Andrew Murawa is the RTC correspondent for the Mountain West and a Pac-12 microsite writer. You can occasionally find him on Twitter at @Amurawa.

Top Storylines

• Major Mountain? No one is going to confuse the Mountain West with the ACC or the Big East, but fans of this conference are getting used to the fact that its best teams are regularly relevant on the national scene. In the past three years, while a conference like the Pac-12 has been fortunate to get a mere eight NCAA Tournament bids, the MW has earned 11, more than any other non-BCS league. Two seasons ago there were a pair of Sweet Sixteen performances and a national sensation in Jimmer Fredette, while this year suggests the chance at success approaching that magical year, with two teams – UNLV and San Diego State – ranked in the top 20 of the recently released USA Today preseason poll and a couple more teams in the “others receiving votes” category.
• New, new, new. One of the reasons for the MW’s continued success has been the ability of the conference, and its member institutions, to roll with the rapid changes in the basketball landscape. That’s reflected this season in a pair of new teams in the league – Fresno State and Nevada climb aboard while TCU drops out – as well as a host of new impact players. Aside from four ESPN top 100 freshmen this season (including the #7 prospect, UNLV’s Anthony Bennett), the conference welcomes in a handful of Division I transfers, like Khem Birch (UNLV, via Pitt), James Johnson (SDSU, via Virginia), J.J. O’Brien (SDSU, via Utah), Dwayne Polee (SDSU, via St. John’s) and Colton Iverson (Colorado State, via Minnesota), who are expected to make big impacts this season.
• More television exposure? Last year’s MW television schedule featured seven regular season games on the ESPN family of networks, and one game on CBS. Of course, 91 other regular season games were televised on other national cable networks of one kind or another. But, with the shuttering of The Mtn., the conference’s cable network, this year’s television schedule is quite different. As far as national exposure on the big boy channels, things aren’t going to change much, with six conference appearances on ESPN networks. To make matters worse, instead of having every regular season conference game televised, channels like CBS Sports Network, NBC Sports Network on the Time Warner Cable Sportsnet will pick and choose MW games. All told, just 53 games features MW conference teams are scheduled for television on a national cable network, with 21 of those headed to the TWC channel which currently sports limited distribution.

Reader’s Take I

Predicted Order of Finish:

1. San Diego State (12-4)
2. UNLV (11-5)
3. New Mexico (11-5)
4. Colorado State (9-7)
5. Nevada (8-8)
6. Air Force (6-10)
7. Wyoming (6-10)
8. Fresno State (5-11)
9. Boise State (4-12)

Brian Otskey is a contributor for Rush the Court. Let him know what you think at @botskey on Twitter.

Our countdown rolls along with Part Two today. Check out the previous editions of 68 Must-See Games here: #68-52. (h/t to Zach Hayes for his assistance in building this list.)

51. December 1: Baylor at Kentucky (12:30 PM, CBS) – Kentucky has never lost a game at Rupp Arena under John Calipari. Could this be the one? Maybe, but it’s a tall order even for the highly talented Baylor Bears. Scott Drew’s non-conference schedule is lackluster for a team expected to contend in the Big 12, so making the trek to Lexington and coming out with a win would render all talk about a weak schedule meaningless. Two top freshmen big men will go head to head in this one with UK’s Nerlens Noel battling Baylor’s Isaiah Austin in the paint.

Is This the Game Where Cal’s Home Record Gets a Blemish?

50. December 1: San Diego State vs. UCLA at Honda Center in Anaheim, CA (10:00 PM, ESPNU) – The John R. Wooden Classic pits two of the best in the state of California (and the entire west for that matter) against each other in an early season Saturday night showdown. While UCLA has all the hype and uncertainty surrounding its freshmen class, don’t take San Diego State for granted. The Aztecs return four starters from a team that was supposed to be “rebuilding” but wound up winning 26 games in 2011-12.

49. March 3: Florida State at North Carolina (2:00 PM, CBS) – Considering the date it will be played, this game could have a significant impact on the ACC title race. The conference is up for grabs this season and both of these teams should be in the mix. North Carolina went 0-2 against Florida State last season, including the 90-57 blowout in Tallahassee that forced many observers to take notice of the Tar Heels’ flaws. Don’t expect that kind of effort from UNC this time around.

They also meet: January 12 in Tallahassee.

