Last month we introduced our new project, which is centered around determining the top YouTube moment in Pac-12 basketball history. We continue the nomination portion with California.

[ed note: These are just the top moments we could find on YouTube, which has a vast number and array of videos, but we won’t be able to cover the entire 99 years of the conference.]

We open with a shot from who is quickly becoming one of the most clutch California players in the history of its program. Tied at 46 with the shot clock turned off on the road against #23 Oregon, the Golden Bears decided that they would either win it in regulation or head to overtime. Guard Justin Cobbs chose the first option, stepping back and hitting nothing but twine to put Cal ahead by two with 0.7 seconds remaining. Oregon’s desperation heave at the buzzer fell well short, and the win kept alive what would end up as a seven-game winning streak for the Golden Bears. Read the rest of this entry »

1. With wins over Marquette, Colorado, California, and Arizona, Arizona State and head coach Herb Sendek think the Sun Devils are an NCAA Tournament team. They currently boast a Top 30 RPI rank, putting them on the right side of the bubble at the moment. The schedule doesn’t get any easier, however, after topping second-ranked Arizona. Four of their final six regular season games will be played away from Tempe, and the two at home are both against teams that currently sit in the top half of the Pac-12 standings.
2. Oregon used two huge separate runs of 20-2 and 12-3 to propel itself to a Civil War victory on Sunday afternoon against Oregon State, keeping the Ducks slim hopes of dancing alive. The Ducks came out white hot, hitting their first seven attempts from behind the three-point arc. The Beavers did a good job of battling back to keep the game tight but could never get the deficit to below two. 
   
3. Oregon is currently not even in the conversation for the NCAA Tournament following its 4-8 start to Pac-12 play, but that can change with a 5-1 finish to the season. Arizona is still a #1 seed in Joe Lunardi’s latest edition of Bracketology, but the Wildcats need to show that they can win on the road without Brandon Ashley in order to stay there. UCLA is the second highest ranked team in the conference, coming in as a #6 seed, and in an interesting twist, the #10 seed line is chalk full with Pac-12 teams. Colorado, Arizona State, California, and Stanford are all ten seeds in Lunardi’s projections, with the Buffaloes being listed as one of the last four teams to receive a bye.
4. The Buffs dropped four out of their first five games after losing their best player, Spencer Dinwiddie, to a torn ACL on January 12 at Washington. Since then, however, Colorado has turned the tables and won four of its last five games, lifting them to the right side of the NCAA Tournament bubble. Andy McDonnell takes a look at how it is settling into life without Dinwiddie in this piece. The Buffaloes have had to rely on some young guys, namely forwards Josh Scott and Xavier Johnson, to get back to their winning ways, and the production will need to continue this week against the Arizona schools.
5. This feature takes a look at the strengths and weaknesses of Arizona freshman Aaron Gordon, who is widely projected as a lottery pick for the 2014 NBA draft. The praise comes despite some massive struggles from three-point range and the free throw line, where the forward is shooting at 30 and 40% clips, respectively. His strong defensive fundamentals and high athleticism more than make up for his recent shooting struggles in the eyes of professional scouts, however, and as long as he continues to work on his shot, he will be selected high in late June.

Here are three thoughts from UCLA’s convincing win last night over Colorado at Pauley Pavilion.

1. Kyle Anderson’s 22 points, 11 assists and seven boards; Bryce Alford’s second-half explosion behind a perfect four-of-four from deep; Jordan Adams and Norman Powell out-physicalling Colorado defenders around the paint on the way to a combined 27 points, ten boards, eight assists and five steals: these were the flashy performances, the things that probably caught the most eyeballs. Did anyone ever realize any UCLA frontcourt players showed up to this game? Did anyone notice the Wear twins and Tony Parker combine for 26 points and 14 boards (not to mention four blocks)? Did anyone realize that between the three of them, they made 12 of their 14 field goal attempts and knocked in a couple of threes on the way to a 92.9 eFG%? Well, they did. And with guys like Anderson and Adams and Powell being highly consistent offensive performers around the perimeter and with Alford and fellow freshman Zach LaVine capable of offensive explosions on a regular basis, if the Bruins can get that type of performance from their frontcourt in any way, they are going to be awful hard to beat. How hard? Let’s put it this way: UCLA has not lost a game this season when the trio of the Wears and Parker have combined for at least either 21 points or 13 rebounds. That’s not a high bar to meet. You figure the UCLA wings and guards are going to get theirs; if Steve Alford can continue to just cobble together a solid combined performance out of his trio of bigs, this team is a serious sleeper come March.
   

