Rush The Court

Returning for another season, we’ve got our weekly Burning Question. Once a week, we’ll try to ask the big question around the conference and get answers from all of our correspondents. We’ve got a big crew this year, so hopefully we’ll get plenty of opinions. To kick things off, we’ll get right to the elephant in the room and address just how awful the Pac-12 was last season. Here’s our question:

Last year was arguably the worst basketball season in the history of the Pac-whatever. However, all signs point to an improved conference this year. How much better will the conference be and what needs to happen for the Pac-12 to prove it to the rest of the country?

Adam Butler: I really cannot contextualize exactly how rock bottom last season was. To have your conference champion – by definition the best team – not be selected to dance is outright embarrassing. It was so bad that I will not propagate the statistical or anecdotal proof.

And neither will the teams. Or at least some of them. This cast of Pac-twelvers has some players and I’m legitimately excited to see it go down. That said, the question posed here is a matter of demonstrating that they’re good and I don’t know if there are too many opportunities for this conference to do that. A list of the group’s 141 non-conference games shows a less than competitive set and I’m ok with that. Fly under the radar this year because last year these guys flew right the heck off it. No need to roll the ball out and get smacked around night in and night out through November and December. Then, once out of the non-conference slate, it’s not going to matter much. It’s a dog fight and it is twelve teams who don’t give a lick about who’s thought of as a good or bad team. These squads want to demolish their opponent no matter whether Gottlieb or Bilas or Vitale or Goodman, or even you, think they’re nationally relevant. Winning the games you’re supposed to win becomes the ultimate proof. Can Arizona not drop a dance clincher again to Arizona State? Washington to Oregon State? Can UCLA focus on Ben-ball and not raves, missing flights and intra-team fighting? Will Stanford escape Salt Lake with a win?

So, I guess my short answer is, just don’t suck again.

Kevin Danna: There’s no way the Pac-12 won’t be better than last year. How much better largely depends on how well the incoming freshmen at the perceived “top dogs” of the conference integrate themselves into their new digs. UCLA has had a lot of star recruits come through Pauley the last few years, and many of them haven’t lived up to expectations. Arizona was ranked in the preseason last year largely because of their freshmen, but things didn’t play out as expected. While both sets of freshman classes should be considerably better this year, they still need to prove it on the court.

All that said, I think three teams (UCLA, Arizona, and Stanford) should feel like their seasons are disappointments if they don’t make it to the Big Dance, while reaching the NCAA Tournament is a more than reasonable goal for two others (Colorado and Cal). At the end of the day, I see some combination of four teams participating in the NCAA Tournament.

To prove to the rest of the nation that the Pac is on its way “bac,” everyone needs to chip in. UCLA needs to beat at least two of their high-quality opponents, especially Georgetown. Arizona needs to give Florida some payback for last year’s overtime loss. Stanford needs to get at least one big-name win in the Bahamas and split the NC State-Northwestern road trip. Utah and Arizona State need to at least get to .500 in the non-conference and not get handled by the likes of Boise State and Fairfield like last year. And for the love of God, the conference as a whole needs to have a winning record against the Mountain West.

Parker Baruh: Last year the Pac-12 was depressing and embarrassing, to say the least. Washington, the top seed, lost its first conference tourney game and wound up in the NIT, an event that seemed to devolve into the Pac-12 Tournament all over again. Although Colorado was a nice surprise in the NCAA Tournament, Cal‘s performance was terrible.

However, this year, the Pac-12 should be improved. I see at least three teams making the NCAA Tournament with hopefully a fourth sneaking in. I would like to be more optimistic, but after last year’s putrid showing, I don’t know if that’s a good idea. For the Pac-12 to make its way back to the true dominance it once had, the most prestigious teams in the conference, Arizona and UCLA, desperately need to be ranked throughout the year and prove that they are for real. All the Pac-12 teams need to have a good non-conference showing right away and pull off some upsets in the non-conference tournaments to start off the season. Coaches like Johnny Dawkins and Craig Robinson need to start proving why they were hired as well. Ultimately, the teams in the Pac-12 must live up to their true talent and bring the conference back to respectability.

Andrew Murawa: Just from a watchability standpoint alone, the conference should be much improved. Last year we had guys like Terrence Ross, Tony Wroten, Brock Motum, Jorge Gutierrez and Jared Cunningham among the top contenders for the conference’s player of the year. Now, no offense to any of those guys, who are all very fine players, but if those are your best players in the conference, you better be a mid-major conference. Throw in the fact that the league’s two flagship teams, Arizona and UCLA, limped home to 4^th and 6^th place finishes in a down year in the conference. But, enough about last year. We spent plenty of time documenting the horrors of the conference back then.

This year, those Bruins and Wildcats welcome in the first- and third-best recruiting classes in the nation, with each team also welcoming in an experienced lead guard. Colorado brings in a grip of talented and versatile youngsters. Arizona State, Utah and USC go from being talent-void cellar dwellers to intriguing teams bolstered not only by incoming freshmen, but also Division I transfers and experienced players returning from injury. And Oregon scored a couple of key late signees to bolster an already intriguing class of newcomers. All this, on top of some battle-tested returnees up and down the conference. In short, the talent level will be much improved, although perhaps just a first step back towards the level that west coast hoops fans are used to seeing.

But the real key for Pac-12 programs is for the conference’s accomplished group of coaches to get their teams to congeal fast enough to chalk up some non-conference wins. Guys like Lorenzo Romar, Ben Howland and even Mike Montgomery have a history of getting their teams to play their best basketball of the season come March – a desirable characteristic in any college basketball coach. But this year in the Pac-12, getting teams off to a hot start will serve notice that this is once again a conference to reckon with, a message that could pay dividends come Selection Sunday.

Connor Pelton: In terms of national rankings, relevance, and NCAA Tournament bids, the Pac-12 will be infinitely improved compared to 2011-12. Barring any extended losing streaks or losses to non-power conference schools (excluding San Diego State), Arizona and UCLA should be ranked in the Top 25 throughout the entire season. With the respect for those two teams already given, other schools that are on the fringe of a national ranking will have a chance to vault into the spotlight with a win over the Bruins or Wildcats. That means teams like California, Colorado, and Stanford need to take care of business and put itself in a position where a national ranking can be earned when they play a spotlight game.

Outside of league play, non-conference contests are huge as well, both in games against power and small conference teams. Early season losses to the likes of Nevada, Wyoming, and Loyola Marymount cannot happen this year, but the conference also has a chance to impress in games where the nation will be watching. Kansas will do battle with three Pac-12 opponents, not to mention games against Wisconsin, Florida, and Connecticut will do wonders to help restore the image of the Conference of Champions. At the end of the day, however, winning cures everything. There should be much more of that this year.