Tag Archives: Vegas

HAPPY THANKSGIVING! 10 Things We’re Pac-12 Thankful For

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1) Andy Enfield’s Mouth
This thing has been a riot and I love it. The running of one’s mouth is a beautiful pastime of sport and perhaps one of the things I miss most about playing baseball. And the reason we talk so much shit in baseball is we have so much time to do nothing but run our mouths. So while Alford might be busy getting to the NCAA tournament, Enfield has all sorts of time on his hands to flap his gums and get us thinking about USC basketball. It’s exciting. It’s fun. It’s spice. And it’s anything but slow. Additionally, as someone who puts a high premium on where he lives (mom’s in real estate: LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION) I absolutely love, cherish, adore, support, this quote:

“Tim Floyd shows up every day at work and realizes he lives in El Paso, Texas.”

-Andy Enfield

2) Vegas
It’s taken just the slightest of urges from others attending the event for me to get back on the bandwagon. Now, to be clear, I was never not on the bandwagon, just trying to be fiscally and familial-ly conservative. I’m pretty certain I’m in and looking for financiers. Any takers? But seriously, this three year contract with the MGM is going to be renewed faster than you can detect testosterone in Seahawk piss. If you haven’t made the plans to do it, make ’em. And if the conference runs back their 12/12/12 deal, you have to.

3) Hoop-math.com
Start down this rabbit hole and you’re going to learn so much about your team and other teams that you’re not going to know what to do with yourself. But let me give you warning: With great knowledge comes great power. Let me walk you through a recent conversation.

Roommate: Nick Johnson cannot slash. Never gets to the rim.

Me: He actually takes 40% of his shots – second most on the team – at the rim.

RM: Well he doesn’t finish well.

Me: As it were, Nick connects on this at-the-rim shots at a 90% clip.

RM: *silence

The moral of the story: Don’t use hoop-math to be a dick.

4) LobPueblo

 

5) Crime free school zones Larry Krystkowiak is a giant of a man and he hates thieves (so much so that Utah has hovered in the mid-200s by way of steal % rating the past two seasons). But locking fools up is exactly what K intends to do. And I’m not just talking about criminals. We’re transitioning to recruiting where K has garnered the last few mega-talents out of Utah in the thriving Jordan Loveridge and the soon-to-be-Ute, Brekkott Chapman.

6) Recruiting
While this has nothing to do with the Pac-12 directly, Cliff Alexander pulls the biggest dick move as component of the weirdest part of college hoops fandom. In this case, I couldn’t be happier this happened to Illinois:

CliffAlexander

7) Arizona State social media
Firstly, Herb Sendek posts lots of photos with lots of friends and fans and has some random quips about random stuff. That’s fine, it’s twitter, but give it a scroll and tell me there aren’t any head scratchers. And then there’s Jahii Carson’s mom giving new meaning to the term ‘helicopter parent.’ (it’s a blocked account but you can learn a lot from the mentions in that linked search) She trolls the internet for any criticisms of her son – which she won’t soon find here – and once even referenced marriage to him. Alas, she once complimented my article about Jahii so…I’m cool.

8) Graduate school
Last season’s first team All-Conference team touted one graduate and – as I’m revisiting this list – I’m confused as to how EJ Singler made first-team and Arsalan Kazemi was honorable mention. Alas, the point here is that there have been some wonderfully impactful graduate students in the Pac-12 and this year is no different. Keep a close eye on Mike Moser (Oregon), Jermaine Marshall (ASU), Pe’Shon Howard (USC), and Jason Calliste (Oregon).

9) Bags of cash and trips to Mexico
While that sounds like my weekend, that’s what was being offered up by the ousted head of officiating. Now can you imagine if Ed Rush had endured that whole scandal and then had to get on a mic and tell all of us that “this season, the rules are changing to be called even tighter so referees are going to be even more noticed in the outcome of a given game and the central topic of conversation in the season’s early goings.” I don’t imagine that would’ve gone over well so here’s to you, Bobby Dibler. Keep on keepin’ on.

10) You
I started this blog two seasons ago with no goal but to have my own basketball forum. We’ve evolved since that first post and I’m thankful for that. I’m thankful to have you actually read this thing and I’m beyond thankful when we interact via email, twitter, g-chat, text, radio, comment fields, or just collective thought. Connecting with people is the spice of life and this awkwardly named website that my mom still thinks is pa-choops and others still think is a blog misspelled for guy named Paco has allowed me to connect with so many of you. Thank you. You’re the best.

