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Message: [QUOTE="jonson, post: 2652233, member: 6034"] I think that there are several keys to the tournament success the Pac 12 had last year and is having (so far) this year as well. One is that there are a variety of playing styles throughout the conference that have to be taken into account in one way or another--and especially among its top teams this year (Stanford, UCLA, Oregon State, Oregon). Another is the fact that there are a number of coaches in the league who are very good at taking away an opponent's strengths/identifying its weaknesses, so that, if a team wants to continue to be successful throughout the conference season, it must learn to adapt to meet those challenges--or, in other words, just continue to get better. And, although the Pac 12 has a number of very good teams, it doesn't imo have at this point a "great" team that is head and shoulders above the others. Nor does it have a lot of duds. So teams have to get used to being challenged week after week. Finally, as regards two of tonight's games, I think that Baylor and Texas were good matchups for OSU and UCLA, respectively. Indeed, I was fairly certain that UCLA would beat Texas, since their athleticism is at least the equal of the Longhorns' and they thrive in the kind of helter-skelter game which seems to be a Texas marker. And Baylor? Well, for one thing, I doubt they have faced many teams, if any, as well coached as the Beavers. And with all due respect to Brown and Cox, they also don't have a post player as skilled (or savvy) as Gulich or the ability, apparently, to bring the kind of pressure that has given the Beaver ball handlers problems all season. [/QUOTE]

Verification: First name of men's bb coach