   Kyle Anderson’s Impact Is Flashier, But The UCLA Frontcourt May Be As Important For thei Team’s Long-Term Hopes

2. Kyle Anderson has gotten, and deserved, a lot of press this season for his versatile game. You know about his great passing ability (he hands out assists on better than 35% of his teammates buckets when he’s on the court). You know he’s a floor general for a flashy offensive team. You may not realize he’s shooting 52.4% from three on the year, but you probably have recognized that his perimeter jumper is vastly improved. You know he uses his 6’9” frame and long arms to rebound at high rates on both ends of the court; in fact he’s particularly good on the defensive end (his 24.5 DR% is in the top 50 in the nation). But that last point, his defensive rebounding, really only barely begins to scratch the surface of what he’s doing on the defensive end. The scouting report on Anderson has long been that he’s an amazing offensive talent, but that he can’t guard. And sure, if you try to make him check Jahii Carson or Chasson Randle, he’s going to struggle with their quickness over the course of a game. But given that he is regularly checking the opponent’s forwards, he’s actually turned into a really good defender. Thursday night, he was on Colorado’s Xavier Johnson for the bulk of his 36 minutes of action. In the first half, Johnson was largely absent on his way to four points. Then in the second half, Johnson’s back-to-back buckets on either side of the under-eight media timeout came when Anderson was getting a blow. Anderson used his length and growing stretch to deny Johnson the ball repeatedly. And then when he did get the ball, he used that length to bother Johnson into either bad shots or giving the ball back up. While Anderson is certainly not the type of defender than can guard the smaller and quicker point guards, that needn’t be held as a strike against him, as he is solid enough when he gets switched onto those guys on occasion and if above-average when defending a three or a less physical four. Read the rest of this entry »

1. We’ve got a rare Friday night Pac-12 game tonight and, first off, I’m not sure how to feel about this. After years of Thursday/Saturday games and maybe the occasional Sunday game, I’ve had a hard enough time getting used to Wednesday games and 6pm weekday tip-times. And the unbalanced conference schedule is a non-starter. But a Friday night game? And on Valentine’s Day of all days? Suffice it to say I’m not feeling the love. But, my opinion doesn’t matter and so Arizona and Arizona State will go at it tonight. Arizona keeps plugging along in the wake of the Brandon Ashley injury, but what we thought we be one of their biggest weaknesses coming into the season – perimeter shooting –  is now exacerbated. As Steve Rivera of Fox Sports Arizona points out, against Oregon last week, the Wildcats couldn’t hit anything outside of 12 feet or so. But against Oregon State, the perimeter shooting was strong. For the Wildcats to live up to their Final Four dreams, they’ll need to find a way to regularly knock down enough perimeter shots to keep opposing defenses honest.
2. Meanwhile, for Arizona State, senior center Jordan Bachynski is not only the reigning Pac-12 Player of the Week and newly crowned career blocked shots leader, but he’s arguably the hottest player in the conference. This kind of play bordered on unimaginable as he was struggling through his freshman season little more than a tall body getting pushed around and showing no offensive skill. His offensive rating (per KenPom) was 91.6 as a freshman, he was shooting below 50% from the field and right at 50% from the line. This year, that ORtg is over 116, he’s at about 60% from the field and pushing 70% from the free throw line. And, he’s become a better shotblocker and rebounder over the years too. His head coach Herb Sendek goes so far as to call him the most improved player in the nation over the last three and a half years and it is hard to argue with him.
3. The other rivalry game this weekend is Oregon State at Oregon, a game that could feature some trash talking. And, for Beaver star Roberto Nelson, that talking is welcomed. Last week against Arizona State, after a lackluster first half, Nelson responded to Sun Devil Shaquielle McKissic’s trash talking with a 24-point outburst after halftime, an explosion that Nelson partially attributes to his response to the talk. However, if you’re looking for a similar situation to occur this weekend against the Ducks, don’t hold your breath, as Nelson says this Oregon team is largely free of trash talkers.
4. Another big factor for the Beavers this weekend will be the play of senior big man Angus Brandt who has bounced back nicely from last year’s ACL injury. However, despite a strong start to the season, his three-point shooting, something he was well-known for prior to the injury, had not entirely returned. But, over the last three games, Brandt has hit four of five from deep. If he can continue to knock his shots in from deep, he’ll help Oregon State stretch out the defense for guys like Nelson to penetrate and for big men Devon Collier and Eric Moreland to work in the paint.
5. Below is our panel’s selections for this weekend in Pac-12 basketball. We head to the desert for our game of the week, where both Drew and myself are taking upset-minded Arizona State in a rare Friday conference game. Adam is sticking with his Wildcats in the Territorial Cup.
   

