Pac-10 Notebook

Pac-10 Conference Notebook

by Scott Allen

Two weeks into the conference season, here’s a look at five of the Pac-10′s most surprising teams thus far. Look for a breakdown of the rest of the conference early next week.

Home Warriors
Washington is 12-1, ranked No. 10 in the nation and has a win over Gonzaga to its credit. Still, it might be a little early to tell just how good Lorenzo Romar’s Huskies are this season.

The Dawgs have played all 13 of their games this season at home and will play one more at Bank of America Arena before finally playing a road game at USC on Jan. 12.

Washington’s early success would seem to indicate that the Huskies are a top-10 team no matter where they play. Senior Brandon Roy has emerged as the leader Romar had hoped he would, averaging over 18 points and close to 4 assists per game. Roy shot 5-for-5 from beyond the arc and had 35 points in the Huskies’ 91-67 win over Arizona State on Dec. 29 and followed that up with another 35-point outing in Washington’s only loss, at home to Arizona in double overtime on New Year’s Eve.

Fellow senior starters Jamaal Williams and Bobby Jones are both averaging double digits, as is freshman sensation Jon Brockman. The Snohomish, Wash., product is averaging 10.8 points and 7.6 rebounds per game while shooting at a 60 percent clip. He has four double-doubles this season.

While the road will get tougher for Washington during the conference season, there is good reason to believe Washington will make a serious run at the Pac-10 title. The Huskies’ most impressive victory of the season to date might not have been over Gonzaga but Air Force. Washington scored 85 points and shot 53 percent from the floor against the Falcons, who have the nation’s stingiest scoring defense.

Super Sophomores
Dijon who? The Bruins started four sophomores and a freshman in an impressive 85-79 win at Arizona this week. That same lineup led the Bruins to a 17-point victory against a Stanford starting five that included three seniors two weeks ago. UCLA snapped an eight-game losing streak to the Cardinal at Pauley Pavilion with the win.

Ben Howland’s team is very young and, to this point, very good. The Bruins haven’t blown many teams out during the non-conference season, but they have grinded out tough wins at Michigan and at home against Nevada. The backcourt duo of Arron Afflalo and Jordan Farmar has sizzled and Howland has gotten the front court production UCLA has been lacking in recent years from sophomore Josh Shipp and an unlikely source, freshman Luc Richard Mbah a Moute. The Cameroon native has four double-doubles this season, including two straight, and is slowly developing into a shot-blocking force on the defensive end.

With senior guard Cedric Bozeman likely lost for the year after tearing cartilage in his left shoulder during practice last week, perhaps the Bruins’ only concern heading into the heart of the conference season is that their young squad doesn’t hit a wall. But with 10 players averaging double digit minutes, this team appears poised to keep things rolling in Pac-10 play.

Skidding Stanford
For the second consecutive season, Stanford has stumbled its way through the non-conference season and the early part of Pac-10 play. This season’s slow start, however, has been particularly ugly. Among the blemishes on the Cardinal’s resume are a season-opening 16-point loss to UC-Irvine at home, a 19-point loss at Montana and a 6-point setback at UC-Davis two days later.

Stanford’s big win this season? Take your pick between home victories over Denver and Princeton. At 5-6, Stanford’s run of 12 consecutive NCAA tournament appearances is in serious jeopardy. Senior guards Dan Grunfeld and Chris Hernandez are struggling on offense. Both are shooting under 40 percent and averaging four points less per game than last season. The strong play of senior forward Matt Haryasz, who is averaging a career-high 16.3 points to go along with 9.7 rebounds per game, has been one of the lone bright spots for the Cardinal thus far.

There’s plenty of time for the Cardinal to right the ship in 2006, but unless freshmen Mitch Johnson, Anthony Goods and Lawrence Hill and some of the other underclassmen step up their play, Stanford’s only tournament games this season will be played at home in the NIT. A dominating 80-66 win at home over Oregon State, in which the Cardinal scored 50 second-half points and Hill scored 13 on the tails of a 20-point outing at USC, is a very good sign for head coach Trent Johnson.

Powe Show
Leon Powe is back. The sophomore, who missed all of last season and the first four games this season after knee surgery, has averaged 19.5 points and 10.1 rebounds per game in his first eight games back, while averaging 34 minutes per game. Four other Bears are averaging double digits, led by junior Ayinde Ubaka, who has bounced back from an injury-plagued sophomore season to average 15.2 points per game thus far.

Cal is 3-0 in conference play after a 77-66 victory over Oregon and the only bad loss for the Bears’ this season was a season-opening 67-65 setback to Eastern Michigan. Cal is the only undefeated team in the conference and will play at Stanford next weekend before heading down to Arizona for what should be an exciting game in Tucson. The Bears’ incredibly balanced scoring attack and the leadership of senior Richard Midgley makes them a contender for the conference crown. So long as Powe remains healthy, nobody wants to face the Bears come March.

Cats Just Fine
Salim Stoudamire and Channing Frye are gone, but there’s plenty of firepower remaining in Tucson. Hassan Adams has averaged 20.8 points and 6.5 rebounds per game and Arizona has received major contributions from freshman Marcus Williams throughout the early season. Adams was brilliant in the Wildcats’ double-overtime win at Washington on Dec. 31, pouring in 37 points to help snap Washington’s 32-game home winning streak.

In addition to Adams and Williams, who is averaging 11.2 points per game, senior Chris Rodgers is also averaging double digits. Despite a loss at home to upstart UCLA this week in which Shakur was held scoreless and the Bruins shot 60 percent from the floor, there’s no reason to believe the Wildcats won’t continue their early-season success.

Arizona was well-tested during the non-conference season, playing the likes of Connecticut and Michigan State. Arizona’s tough schedule should pay dividends on the floor during Pac-10 play and come Selection Sunday.