48. February 19: VCU at Saint Louis (9:00 PM, CBS Sports Network) – Two of the better point guards most casual fans don’t know about go head to head in this late-season Atlantic 10 battle. Senior floor general Kwamain Mitchell returns for Saint Louis while VCU’s Darius Theus will look to lead the Rams to a solid finish in their first Atlantic 10 season. This would have been a good BracketBusters game last year but now that these teams are in the same league, everybody wins.

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There’s nothing this country loves more than an upset. That’s one of the main reasons the NCAA Tournament is so popular; which #14 seed will knock off a Top 10 team? Which #12 seed advances out of the first weekend? These games are close, thrilling, and at the end of a short two hours, America has a new favorite team. Of course, picking upsets is a whole separate entity in itself. We attempt to do that exercise here, with the only requirement being that the underdog is the equivalent of a #10 seed or lower, and the favorite is a #7 seed or better. Let’s get to it.

Pac-12 Underdogs over Non-Conference Favorites

Stanford over Missouri, November 22: Coming in at a close second to teams at home in rivalry games, solid underdogs playing at neutral sites make for a great chance of an upset. And there’s not a more neutral site than Paradise Island in the Bahamas. The Cardinal matches up well with the Tigers, as Chasson Randle and Aaron Bright can certainly hold their  own with Michael Dixon, Jr., and Phil Pressey up top. The unknown will be how to play Connecticut transfer Alex Oriakhi, a four-five hybrid who can muscle his way to the hoop. Any time your first test of the year is against a lock for the NCAA Tournament there could be trouble, but expect Johnny Dawkins’ team to give Mizzou a game and have a chance to win it at the end.

Sophomore Point Guard’s Chasson Randle Play Will Be A Big Factor In Whether Or Not Stanford Can Upset Missouri (credit: Patrick McDermott)

USC over San Diego State, November 25: Just like Mountain West counterpart UNLV, SDSU could be headed for a #4 or #5 seed once March rolls around. But March is a long way off, and while Jamaal Franklin and Chase Tapley are All-Americans in the making, integrating highly touted Winston Shepard and Utah transfer JJ O’Brien into the six-man rotation poses a challenge. There is no more slow-moving, deliberate style of basketball at USC, but rather an athletic group of players (led by Jio Fontan and Aaron Fuller) who can score in bunches and keep up with a number of high-scoring teams. The Aztecs will rightly be on high alert for this in-state rivalry.

Washington State over Gonzaga, December 5: Home underdogs in rivalry games are perfect choices for these things, so let’s start off here. The Bulldogs will be just fine this season, but integrating centers Przemek Karnowski and Sam Dower into major minutes in order to replace Robert Sacre is going to take some time. Brock Motum can match up with small forward Elias Harris any day of the week, and Davonté Lacy should be able to score easily against a perimeter defense that struggled in 2011-12. The game comes before a two-game stretch in which the Bulldogs will face Illinois and Kansas State, so there’s a slight overlook possibility here as well. The Cougars will have already faced top-level competition in a previous game against Kansas, but there’s no doubt that this is the biggest game to the players on the non-conference slate.

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1. DePaul athletic director Jean Lenti‘s contract with the school has been extended through 2017, according to Sports Illustrated. SI’s article focuses on the impact on the men’s basketball program, which is currently looking for a new home arena. Without necessary space on the DePaul campus, Lenti is looking at possibilities in downtown Chicago: “My preference would be if we can’t be on campus, I’d like to be somewhere downtown. I think we have over 120,000 alumni that are in the major metropolitan area so you’d like to have something that people could come to from work and have the same kind of excitement and energy that so many of our other Chicago teams have generated.”
2. Multiple sources have reported that 2014 blue chip prospect Chris McCullough currently lists Syracuse as his top choice. The 6’10”, 220-pound forward is rated with five stars by ESPN, Scout, and Rivals, who has him listed as the #10 recruit in his class. In the past McCullough has discussed going to school with guard Isaiah Whitehead as a package deal, and Syracuse would seem to fit the bill in that situation, as the Orange have made offers to both players. The two also share offers from Rutgers, St. John’s, Arizona, Iowa State, UCLA, and others.  While McCullough has yet to commit anywhere, that may not last long based on a Facebook post of his which he made shortly after making it known that Syracuse was his leader:
   
