1. Four-star power forward Zylan Cheatham, a Class of 2014 prospect out of South Mountain High School (AZ), is set to pick a school within the next week, and The Husky Haul breaks down why he would be a great fit at Washington. Cheatham is a tough, physical player that can also get up and down the floor with a great amount of quickness. Lorenzo Romar’s attacking style on the offensive end of the floor fits Cheatham’s game, and if Romar was able to land him, it would be the biggest get so far for next year’s class. New Mexico and San Diego State appear to be in a dead tie with Washington so this is definitely a decision to keep an eye on in the coming days. Cheatham had offers from nearly every big school in the nation and has already ruled out Georgetown, Miami (Florida), and Oregon, to name a few.
2. A few Pac-12 teams have started to hold at least one open practice so far this October. First year UCLA head coach Steve Alford opened the doors to Pauley Pavilion last Sunday and over 1,000 fans stopping by to see how the team looked under the direction of Alford. The LA Times reported that both freshman Zach LaVine and junior Norman Powell are running the court well and have great athleticism around the rim. In addition, it looks like sophomore Kyle Anderson will once again be getting the ball in key situations for the Bruins in 2013-14. They open the regular season on November 8 against Drexel at Pauley.
3. The argument can be made that Oregon guard Damyean Dotson is the most experienced sophomore in the conference. Dotson started 36 games last season for the Ducks and was the team’s second-leading scorer as a freshman, so hopes are high in Eugene that he can continue that type of production and not go through the “sophomore slump”. Where he needs to improve is on the glass. It wasn’t much of a problem last year with a solid corps of big men, but with four key rebounders now gone, everyone needs to step up.
4. Oregon State passed on a traditional “Midnight Madness” event this year (as they have the past seven seasons), but will be hosting a free “for the fans” type gathering next Friday. The event will precede the Beaver football game against USC later that day, and fans can meet the team and get autographs and prizes. It would be nice to see a scrimmage from Craig Robinson‘s team, but this is a good start. Maybe next year.
5. Last week Drew and I re-started our regular weekly pick ‘em contest. Last week we differed on three selections, and Arizona and Notre Dame ended up coming up big for me. However, Drew did pick Stanford’s big home win against UCLA, so that puts him at 45-14 and myself at 48-11. Our picks are below, and with two Top 25 match-ups being played 45 minutes apart in the state of Oregon, we have two “games of the week” to provide a score for.

Connor Pelton (300 Posts)

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

This entry was posted on Friday, October 25th, 2013 at 9:00 am by Connor Pelton (@ConnorPelton28) and is filed under microsites, morning 5, pac 12. Tagged: craig robinson, damyean dotson, kyle anderson, norman powell, oregon, oregon state, stanford, steve alford, ucla, washington, Zach LaVine, zylan cheatham. 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.