   Game	Connor (17-3)	Drew (12-8)	Adam (11-9)
   Arizona @ Arizona State	Arizona State	Arizona State	Arizona
   Utah @ UCLA	UCLA	UCLA	UCLA
   Colorado @ USC	Colorado	Colorado	Colorado
   Stanford @ Washington State	Stanford	Stanford	Stanford
   California @ Washington	Washington	California	California
   Oregon State @ Oregon	Oregon	Oregon	Oregon

Kenny Ocker (@kennyocker) is a national columnist for Rush The Court. He filed this report after California and Washington State played Wednesday night in Pullman, Washington.

Seemingly half of the Pac-12 has been considered the conference’s second-best team this season as Arizona continues to run away with the title. First it was Oregon, but the Ducks lost that title to California when the Golden Bears came into Eugene and left with a 96-83 win in mid-January. Cal held that distinction for all of two weeks before a loss to rebuilding USC began a stretch of five losses in six games. Curiously, that one win was over then-undefeated and #1 Arizona. So the Bears are a confusing bunch, led by their suddenly porous defense and inept offense. Entering last night’s game against Washington State, they had scored more than a point per possession once in their previous five games, and only held their opponents to under a point per possession once in the same span.

Behind a superb second half from Justin Cobbs, the Bears found a way to pull it out in OT. (Getty)

After Washington State junior guard DaVonte Lacy hung 39 points on them Wednesday night, including eight three-pointers, it’s safe to say Cal’s defense isn’t fixed, even if its offense showed up in a 80-76 overtime win in Pullman. In fact, the Cougars scored more points per possession than the Bears, but lost the opening tip-off and the overtime tip as well, and the Bears had the last possession in all three periods. Cal’s per-possession defensive performance was its worst in more than two months, dating back to an early December home win against Nevada, although last night’s win was just its second since beating Washington State in Berkeley a month ago.

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We’re back, this time in Seattle, and Bill Walton and broadcasting straight-man Dave Pasch covered Stanford somehow finding a way to let Washington win in Seattle on Wednesday night. Things are a bit abbreviated in this edition, as the Syracuse/Pitt game prior to leaked into the start of this game. But let’s set the mood with the Grateful Dead’s sole performance at the Hec Edmundson Pavilion at the University of Washington on May 21, 1974. “Ship of Fools” is a fine place to start. The “Weather Report Suite” is mighty fine too, but if you want to just cut to the chase, jump ahead to “Playin’ in the Band,” the song that makes this show famous among Deadheads. You see, this epic meltdown checks in as the longest Playin’ – a Dead staple for, what, 24 years? – on the books at better than 46 minutes!

During Wednesday Night’s Broadcast, Bill Walton Got To Sing the Praises Of Birthday-Boy Bill Russell

First Half

Intro – On Syracuse: “Syracuse. Congratulations. Just doing so many wonderful things for this great game of college basketball, including keeping us all believing in what a team is all about. And they have so many weapons Syracuse and tonight they fought back against a really good Pittsburgh team. That was great.”

12:50 – “Don’t diss Harvard. They’ve got a $35 billion dollar endowment – which is less than Bill Gates’ personal net worth.”

Comment: Let’s not even bother to check this figures. Once you’re talking –illions with something besides an “m” in front, it may as well be imaginary.

12:38 – “John Gage, who’s from this area. He’s from Vashon Island just out in the middle of Puget Sound there, he takes the ferry back and forth all the time. Johnny Dawkins asked him to speak today here at practice because this is the last time he’s ever going to play a college basketball game in this city, which is basically his home town. His mom is here, his dad is here, his grandmother, his grandfather. His mom went to the University of Washington, right here. She’s a Husky, but it’s all about the blood.”

Comment: Walton’s love for meeting and talking about the players’ families has become a theme of the season.

John Gage Is The Latest Edition Of The Walton “Oh, Yeah, I Met His Family” Greatest Hits (John Bazemore, AP Photo)

11:44 – “This is the best stretch of basketball I’ve ever seen Desmond Simmons play. Ever. Dominant on the boards, setting screens, pulling it all together. Right now, the Huskies trying to wrap the trees in the Purple Haze of the Seattle brilliance.”