3. Georgetown has released images of its new basketball uniforms for the 2012-13 season.  The new jerseys, designed by the Jordan brand, are very similar to the current uniforms but add a number of team-specific designs and watermarks, not unlike the Nike Hyper Elite jerseys that conference rivals Syracuse and Connecticut unveiled in 2010. Georgetown’s jersey features the year ‘1984’, representing Georgetown’s national championship season, Hall of Fame coach John Thompson, and images from the Georgetown campus. It is currently unclear when the new jerseys will be unveiled, or when they will be put on sale for the public.
4. Grantland‘s Shane Ryan began his college basketball season preview of the “20 (or so) Most Interesting Teams” with profiles of what he calls the four “Dangerous Outsiders” – Florida State, Saint Louis, San Diego State, and Cincinnati. In true Grantlandian fashion, the article was complete with numerous references to Akria Kurosawa’s Yojimbo and quotes from Les Misérables. Ryan refers to the Bearcats as “The Giant Killers,” citing their upset of Florida State (“The Grinders”, if you were wondering) in the NCAA Tournament which busted his bracket. Ryan describes Cincy’s long range shooting and aggressive defense as strengths, while weak defensive rebounding, which may be compounded with the loss of Yancy Gates, as the major weakness. He goes on to project a third place finish in the Big East and a run to the Elite Eight this season for Mick Cronin‘s team.  I think most Bearcats fans would take that.
5. SBNation‘s excellent USF blog Voodoo Five published the first part of its season preview yesterday, focusing on USF’s excellent 2011-12 season as well as the program’s attendance issues. Blogger (and RTC emeritus) Collin Sherwin goes into detail about the “religious experience”-like quality of the Bulls’ first March Madness berth in decades, but expresses disappointment in USF’s fan contingency in Ohio for the games. With USF football struggling mightily this season, basketball may be the school’s banner varsity program in the 2012-13 academic year, so time will tell whether or not the fans embrace Stan Heath‘s surprising club. With the Big East soon losing a number of strong teams, it is nice to see one of the conference’s newer members pulling itself up by its bootstraps like USF seems to be doing.

Last week, a pair of my colleagues here posted their lists of five non-conference games featuring Pac-12 teams to watch. To be clear, Connor Pelton’s list was of the five most watchable games on the slate, while Kevin Danna’s list was the five most important games. Today I’ll tell you the games that Connor and Kevin missed on their respective lists and tell you why these games need to be right there among the best of the Pac-12’s non-conference games.

First, Kevin picked the following five games as the most important non-conference games:

1. USC vs. Illinois
2. UCLA vs. Georgetown
3. Stanford vs. Missouri
4. California at Wisconsin
5. Florida at Arizona

Now, to be sure, those are by no means a bad slate of games. And, given the state in which we last saw Pac-12 basketball, any games its member institutions play in the non-conference should be considered very important, as the league tries to re-establish its national credibility. That being said, I’m looking for one of two things in ranking the importance of non-conference games: Either match-ups of elite teams against teams that figure to be highly ranked come March, or match-ups of middle-of-the-Pac teams against other potential bubblicious teams. Kevin nailed a couple of the first type here, especially with the UCLA/Georgetown Legends Classic semifinal that will not only give the Bruins a chance to score a solid win over a solid Big East team, but could also give the squad a chance to score a major RPI booster against Indiana in the final of that tournament. Likewise, if Arizona can take care of Florida, that should be a nice feather in the Wildcats’ cap come Selection Sunday, especially considering their otherwise ordinary (at best) non-conference slate.

Kevin does a great job picking out a couple other key early season tournament games, with USC needing to open its run in the Maui Invitational with a win over Illinois in order to give the Trojans a chance at other big names deeper in that tourney. Stanford is in a similar situation in the loaded Battle 4 Atlantis tourney. Really, there’s not a lot on his list to argue with, but I’d pick out a couple other games that could be harbingers of what is to come on Selection Sunday.

