- Ben Howland says conference play this year will be a dogfight. He’s certainly been right thus far as Arizona State/Utah went to overtime on Wednesday, Colorado/Arizona did the same last night, and USC/Stanford came down to the final seconds as well. Howland also mentioned how Shabazz Muhammad, despite coming into the season out of shape, has turned it around quickly and making a major impact. Muhammad followed up his 27-point performance against Missouri with a 16-point performance against Cal last night. Going forward, the Bruins will certainly need him and other freshman standouts Kyle Anderson and Jordan Adams to achieve the success that Ben Howland and the Bruins hoped for this season.
- Sean Miller had only good things to say about numerous teams before the start of conference play. Miller praised the strong defense of Oregon, noted that Stanford and California both had veterans and great coaches, and also said that UCLA might have the most potential out of all Pac-12 teams. Miller is most concerned with his own team now, though. He was worried about his team’s defense and three point shooting, which were both issues again in last night’s game with Colorado, and he was also concerned in his team’s ability to feed the post, something that wasn’t a problem against the Buffaloes. It’s safe to say that after last night’s comeback victory, Miller will continue to have concerns with his team despite its undefeated record.
- Lorenzo Romar finds himself in the same spot he was last year entering conference play. After losing three home games, with the most embarrassing one coming against Albany, and only beating two solid teams in Seton Hall and Saint Louis, the Huskies now find themselves in a familiar place. Last year, Washington began conference play with a lowly 6-5 record considering the talent they had, but won 13 of their last 16 games in conference playto pull out a Pac-12 regular season title. Romar has said he isn’t concerned with repeating the feat, but rather reaching the potential that this team has and seeing where that takes them.
- Washington State hasn’t had a lot of things go right for them this year, but the one constant for Ken Bone has been Brock Motum. Motum is averaging 19.7 points per game this season and has scored 23 points or more in five straight games. Bone has said that Motum could stand to improve on his defense and rebounding, but he has certainly gotten much better in both of those areas since his freshman year. Although Motum hasn’t been on the ESPN or DraftExpress top 100 prospect lists for next summer’s draft, Motum still has faith that he can play in the NBA one day and others, most notably, Gonzaga coach Mark Few, believe so too.
- Referees aren’t always to blame for losses, but it sure seemed like that was the case in Colorado‘s overtime loss to Arizona last night. Sabatino Chen hit a game-winning three as time expired that the referees initially ruled as good, but when they went to the monitors to review the play, they overturned it which sent the game to overtime. Most commentators think they blew the call because it looked good on replay, however, that might not be the case. NBC Sports‘ Rob Dauster believes that after multiple looks, the video image seems to be too blurry to overturn the call. According to the rules, if the video is inconclusive, then the initial ruling on the court stands, which would have/should have given Colorado the huge road victory.