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Out of the country? Living under a rock? Here’s what you missed in the 13th week of Pac-12 basketball. 

Power Rankings (as voted upon by Connor Pelton, Andrew Murawa, and Adam Butler)

Arizona is once again the unanimous number one in our weekly power rankings, but no team beyond them is completely agreed upon. Check the results below to see the jumbled mess that is the Pac-12.

Sophomore Forward Xavier Johnson Averaged 23.5 PPG And Propelled Colorado To A Weekend Sweep (credit: Ron Chenoy)

1. Arizona (23-1, 3 Points)
2. Arizona State (18-6, 7 Points)
3. UCLA (18-5, 8 Points)
4. Colorado (18-6, 14 Points)
5. Stanford (15-7, 15 Points)
6. California (15-8, 18 Points)
7. Utah (16-7, 20 Points)
8. Oregon State (13-10, 25 Points)
9. Oregon (15-8, 27 Points)
10. Washington (13-11, 30 Points)
11. Washington State (9-14, 33 Points)
12. USC (10-13, 35 Points)

Best Game – Oregon @ Arizona: While Arizona State saw one game go to overtime and another featuring a 23-point comeback, the excitement on Thursday night in Tucson was unmatched throughout the league in week 13. Desperate for a win, Oregon came out firing on all cylinders, answering each of #2 Arizona’s mini-runs and eventually taking a 38-37 lead into the locker room at the half. The Ducks opened up a lead as big as seven in the second half but went dry down the stretch, an all-too-familiar scene for their fans. The Wildcats outscored the visitors 13-7 in the final five minutes to escape with a 67-65 win, lifting them to a 22-1 record on the season. Junior guard Nick Johnson led all scorers with 18 points in the victory, while Joseph Young and Jason Calliste paced Oregon with 14 apiece. With the sweep of the Oregon schools, the Cats remain as a solid one seed, while Oregon’s winless trip to the desert puts them on the wrong side of the NCAA Tournament bubble. With its high RPI, Oregon can still steal an at-large bid, but it needs to find a way to pull out these close games in the final month of the season. Five of its eight losses have come by four points or less, with four coming by two.

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1. So, after a week without Brandon Ashley, one thing has become pretty clear for Arizona: Odds are good that the injured big man will be back for his junior campaign in the desert. He told ESPN’s Jeff Goodman recently that it is very likely he’ll be back in Tucson next season instead of pursuing an NBA career, but for head coach Sean Miller, a guy who has seen his fair share of players leave early, he’s not taking anything for granted. The coach, player and his family plan on gathering together after the season to discuss the big man’s future, however, and the decision then may turn out differently.
2. One interesting bit out of the Wildcats’ Sunday evening win over Oregon State was the contribution of little-used senior guard Jordin Mayes, who earned just five minutes of action but may have put in his application for future minutes with a nine-point outburst in that limited time. With Miller claiming to already trust Mayes defensively and that seventh and/or eighth spot in the rotation available, it’s possible that the stretch run of Mayes’ Wildcats career could be more impactful than previous results had led us to believe.
3. Utah also has a player who was formerly on the outs now competing for a bigger role in junior wing Princeton Onwas. After his friend and position-mate Ahmad Fields began to earn a bigger role at the expense of his minutes, Onwas returned to practice with a new focus and set about regaining a larger role. Early results are good, as he earned 25 minutes against Washington and harassed C.J. Wilcox into an off night followed by a highly efficient 10 points on seven field goal attempts in 13 minutes against Washington State on Saturday night.
4. Tomorrow night Colorado visits UCLA and head coach Tad Boyle is particularly concerned about Bruins junior guard Norman Powell, who had a big second half in UCLA’s win over USC on Saturday night. Powell is the team’s best perimeter defender, its most ferocious dunker, and an emerging all-around offensive force. Boyle recognizes that without the Buffs’ best perimeter defender in Spencer Dinwiddie, Powell’s athleticism and skill will make him someone of whom his team is going to need to pay extra attention.
5. Another UCLA wing who has raised eyebrows this season is freshman Zach LaVine. But after a fantastic start to the season that had some calling him an immediate lottery pick, the exciting wing has settled back to earth. His three-point shot is beginning to fall a little less frequently (he’s 2-of-11 in the past two weeks); teams are realizing he’s not much of a threat off the bounce; and he’s even started to blow some occasional dunks. Is it still a surefire certainty that he’s NBA-bound after a single season in Westwood? On upside alone, you’ve got to figure he’s gone. But in a year with a deep draft, maybe LaVine wants to return to work on his handle, half-court game and other weaknesses in order to ensure a lottery pick next year? Possibly, but the smart money is still on a rather brief stay with the Bruins.