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1. It is funny to think about given its proximity to and history with Maryland, but Georgetown was probably rooting for the Terps to land the Andrew and Aaron Harrison twins last week. For starters, the Hoyas and Terps haven’t played each other in more than 20 years thanks to feuding legends John Thompson and Lefty Driesell so it wouldn’t be as if Georgetown would regularly square off with the highly-touted duo. But also, if the Harrison twins were headed to College Park, the Hoyas would have had a much better chance of landing local product Roddy Peters who has shot up recruiting boards after turning heads on the summer circuit. Peters got the spotlight treatment from ESPN.com recently in an entertaining article that also touched on the dormant Beltway rivalry and the not-so dormant recruiting battle over Peters that is really just heating up. The article doesn’t reveal any new information about whether the storied programs will ever renew their local rivalry, but its a solid read, especially if you didn’t know the illustrious history between the two programs.
2. Two teams play one game on an aircraft carrier and now everyone wants to do it. The only problem is that while playing a game on an aircraft carrier to honor Veterans Day sounds like a great idea, the reality is that the logistics aren’t quite as rosy, as Syracuse and San Diego State found out this week. Luckily, some local sponsors stepped up and the two teams are once again set to square off on the USS Midway in San Diego Bay on November 9. Syracuse.com gives a good rundown of the behind-the-scenes work on how the game was saved, painting San Diego-based Syndicus Entertainment as rather incompetent in the process. This is great news as both the Orange and Aztecs are likely to be mainstays in the Top 25 all season, and this game will go a long way toward improving the winner’s non-conference resume.
3. At this point, every coach in the conference has been asked for their thoughts on the changing of the guard that is taking place next season, but by far the most interesting answers came from Cincinnati coach Mick Cronin who viewed the shifting landscape as a chance for the Bearcats to “plant our flag deeper” and then went on to say that his program was never going to get the respect it deserved amongst the conference elite. Now, Matt Norlander correctly points out that we have no context for these remarks, but I am not buying the Bearcats’ basketball program as an afterthought, especially considering its history in the past two decades. You can’t be an afterthought when you had players like former NPOY Kenyon Martin coming through campus. Heck, Bob Huggins is one of the most recognizable coaches in the entire sport, and he will always be associated with his excellent teams at Cincinnati.
4. If you haven’t noticed by now, we here at the Big East microsite simply cannot get enough of stories about facility upgrades and luckily the programs in the conference have thrown us a few bones by going and upgrading their facilities. Two days ago it was Georgetown, yesterday it was Connecticut, and this week comes news that DePaul has grandiose plans to move out of its outdated arena and into brand-spanking new digs, or the United Center, or the practice facility the Bulls are planning to break ground on. Who knows? Nobody! But we do now that getting a new arena is never a bad thing, especially for a program like DePaul that can basically use all the help it can get. So hey, maybe set up some hardwood at Soldier Field and have them play there. Maybe you can even get the promoters for the Syracuse and San Diego State game to find the sponsors.
5. It is always good to know that Louisville isn’t feeling the pressure of their immense preseason expectations. I don’t know how Lazer Blaze stacks up against some of the other laser tag spots around the country, but I do know that no matter what age you are, if you can’t enjoy a spirited round or two of laser tag, you just aren’t any fun.

Is It Even A Question Whether Russ Smith is the Cardinals’ best laser tag player?

Including exhibitions, and not counting potential preseason tournament matchups (for example, UCLA-Indiana or Arizona-San Diego State), the Pac-12 schools will play a total of 142 non-conference games this season. We rank them all below in order of most-watchable. All times are pacific.

