RebKell's Junkie Boards

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[IM in OC]

[Nixtreefan]

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[bcdawg04]

Pac-12 announces women's basketball players of the week: Osahor, Hebard

Dang, you know the conference has some real players when the kid with a triple-double (her 3rd in just 16 career games ) isn't the Player of the Week. It appears, though, that Ionescu was nominated for Player of the Week and not Freshman of the Week. Freshman of the Week went to her teammate. Watch out for Oregon.

[22]

Thought Pat, especially, might be interested: Isiah Thomas just gave Monique Billings a shout-out (without actually using her name due to WNBA rules) on NBA Gametime for her near-miss dunk attempt.

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We've passed the halfway point on the conference season and the Beavs and Card are neck-and-neck (with the Beavs in possession of the head-to-head tiebreak). It looks like this:

OSU: 9-1
Stanford: 9-1
Washington: 8-2
UCLA: 8-2
ASU: 5-5
Oregon: 4-6
Wazzu: 4-6
Cal: 3-7
Utah: 3-7
USC: 3-7
'Zona: 2-8
Colorado: 2-8

Those top 4 teams are looking very solid for the 4 Pac-12 tourney byes. OSU and Washington each have just one tough road game left on their schedules (at ASU and UCLA, respectively). Stanford has the Oregon trip lurking at season's end, and and UCLA is about to begin a truly brutal Bay Area/Oregon back-to-back road swing, and after emerging from that grind, UCLA's reward will be to face the Huskies in Pauley.

Looking at the remaining schedules, and putting on my handicapper's hat, I'd now have to project the Beavs finishing with the conference crown and the Huskies and Cardinal tying for 2nd (with the Card in possession of the tiebreak), and the Bruins hanging on for that 4th and final bye. That said, with the minefield UCLA's about to have to charge across, it's not so very difficult to envision a scenario in which the Bruins stumble and get passed up.

So we'll see.

[myrtle]

Colorado at the bottom and Wazzu better than expected are both a bit surprising to me. OrSU at the top is actually pretty surprising as well, Mr Rueck is truly a master. And Cal, hhhum.

_________________
For there is always light,
if only we’re brave enough to see it.
If only we’re brave enough to be it.
- Amanda Gorman

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Heading into the final weekend of regular season games, the Pac12 looks like this:

T1. OSU 14-2
T1. Stanford 14-2
3. UW 13-3
4. UCLA 11-5
T5. Oregon 8-8
T5. ASU 8-8
T7. Cal 5-11
T7. USC 5-11
T7. Colorado 5-11
T7. Wazzu 5-11
T11. 'Zona 4-12
T11. Utah 4-12

The top 4 are already locked in for first-round conference tournament byes, with the winner of Friday's Oregon State/Stanford matchup in prime position to break the tape as regular season champion. That said, should Stanford beat OSU on Friday and then lose to Oregon on Sunday (which is a legitimate possibility), the season would conclude with a 3-way tie for the regular season championship: the Huskies will join the party (this assumes that the Huskies indeed beat Utah and Colorado this weekend, which, um, they will). In the above circumstance, OSU will snatch the Pac-12 Tournament 1-seed (assuming they go on to best Cal), thanks to a confusing sequence of tiebreakers into which I needn't wade.

Washington appears to be locked into the 2/3 side of the conference tournament bracket, with UCLA locked in on the opposite (1/4) side-- as the 4, obvi-- with either Stanford or OSU ready to slide in at the 1 (as mentioned above). Though the Huskies won't be the 1-seed, I imagine that most handicappers would pick 'em as tournament favorites. Or at least I would. These games *will* be played in Seattle, and the Huskies *have* been drawing some rabid crowds... they're just a few hundred tickets away from a sell-out tonight, as a matter of fact, against friggin' Colorado. So though they're a likely 3-seed, those Dawgs are gonna be a very, very, very tough out.

Anyway, should be fun.

