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Pac-10 Basketball update & Power Rankings 02/05

 

Apparently, all you have to do to get Arizona’a attention is to talk their impending problems and that it will be hard for the program to reach the NCAA tournament for the 24 th consecutive season.

The Wildcats (15-8, 5-5) have run off four consecutive victories including a season defining sweep of Washington and Washington State the last weekend in January.

But the good thing about their winning streak is that they finally got a win on the road. Arizona won at Oregon State, 56-53, to maintain the momentum.

Jordan Hill and Chase Budinger have shown great maturity and leadership for this team. Hill and Budinger have each averaged 18 points per game.

So while the head coach situation for the 2009-2010 season remains somewhat of a mystery, there appears to be some calm as the Wildcats play through the season. This is going to be an important time for them to seriously make their NCAA case.

Following Saturday’s game at Oregon, the Wildcats play host to USC and UCLA next week. They have been very tough at home fashioning a 14-2 record.



Cal coming back

Coach Mike Montgomery’s style of coaching at Stanford has been to always get the ball inside to his post players so they can dominate.

When he agreed to take the California job, Montgomery looked at a roster that was never in his image. The Bears were more of a perimeter team. However, he has done a good job getting the maximum out of it with 16 wins.

However, the Bears have fallen quickly with a stretch of losing four out of five games. California’s defense has been the problem. On the trip to Southern California, California surrendered 81 and 73 points to UCLA and USC.

Now, the question for California is to see how it responds to this bit of adversity. They showed some fight by beating Washington on Feb. 5, 86-71. The Bears swept the Huskies this year.

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Sendek at 300

Arizona State coach Herb Sendek has made a nice home in Tempe, AZ. He is turning the program into a consistent winner.

He also has his 300 th career win. It took three attempts but Sendek reached the plateau on Feb. 5 as the Sun Devils (17-5, 6-4) won at Oregon 66-57. However, the victory was tempered by a scary moment in the final moments. Junior guard Derek Glasser took a collision and crumpled to the MacArthur Court Floor. He lay motionless for several minutes before trainers were able to get him up and escort him off the floor.

Sendek is the second youngest coach to reach 300 wins. Florida’s Billy Donovan was younger at 43.

Should the Sun Devils take care of business at Oregon State, the rest of the season sets up for them with five of the final seven games at home.

 

Notable…

At the Jan. 31 home game against Stanford, UCLA’s 1964 and 1965 teams were honored at halftime. Legendary coach John Wooden received the greatest applause. At 98, Wooden is still a regular at Bruins home games….Taj Gibson, USC’s leading scorer and rebounding, status for the Arizona trip is unclear after dislocating a pinkie finger against UCLA on Feb. 4.

 

Power Rankings

  1. UCLA
  2. Washington
  3. Arizona State
  4. USC
  5. California
  6. Arizona
  7. Stanford
  8. Washington State
  9. Oregon State
  10. Oregon

 

 

By Kevin Lonnquist
Pac-10 Correspondent