You Can Find a Large Number of These Games on the New P12 Networks This Season

142. UNC Pembroke @ Stanford, November 4, TBA
141. San Francisco State @ California, November 6, 7:30 PM
140. Western Washington @ Washington, October 24, 7:00 PM
139. Lewis-Clark @ Oregon State, November 4, 7:30 PM
138. Concordia @ Oregon, October 29, 7:00 PM
137. Saint Martins @ Washington State, November 6, TBA
136. Southwestern Oklahoma State @ Oregon, November 5, 7:00 PM
135. Chico State @ Arizona, November 6, 5:30 PM
134. Simon Fraser @ Utah, November 2, TBA
133. Cal State San Marcos @ UCLA, December 4, 7:30 PM
132. Humboldt State @ Arizona, October 31, 6:30 PM
131. College of Idaho @ Utah, December 28, 6:30 PM, Pac-12 Networks
130. Prairie View A&M @ UCLA, December 15, 6:00 PM, Pac-12 Networks
129. Willamette @ Utah, November 9, 6:00 PM, Pac-12 Networks
128. Coppin State @ USC, November 9, 8:00 PM, Pac-12 Networks
127. Prairie View A&M @ California, December 22, TBA, Pac-12 Networks
126. Texas-Pan American @ Oregon State, December 31, 2:00 PM, Pac-12 Networks
125. Idaho State @ Oregon, December 8, 3:00 PM, Pac-12 Networks
124. Towson @ Oregon State, December 29, 5:00 PM, Pac-12 Networks
123. Arkansas-Pine Bluff @ Oregon, December 1, 7:00 PM, Pac-12 Networks
122. Hartford @ Colorado, December 29, 11:00 AM, Pac-12 Networks
121. Texas-San Antonio @ Oregon, November 29, 7:00 PM, Pac-12 Networks
120. Arkansas-Pine Bluff @ Washington State, November 24, 2:30 PM/6:30 PM, Pac-12 Networks
119. Texas Southern @ Colorado, November 27, 6:30 PM, Pac-12 Networks
118. Charleston Southern @ Arizona, November 11, 3:00 PM, Pac-12 Networks
117. Coppin State @ Arizona State, December 29, 11:00 AM, Pac-12 Networks
116. Utah @ Texas State, November 30, TBA
115. Dartmouth @ Arizona State, December 15, 12:00 PM, Pac-12 Networks
114. Wright State @ Utah, November 24, 2:30 PM/6:30 PM, Pac-12 Networks
113. Hartford @ Arizona State, December 5, 5:30 PM, Pac-12 Networks
112. Idaho State @ Utah, November 21, 6:00 PM, Pac-12 Networks
111. Arkansas-Pine Bluff @ Arizona State, November 28, 5:00 PM, Pac-12 Networks

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Last year the Beavers only had one senior on the roster, seemingly ensuring that the 2012-13 roster would be made up of the same guys. But one early entry to the NBA and two transfers later, Craig Robinson is indeed losing four players from last year’s squad. Below we’ll break down those four players in roughly the order of the degree to which they’ll be missed.

Jared Cunningham – Despite earning offers from basketball powerhouses San Diego State and California (among others), Cunningham decided to leave his home state and go north to Corvallis. Three years later, he leaves as arguably the most talented player to don a Beaver uniform since Corey Benjamin’s single season in 1997-98. Cunningham instantly played major minutes as a freshman, and by the end of the season was starting regularly and scoring in double figures. As a sophomore, with Seth Tarver graduating, his role and production increased. He started 29 of the 30 games he played in, missing only the third-to-last game of the year for reportedly blowing curfew. That year was when people nationally began to take notice of the athletic shooting guard at OSU. Cunningham averaged 14.2 PPG and 2.8 SPG as a sophomore, and had the top dunk of the year in a game against Arizona. Last season, he led the Beavers to 21 wins with 17.9 PPG and 2.5 SPG. At the end of the year, Cunningham announced he was leaving early for the NBA, a decision that raised some eyebrows around town. Sure enough, however, he was drafted in the 1st Round by the Dallas Mavericks last June.

Cunningham’s Athletic Ability Led To Many Spectacular Dunks, Including This One Over Oregon’s Garrett Sim (credit: AP)

Kevin McShane – After grey-shirting the 2007-08 season at Clackamas Community College, McShane had a rough start to his Oregon State career. The walk-on forward overslept for the first two 5:00 AM practices of the 2008-09 season, which left new head coach Craig Robinson wondering if he even deserved a walk-on spot with the team. But McShane impressed the coaching staff with his work ethic and hustle, making him a fan favorite whenever he entered the game. The years rolled by with McShane only playing garbage minutes or the not-so-rare instance when Gill Coliseum was so sleepy, Robinson decided to throw him into the mix just to liven things up. With an open scholarship available, McShane was the first in line to get one during his senior season. He responded by averaging 1.6 PPG, the highest total of his Oregon State career.

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Over the next couple of week’s we’ll be checking in with each of the high mid-major leagues as to their mid-summer offseason status. Up next: the Mountain West.

Drew Murawa is the RTC correspondent for the Mountain West Conference. You can also find his musings on Twitter @amurawa.