Last month we introduced our new project, which is centered around determining the top YouTube moment in Pac-12 basketball history. We continue the nomination portion with Oregon State.

[ed note: These are just the top moments we could find on YouTube, which has a vast number and array of videos, but we won’t be able to cover the entire 99 years of the conference.]

We open with perhaps the most explosive dunk in Beavers basketball history, courtesy of shooting guard Jared Cunningham. With three minutes left in the opening week of conference play, Oregon State was hanging onto a two-point lead against vaunted Arizona. Getting a running start from the three-point line, Cunningham read Joe Burton’s missed jumper perfectly, rising over a pair of Wildcats and one of his own teammates to slam the ball home one-handed. If you were watching the game live, you’ll remember how officials just stopped the game for a good 20 seconds because no one was quite sure what they just witnessed. There was no foul or timeout called, everyone just stopped playing. I thought that was pretty cool. If the Beavers wouldn’t have pulled the upset, then the play would have just been remembered as a nice moment in an otherwise tough loss. But the offense continued to thrive down the stretch, and by the end of the night the Beavers were tied atop the league standings and owned the #6 play of the day on SportsCenter.

Read the rest of this entry »

1. The Marcus Smart incident wasn’t the only negative fan-related problem from this weekend, as the Pac-12 had one of its own. According to reports from the Oregon basketball staff and members of the team, an Arizona State student spit on Oregon assistant coach Brian Fish and trainer Clay Jamieson following that game. University police witnessed the event, followed the Ducks to their locker room and discussed the incident with the Ducks’ staff, but they declined to press charges. According to Fish, the team was also spit on at halftime heading to the visitor’s locker room via a ramp that bisects the Arizona State student section. As college basketball fans, we certainly love the fact that fans are passionate about the game, but we would hope that people have reasonable boundaries. But, knowing full well that all fans won’t always respect those boundaries, and knowing even better that college-aged students will have even further problems with them, schools and their arenas need to do their best to protect the opposition. Odds are good that the location of the student section at Arizona State will be reconsidered, not that a change in that area will prevent all fan abuses in the future.
2. As for the game on the court, Sun Devil senior center Jordan Bachynski was the key to a weekend sweep of the Oregon schools. Averaging 21.5 points, 12 rebounds, and eight blocks (!!!!!) on 15-of-20 from the field and 13-of-16 from the free throw line, he dominated the paint against the undersized Ducks and even against the talent Oregon State frontline. On a weekend where he became the conference’s all-time leader in blocked shots, Bachynski had his best all-around back-to-back pair of games in his career in Tempe.
3. Meanwhile, brother Dallin Bachynski is getting the job done up the road a spell for Utah. Together with sophomore center Jeremy Olsen, Bachynski has helped to give the Utes a toughness inside to pair with the talented wing players who have more regularly been the stars. Against Washington State on Saturday night, Olsen and Bachynski combined for 20 points and 11 boards in a dominating win that has the squad now within a game of .500 in conference play. They’re still a longshot, but the Utes have at least kept alive the hope of an NCAA bid this season.
4. UCLA, meanwhile, looks like a team that is headed to an NCAA Tournament berth, but they’re still a team that is in need of a good old-fashioned paint-peeling half-time dress-down like the one head coach Steve Alford gave them against USC on Saturday night. After an uninspiring first half, the Bruins were down six and clearly not playing to the best of their abilities. But, a 10-0 run out of the halftime locker room, turned into a 27-6 run and UCLA coasted over an overmatched Trojans team from there.
5. Lastly, with Arizona now shorthanded without Brandon Ashley, a key for head coach Sean Miller from here on out will be the ability to manage minutes, conserve energy and wisely use his main six players. Sunday night in a blowout against Oregon State, each of the starting five played between 28 and 31 minutes, with Gabe York and Elliott Pitts combining for another 37. They’ve now got a full four days to recover before they face Arizona State on Friday night, then another four days before they travel to Utah, but it will be interesting to see not only how Miller manages his team’s game minutes, but its workout minutes off of the court.