Week 10 Pac-12 Hoops Review

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OK, once I shook off the strangeness of last night’s GIRLS episode and taken in Wanderlust which is actually hilarious, I managed to try and further wrap my head around the strangeness of this weekend’s Pac-12 results. But quickly I realized there was no use in trying to make sense of it all. We celebrate these sorts of oddities so long as its more parity than mediocrity. And I really believe the Pac has transitioned to the former once again this year. The top hasn’t quite lived up to their collective elite billing but they haven’t been bad. And, as evidence of WSU knocking off UCLA, the coaches were right from the beginning in saying that the bottom half of the conference is much improved.

And it’s all over now.

It’s win or go home time. Who doesn’t love this stuff? And I love the shakeout of the brackets. I mean on Wednesday we’ll be treated to the Apple Cup, a 5-12 game in which the 12 just beat the 5, and a 7-10 game featuring Utah who is one of just three Pac-12 teams on a 2 game win streak. All the wrong teams are hot.

The weekend:

Leader in the Clubhouse: The University of California, Los Angeles Bruins are your outright 2012-13 Pac-12 Champions. This is surprising considering the start to their year. And whether you like it or not, Ben Howland’s name is in the Coach of the Year hat. He’s steadied this ship and, well, won a conference title. That’s saying something and I think we can stop there for now. Projecting the downstream or off season goings on inside that Athletic Department is not a worthy venture. Not today.

Biggest Loser: The Oregon Ducks had the conference title in their hands. It was theirs to lose heading in to this weekend and then they lost it. This was an egg laying and there’s really no two ways about it. They weren’t even competitive which is not a good sign heading into tourney time. Alas, they’re still getting their Artis-legs back about them and all seasons do tend to hit a dog days moment. The Ducks’, however, hit at about the worst possible time as they now have third place to show for it.

What We Learned: We learned this. The bracket is officially set for Vegas and the crowning of a conference TOURNAMENT champ will ensue. A team getting to spend Sunday, 3/17 stress-free. And please note that I don’t love the conference tournament concept. Don’t get me wrong, I think it’s a marvelously fun and fan-friendly endeavor. I’m going and couldn’t be more excited to watch this. But from a competition standpoint, I really appreciate the value given to the regular season when there isn’t an end of season tournament. But because there is such high value (both entertainment and monetary) to such an event, this thing ain’t going anywhere. I’m not fighting it, just noting that I like the regular season conference championship. That’s a big deal. Bravo, Bruins.

The YouTuber: To cut this scene had to have been like 1000 takes:

On Last Night’s Stanford-Cal Game. And Beyond

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I don’t know if you were at the game and so if you were we’re tied in the following category. But my guess is that if you weren’t, I now have a new “Never Have I Ever” trump card.

Never have I ever seen an entire assistant coaching staff ejected.

Because that happened in Haas Wednesday night following the “Brawl in Berkeley” (that’s what people are calling it, right?). I mean, Mark Madsen got tossed. And what a ridiculous rule that only the HC can leave the bench to break up a fight. Whatever.

I kinda loved it.

But not that much. I won’t condone fighting, it’s pretty bush league, but I sure as hell love a rivalry game. I’ll always reference the “anything can happen” factor and it most certainly can. Cal was a 6 point favorite at home. They lost by 12.

When the dust settled from the scuffle and we watched the most tense final five minutes of a blowout I may have ever seen; and after Allen Crabbe tried his best at a mega comeback (assisting and scoring a swift 8 points post delay); and following Ricky Krekow going full Rudy for three of those minutes trying to get his entire lost season’s worth of physical contact in; indeed, after all of that the only thing Spencer and I could discuss was how could we get these two to play in Vegas.

As it were today, we’re going to need some help. Arizona will have to beat ASU and Washington must beat…OK well it’s impossible at this point but it stands that I want Arizona to beat ASU (handily). Write that down.

But there is one way in which this occurs (I’m telling you there’s a chance). Each of UCLA and Oregon lose-out and Arizona triumphs over ASU causing a four way tie for first and Stanford (currently sitting in ninth) stays where they are (I don’t believe they can move much beyond eighth). They’ll then need to win their first round game and – voila! – we have a Thursday Big Game!

Note: There is the obvious situation in which these two meet in the semis or finals but I want spice early and often which explains my hope for a Thursday meeting. Also, after scouring the standings and tiebreakers, this:

 

But the overarching point here isn’t a commentary on fighting or even rivalries for that matter.

It’s the ubiquitous fact that March is magnifying and tense and highlights everything we love about sport. It’s the lone time in our lives in which we encourage drama. For this fact, it makes total sense to put this thing in Vegas because if there was ever a place for drama to stay, it’s Vegas.

Last night we saw the 12th place team handle the 1st place team. We watched the ninth place team complete the convincing sweep of the third place team. And there is still a chance of that four-way tie for first in which case hell wouldn’t freeze, it’d just get hotter.

One week out. BRING ON THE DRAMA.

And maybe let’s party with Mark Madsen.