Moments of Truth for Pac-12 Tonight

[Fairfield Fan]

There are some major games in the Pac-12 this evening that will tell us who's for real and who's going to fade.

Stanford has a "moment of truth" game this evening when it takes on UCLA. The Cardinal have lost six games so far. If they can't beat UCLA, it will be pretty certain that they can give up on the Top 25 rankings for the remainder of the regular season.

USC takes their one-loss record to Cal. If they can knock off #20 Cal, then USC can claim they're really for real. Our transfer Sadie Edwards can also prove that she's not a "weak non-conference season performer" with a strong game against the conference power.

Arizona State and Colorado, both with nine wins, will prove who is deserving of further Top 25 consideration. Courtney Ekmark can tell us if she's ready for primetime as well.

Oregon and Oregon State, both ranked in the top 20, take on conference rivals with winning records. All expect them to win. A loss would be shocking.

But all in all, the Pac-12 have a night in which each of the contenders can prove what they're made of.

 

[nwhoopfan]

Pac 12 Network is too busy showing replays of old football games, neither Oregon or OSU is being showed live. Stupid. UCLA vs. Stanford is on 5:30 PST.

I'm excited about the start of conference play, but one game at the very beginning is not going to tell us all that much about how the season will transpire. I agree Stanford really needs to get headed the right direction, and hosting UCLA would be a good place to start.

Just looking at boxscore, UW was leading OSU by 6 at halftime but the Beavers are tearing them apart in the 2nd half, up by 17 w/ a few minutes left. Gulic dominating inside and Tudor and Goodman draining 3's.

 

[Plebe]

Pac 12 Network is too busy showing replays of old football games, neither Oregon or OSU is being showed live. Stupid. UCLA vs. Stanford is on 5:30 PST.

All of the games not aired by the Pac-12 Network are being live-streamed (for free) by the host schools. You can follow the links from the Pac-12 website:
Schedule

 

[nwhoopfan]

How about this stat line for Gulic--11-11 from the field, 24 points, 11 rebounds, 7 blocks. Not bad. UW doesn't have much size, looks like OSU took advantage of that. Up 15 w/ 1:30 left.

 

[nwhoopfan]

Thanks Plebe! Live streaming and I don't get along very well sometimes. I'm still irritated at how many replays Pac 12 Network shows when there are live games happening.

 

[nwhoopfan]

Oregon up 18 at the half against Wazzu. Hebard w/ a big game so far--16 pts. 6 rebs. Put Ionescu on triple double watch again. Hristova not listed in the box score for the Cougs, would be a bummer if she's injured again. Missed most of last season.

 

[Plebe]

How about this stat line for Gulic--11-11 from the field, 24 points, 11 rebounds, 7 blocks. Not bad. UW doesn't have much size, looks like OSU took advantage of that. Up 15 w/ 1:30 left.

A great stat line for Gulich, no doubt, but Washington is severely undersized. I don't think they had anyone on the court over 6'1".

OSU still has a turnover problem, 18 in this game. Pivec had 6. UW's game plan was clearly aimed at pressuring and creating turnovers, because Lord knows they had no chance in a half-court game.

 

[nwhoopfan]

UW has been forcing a lot of TO's this season, and OSU has been turning it over too much. Could've been a perfect storm. Final score was a bit closer than the game actually was. Somewhere about midpoint of the 4th quarter OSU had outscored UW 35-11 since halftime.

 

[Plebe]

UW has been forcing a lot of TO's this season, and OSU has been turning it over too much. Could've been a perfect storm. Final score was a bit closer than the game actually was. Somewhere about midpoint of the 4th quarter OSU had outscored UW 35-11 since halftime.

There was an interesting subplot in today's game, in that the last time Jody Wynn was in Corvallis was when her Long Beach team nearly pulled off the upset of the tournament last March. The fact that UW was up by 6 at the half is eye-opening.