Good luck to my fellow left-coasters heading into this final weekend!

[tfan]

[ClayK]

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Congrats to the Beavers, who have now locked up at least a share of the Pac-12 Championship, and who can win it outright with a win on Sunday at home against Cal.

The Beavers have also clinched a #1 seed in the Pac-12 Tournament, with #2 going to either Stanford or Washington, depending on whether or not the Cardinal beats Oregon tomorrow. #4 is still locked in for UCLA.

Also, thanks to Cal's upset win in Eugene last night, ASU has clinched the #5 seed, with that #6 seed definitively going to Oregon.

The above sets up some intriguing possible 2nd-round matchups, including potentially Oregon vs. Washington, Stanford vs. Cal, UCLA vs. ASU, and Oregon State vs. USC (who handed the Beavers their only home conference loss this season).

Down the stretch they come.

[patsweetpat]

And the regular season has concluded, with the Pac-12 standings looking like this:

1. OSU 16-2
T2. Stanford 15-3 (Pac-12 Tourney 2 seed)
T2. UW 15-3 (3 seed)
4. UCLA 13-5
5. ASU 9-9
6. Oregon 8-10
T7. Cal 6-12 (8 seed)
T7. Wazzu 6-12 (7 seed)
T9. Utah 5-13 (12 seed)
T9. Colorado 5-13 (10 seed)
T9. 'Zona 5-13 (11 seed)
T.9 USC 5-13 (9 seed)

[Shades]

_________________
Nnekalonians 1:14 - Thou shalt not accept that which is not earned

[myrtle]

I was surprised to see Utah was the 12 - but now I see it's on tiebreakers. The bottom is pretty clearly the bottom anyway. Hard to see any of those teams winning after the first day. I'm thinking ASU, Ore. or Cal could surprise one of the top 4, but not the rest.

The tourney being in Washington's front yard does give them an edge. It would be interesting to see what the NCAA committee would do if they won.

_________________
For there is always light,
if only we’re brave enough to see it.
If only we’re brave enough to be it.
- Amanda Gorman

[SpaceJunkie]

[myrtle]

[ArtBest23]

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[IM in OC]

If anyone hears the status for Kristen Simon/USC, please post.
She injured something(knee, leg or foot) and had to be carried off the court during Sundays game at UA.
Hopefully it was a tweak and nothing more.

[patsweetpat]

With the Pac-12 regular season now complete, I've been doing some manual computation of some of UCLA's efficiency stats on the season, because I'm a big nerd and WBBState is now useless but I still need to see them numbers!

Anyway, while I was at it, I decided to compute the topline (PPP and D-PPP) efficiency stats for each of the Pac-12 conference teams. I'm posting 'em here, now, 'cause why not?

You won't find any big shockers here, I must confess. Oregon State is the best defensive team and UW is the best offensive team. Surprise! Furthermore-- as one might imagine-- these efficiency rankings are not un-reflective of the actual conference standings. The 4 best Pac-12 teams (OSU, Stanford, UW and UCLA) are all not-so-coincidentally represented in the top 4 of both the offensive *and* defensive efficiency rankings.

Meanwhile, upstart Oregon certainly scored some points for itself (5th best conference PPP), but it just so happens that the Ducks' defense was second-worst in the Pac (and 4 thousandths of a point out of dead last). Obviously Oregon will need to improve on that going forward.

Anyway, submitted for your whatever.

Good luck to all teams headed to Seattle for the conference tourney!

[Durantula]

@CoachCloseUCLA
We will break the @Pac12WBB tourn attendance record this yr. We are the #1 rpi conf. TV ratings 4 WBB have tripled over last 2 years.#Elite

@CindyBrunsonAZ 5h5 hours ago

Crazy cool to be among the 9,686 fans for session 4 2nite at @KeyArenaSeattle = 1st sellout in 16 yr history of #Pac12WBB @pac12 tourney! 🏀