1. The roster for the 2013 Jordan Brand Classic was announced yesterday, with two Pac-12 signees making the cut. Future Arizona power forward Rondae Hollis-Jefferson highlights the pair of future Pac-12 stars, choosing to sign with the Cats last September after turning down the likes of Florida, Syracuse, and Temple, among others. Longtime Washington signee Nigel Williams-Goss will also compete in the game, showing off his elusive ball-handling skills to the rest of the nation. The four-star point guard’s offer list was highlighted by UCLA, UNLV, and Oklahoma, but he eventually chose to stay near his original home in the Northwest and play for Lorenzo Romar’s Huskies. The Classic is one of the more interesting and compelling high school showcases out there, and will feature an International and Regional game in addition to the All-America Game on April 13 in New York City.
2. BruinsNation takes a look in this piece how UCLA‘s current recruiting class would fare if head coach Ben Howland were fired sometime between now and April. With two high-level four star prospects already committed to the UCLA program and not necessarily Howland in particular, it would be a priority for the next Bruins coach to work on keeping Zach LaVine and Allerik Freeman on board. After keeping those two, then it would be time to go after either Gavin Schilling or Rysheed Jordan, as the article states.
3. Whether Oregon point guard Dominic Artis has a doctor’s appointment, walks around in a boot, is listed as “doubtful,” or simply isn’t heard from for a day, the status of the star ball-handler is a news-worthy event. And yesterday was another rough one for Ducks fans in the now two and a half week rollercoaster ride regarding Artis’ health that they’ve been on. Artis is doubtful to play against Washington tonight in Seattle, as he was seen walking with a boot at practice on Tuesday. The Ducks were able to rally behind each other last time they faced the Huskies without Artis, which was the first the game the freshman missed in this run. If they can do it a second time tonight, it would be a huge help for Oregon’s Pac-12 championship hopes.
4. Does Lorenzo Romar still think his Huskies have a shot at an at-large bid into the NCAA Tournament? As unlikely as it sounds, Romar alludes to it without actually saying it (probably to avoid getting laughed at) in response to the first question given at his weekly radio show. While the Dawgs have some good wins so far in the 2012-13 campaign, they are so far off the NCAA bubble that anything less than a 6-1 finish to the regular season and a win in the Pac-12 Tourney would likely keep them from dancing for the second straight season.
5. We close with the rebirth of our weekly Pac-12 Hoops Pick’em selections. We pick up the standings with Adam out in front, hanging on to a two game lead over Parker. Drew and I are further back, to say the least, and need to do some major work in the next couple weeks to have a chance. For our games of the week, we have chosen Arizona’s trip to Boulder on Valentine’s night and the Georgetown-Cincinnati showdown that will be played the following evening.
   

   Game	Connor (53-21)	Drew (54-20)	Parker (56-18)	Adam (58-16)
   Arizona State at Utah	Arizona State	Arizona State	Arizona State	Arizona State
   Oregon St at Washington St	Washington State	Oregon State	Oregon State	Oregon State
   Oregon at Washington	Washington	Oregon	Oregon	Oregon
   UCLA at California	California	UCLA	UCLA	UCLA
   Arizona at Colorado	UA 75-70	UA 68-60	CU 78-72	UA 72-58
   USC at Stanford	Stanford	Stanford	Stanford	Stanford
   Georgetown at Cincinnati	GU 68-66	GU 71-70	GU 67-64	GU 66-63
   UCLA at Stanford	Stanford	Stanford	Stanford	Stanford
   Oregon at Washington State	Oregon	Oregon	Oregon	Oregon
   Arizona State at Colorado	Colorado	Colorado	Colorado	Colorado
   Oregon State at Washington	Washington	Washington	Washington	Washington
   Arizona at Utah	Arizona	Arizona	Arizona	Arizona
   USC at California	California	USC	California	California

Connor Pelton (300 Posts)

I'm from Portland. College basketball and football is life.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 13th, 2013 at 9:01 am by Connor Pelton and is filed under microsites, morning 5, pac 12. Tagged: Allerik Freeman, arizona, ben howland, cincinnati, colorado, dominic artis, florida, georgetown, lorenzo romar, Nigel Williams-Goss, oregon, romdae hollis-jefferson, ucla, washington, Zach LaVine. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.