 

[Rsna]

Pivec hasn't played PG since 7 grade
Washington was hitting 3's and doing a good job flopping in first half

 

[Fairfield Fan]

Pac 12 Network is too busy showing replays of old football games, neither Oregon or OSU is being showed live. Stupid. UCLA vs. Stanford is on 5:30 PST.

I'm excited about the start of conference play, but one game at the very beginning is not going to tell us all that much about how the season will transpire. I agree Stanford really needs to get headed the right direction, and hosting UCLA would be a good place to start.

Just looking at boxscore, UW was leading OSU by 6 at halftime but the Beavers are tearing them apart in the 2nd half, up by 17 w/ a few minutes left. Gulic dominating inside and Tudor and Goodman draining 3's.

I suppose my point is that Cal and Stanford have been the preeminent powers in that conference for a long time. But now it's an entirely different line-up. USC? Arizona State? I think that these first games in conference will tell us who's for real. Can USC really challenge for the top of the league? Will they be a problem for Oregon? And with six losses already, if Stanford can't get past USC, then I doubt voters for the Top 25 will give them the benefit of the doubt for a long time. Seven losses by the beginning of conference play? That will be bad not just for rankings, but for tournament seeding as well- if they even get a nod for that! They don't have the stalwarts who stick by them come what may like Tennessee has.

 

[Plebe]

I suppose my point is that Cal and Stanford have been the preeminent powers in that conference for a long time. But now it's an entirely different line-up. USC? Arizona State? I think that these first games in conference will tell us who's for real. Can USC really challenge for the top of the league? Will they be a problem for Oregon? And with six losses already, if Stanford can't get past USC, then I doubt voters for the Top 25 will give them the benefit of the doubt for a long time. Seven losses by the beginning of conference play? That will be bad not just for rankings, but for tournament seeding as well- if they even get a nod for that! They don't have the stalwarts who stick by them come what may like Tennessee has.

It's a mistake to fixate on number of losses. Even if Stanford loses to UCLA tonight, six of their seven losses will have been against teams currently in the AP top 12. How many other teams have even *played* six games against the top 12? How many have even played four? Offhand I can't think of any.

 

[Fairfield Fan]

Oregon is for real. And so is Ionesco: 25 points, 8 assists, 3 steals. And only one turnover. This kid is amazing.

And add to Ionesco the twin peaks at 6'4".

 

[nwhoopfan]

Utah hammered Arizona. Arizona St. up big on Colorado. Stanford just finished off UCLA. Cal w/ a slim lead over USC early in the 4th quarter.

 

[Plebe]

Reports of Stanford's demise were greatly exaggerated.

 

[willtalk]

Reports of Stanford's demise were greatly exaggerated.

Or is UCLA just reverting to their usual pattern of underachieving?

 

[eebmg]

My take. Oregon is the only team that I am interested in watching. Great spacing and schemes. UConn lite.

 

[rvwsleep]

USC starters played 199 minutes in their loss to Cal. Now that's a SHORT bench.

 

[Fairfield Fan]

So we know that only Oregon, at least at this point, has broken into the Pac-12's top tier. UCLA fell to a six-loss Stanford, while USC couldn't take down a #20 Cal.

There will be a second round of truth moments for USC and UCLA on Sunday, with UCLA taking on Cal, and USC trying their hand against Stanford.

But last night answered some questions. Stanford is not this year's version of Tennessee, losing to nobodies and racking up record losses. They can still knock off serious challengers- at least on the West Coast.

Nice game by Courtney Ekmark in Arizona State's win over Colorado- 13 points, with nine players getting 14 minutes of game-time or more.

 

[LoTrader]

My take. Oregon is the only team that I am interested in watching. Great spacing and schemes. UConn lite.

OSU Beavers are fun to watch this year. Best shooting and passing team Rueck has had. OSU will be severely tested when they play against a good rebounding team. But I like this team better than any team Rueck has had to date.

