the NCAA basketball selection committee is the only group of humans ever assembled that can operate completely free of any bias. "They don't even know what conference a team belongs to." "The name on the jersey might as well be invisible." That kind of crap. I don't really know why I'm still following this guy.
Anyway, the committee may not officially look at last 10 anymore, but it's there. They can't unknow what they know.
USC's Bennie Boatwright is out for the rest of the season.
Road Pac12 TEAM Road Home +4 (11-3) Arizona (5-2) (6-1) +2 (9-5) USC (3-4) (6-1) +1 (9-5) UCLA (2-4) (7-1) +2 (8-6) Utah (4-4) (4-2) 0 (7-6) Stanford (2-4) (5-2) +1 (7-6) Washington (3-4) (4-2) 0 (7-6) Oregon (2-4) (5-2) 0 (7-7) Arizona State (3-4) (4-3) 0 (7-7) Colorado (1-6) (6-1) -2 (5-8) Oregon State (0-6) (5-2) -4 (2-11) California (1-6) (1-5) -4 (2-11) Washington State (0-7) (2-4)
So ucla and usc are 10-5 and they play mtn schools and @usc. We end up second if we win out and one of them gets swept in the mountains but wins the game at usc.
If we end up tied with ucla they win the tiebreaker via there win at az. If we end up tied with USC because of our wash sweep or stanford win we probably win that tiebreaker (assuming we beat them on Saturday)
Sent from my SM-G930T using Tapatalk
Road Pac12 TEAM Road Home +4 (11-3) Arizona (5-2) (6-1) +2 (10-5) USC (3-4) (7-1) +1 (10-5) UCLA (2-4) (8-1) +3 (9-6) Utah (5-4) (4-2) +1 (8-6) Washington (3-4) (5-2) +1 (8-6) Stanford (3-4) (5-2) 0 (7-7) Arizona State (3-4) (4-3) 0 (7-7) Oregon (2-5) (5-2) 0 (7-8) Colorado (1-7) (6-1) -2 (5-9) Oregon State (0-7) (5-2) -5 (2-12) California (1-6) (1-6) -5 (2-12) Washington State (0-7) (2-5)
Assuming Stanford beats California today.
I suppose the only caveat to this is that if we take care of business, we will be interested in seeing who falls into the 7/6 spot. My sense is that even though we hold a victory over them, we'd probably want to avoid Oregon in a potential 7/2 or 6/3 tilt, and possibly ASU as well. Stanford/Washington is a big game for both squads, but particularly for the Cardinal as they are likely to finish the season 0-2 after their trip to the Arizona schools.
Agreed. Even though UCLA, USC, Utah, CU, Oregon, ASU, UW, and Stanford are even in the standings, they are not even in how much they scare me!
Oregon in particular is playing better than they were when we were in Eugene.
This all illustrates how long our odds still are. Not only do we have to win out, we need to win one in Vegas too. All against teams more or less even with us.
One month ago, who'd a-thunk we'd have an exciting end to the regular season?
I'm really happy about this because I am a big believer in chemistry and having good character kids on your team. While talent is more important than anything, these other items are often overlooked. These appear to be a good group of kids who have gotten better. They are easy to cheer for.
it would be awesome if they took second place.
I'm with you on this. I think there are a lot of guys on this team who are really dissatisfied with how their college careers have turned out. Yes, they've earned minutes, put up respectable numbers and garnered individual accolades to varying degrees, but what have they accomplished that's lasting from a team concept? That they can bring up with pride 20 years from now? Really, not a damn thing. And the end of the tunnel is approaching, and they're highly motivated to change that. And they're united in changing that. That's what makes it easy to cheer for them.
I don't even think of scenarios in which this season is a failure. I suppose there are ones that could happen, but I don't even think about that. This team is along the lines of previous great teams in that regard. They're gonna go out and take care of business and they're gonna win. That's the vibe I get from this team right now.
This is a team that's not only going to get to the NCAAs, they're gonna win it all in Vegas.
The home stretch begins tonight with USC visiting Colorado. Big stakes for both squads as USC looks to keep some distance between themselves and the rest of the Pac sans Boatwright. For Colorado, a win gets them to 8-8 and keeps hope alive for them to finish anywhere from 5-8 (haven't broken out all the scenarios). A loss probably places them in the 8/9 game in Vegas.
Also - there is tension between these two coaches, so that will be interesting to watch, particularly if CU wins.
The rest of the slate tips off tomorrow.
Wilner agrees with me.
https://www.mercurynews.com/2018/02/...-in-las-vegas/
Vegas is a crapshoot. Every team has weaknesses. You have Arizona, the favorite, then you have pretty much even odds for the next 3 teams (since they get a bye), and then slightly lower odds for the next 5. If you just assigned the top 9 teams 1/9 odds, you'd be pretty close to the real picture.
Yeah, this is more or less how I feel. Of course I'd love to see it, but it's hard for me to imagine that we have that kind of a run in us. I think we can sweep this home stand. I expect us to beat USC and CU. UCLA is the tossup for me. While its been fun to see which guy steps up in which game, it also feels like our lack of depth and a star player can bite us in a tournament environment.
I just hope we make it to the NCAA tourney. I would have considered that impossible before the season began and the loss at BYU only cemented that opinion for me. But the road trips to Oregon, Arizona, and then Washington showed me a grit, determination, and focus I didn't think this squad had. Here's to taking down the Bruins!