 

[KnightBridgeAZ]

BTW - if you didn't know it, Arizona is pretty awful.

It is a "tweener" rebuilding year. Last year they overachieved a bit with a lot of veterans from the previous coach. Players who, I suspect, appreciated the structure they now had.

Little veteran leadership this year - and no true center in a conference where I think that matters - so a general lack of height. Lots of good recruits coming next year.

If you want specifics, from what I've seen:
- a tendency to fall too in love with the 3 ball, with mixed success (individual players get hot from time to time).
- not really great 3 point defense. It isn't so much that the opponents are dominant from 3, but they do hit daggers
- poor shooting from in-close, including put-backs.
- defense tends to weaken later in the game, probably due to an extremely short bench

 

[nwhoopfan]

It is a "tweener" rebuilding year.

Lots of good recruits coming next year.

Aarion McDonald was not surprisingly inconsistent as a Fr., but at times she was unguardable last year. I think folks in Tucson are gonna enjoy watching her play next season.

 

[nwhoopfan]

LA schools visiting the Bay Area this weekend was big. I think next weekend is even bigger w/ the Oregon schools visiting the LA schools. UCLA split this weekend and if they can sweep UO and OSU coming up they'll be in good position, having already played 4 of the top 6 or 7 teams in the league.

Defending your home court and going close to .500 on the road is a winning formula. W/ that in mind I'd say Arizona St. had the best weekend of any Pac 12 school, picked up 2 road wins. Stanford certainly had a good weekend, but they should be able to win at home (although they'd just lost OOC games to Western Illinois and Tennessee).

 

[Plebe]

LA schools visiting the Bay Area this weekend was big. I think next weekend is even bigger w/ the Oregon schools visiting the LA schools. UCLA split this weekend and if they can sweep UO and OSU coming up they'll be in good position, having already played 4 of the top 6 or 7 teams in the league.

Defending your home court and going close to .500 on the road is a winning formula. W/ that in mind I'd say Arizona St. had the best weekend of any Pac 12 school, picked up 2 road wins. Stanford certainly had a good weekend, but they should be able to win at home (although they'd just lost OOC games to Western Illinois and Tennessee).

I think that beating UCLA and USC is better than beating Colorado and Utah, even if we handicap for location.

UCLA has typically been a great home team and an inconsistent road team. In the past two years they have run the table at home. This upcoming weekend is a huge one for them.

 

[Plebe]

Speaking of UCLA, I see that coach Close made a big change in the starting lineup, replacing Kennedy Burke with Japreece Dean.

Can't say I'm shocked because Burke's shooting woes had become a major liability. I think she is something like 18% from 3-point range. Also, Dean just makes a great backcourt mate to Canada with her speed.

 

[LoTrader]

Speaking of UCLA, I see that coach Close made a big change in the starting lineup, replacing Kennedy Burke with Japreece Dean.

Can't say I'm shocked because Burke's shooting woes had become a major liability. I think she is something like 18% from 3-point range. Also, Dean just makes a great backcourt mate to Canada with her speed.

Darn! OSU plays at UCLA next, and UCLA regained confidence--scary.

 

[Fairfield Fan]

I think that beating UCLA and USC is better than beating Colorado and Utah, even if we handicap for location.

UCLA has typically been a great home team and an inconsistent road team. In the past two years they have run the table at home. This upcoming weekend is a huge one for them.

Yet Arizona State has broken into the Top 25. And done so with major contributions from Courtney Ekmark.

I count half a dozen Pac 12 teams in the Top 25 now. Not sure how Sadie Edwards' USC or Ekmark's A-State teams will fare the rest of the way. But good to see that these kids are prospering in their new athletic homes.

Regarding Ionescu, I was pretty sure that her holdout til the very end of the signing period was a harbinger of primadona-like performance on her new team. But the young lady is proving she's amazing, her holdout notwithstanding.