Three Summer Storylines

• Tectonic Movement Continues. For the second straight year, the landscape of the MW shifts. Last year it was BYU and Utah heading off to greener pastures with Boise State landing in their place. This year TCU is on its way out the door with Fresno State and Nevada on their way in. And next year Boise State and San Diego State will depart with San Jose State and Utah State coming in. All in all, this will still be a good basketball conference even after all these moving parts settle, but the loss of a rapidly improving Aztec program will be tough for MW fans to take. TCU and Boise State certainly aren’t major losses on the basketball side, but the strength of their football programs could have provided stability for the conference and the potential for improved programs on the hardwood. Between the four newcomers, each of Fresno State, Nevada and Utah State have had good runs over the course of a handful of years, but they’ll all need to prove their ability to compete with more established programs like UNLV and New Mexico, while SJSU figures to step directly into the basement of the conference.

• The Mtn. Crumbles. On May 31, The Mtn., the Mountain West’s television network, went dark, ceasing all operations after six years. Now, say what you will about the network, a channel that eschewed HD programming, struggled with distribution and had issues with their on-air talent, but the shuttering of its doors leaves some questions for MW hoops fans. In the era of The Mtn., if you wanted to follow MW hoops, it was easy to do so. Now, it remains to be seen exactly how much exposure teams from this conference will get during the year. Sure, the MW still has deals in place to get games shown on NBC Sports Network and CBS Sports Network, but what about that Air Force/Boise State game on some random February Wednesday? Should you want to watch that game and you’re not in Idaho or Colorado, odds are pretty good you’re going to be out of luck.
• Continued Success? For all the uncertainty about the membership of the conference, the last three years have been something of the golden age of Mountain West basketball. In the past three seasons, the MW has received 11 NCAA Tournament berths. Two years ago there were dual Sweet Sixteen appearances by BYU and SDSU. We’ve had Jimmer and Kawhi grab national headlines, while other guys like Dairese Gary and Darington Hobson, Billy White and Drew Gordon, D.J. Gay and Hank Thorns, Andy Ogide and Malcolm Thomas have kept us all entertained. But, even with all of those players now gone, there is still plenty to be excited about in the conference. San Diego State and UNLV lead the way again, with both expected to start the season in the preseason Top 25. New Mexico and Colorado State, who joined the Aztecs and Rebels in the Big Dance last year, both should be in the hunt for another tourney bid, while Nevada could be a sleeper in its first season in the conference. And, as always, we could be in for another surprise or two.

Reader’s Take #1

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1. UCLA and Arizona have their 2012 blockbuster recruiting classes all sewn up, with up  north, Washington mostly struck out. But all eyes begin to turn to the 2013 class, and it could be Lorenzo Romar and the Huskies who are in a position to score big. Romar landed his first verbal commitment this week as 6’3” guard Nigel Williams-Goss, regarded as a four-star prospect, chose Washington over UCLA, Oregon  State, and UNLV (a school he once committed to prior to head coach Lon Kruger’s defection to Oklahoma). While one four-star guard does not a recruiting class make, Romar still has his eyes on players like Jabari Parker (the number one overall prospect), Aaron Gordon (the number two rated power forward), Jabari Bird (the fourth rated off-guard), and Isaac Hamilton (the fifth rated off-guard) among others.
2. Aside from offseason trouble, some typically minor tweaks to rosters and the shaping of the 2013 recruiting class, the other big news that can be expected throughout the summer is the trickling out of teams’ 2012-13 schedules. UCLA’s calendar dropped on Thursday, with the highly-regarded Bruins reopening Pauley Pavilion on November 9 with a visit from Indiana State. Ben Howland’s club will also host Long Beach State and Missouri (along with a handful of low-major schools), play San Diego State in the Wooden Classic in Anaheim, and participate in the Legends Classic at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn with potential matchups against Indiana, Georgetown, and Georgia. Here’s hoping the Bruins find matchups with both the Hoosiers and the Hoyas awaiting them in New York.
3. Elsewhere around the conference, schedules are starting to take shape. Late last week, it came out that Colorado after a year away, would be renewing its competition with long-time opponent Kansas. While nothing is official yet, both schools have confirmed that an agreement is in place for the Buffaloes and Jayhawks to schedule a home-and-home series in each of the next two seasons. It’s unclear yet exactly where the 2012-13 edition will be played, but while Kansas has had Colorado’s number on a regular basis in their meetings, head coach Tad Boyle certainly has the Buffs on the upswing and his squad should be able to give the Jayhawks a couple interesting games. Down south, Arizona has added games with Charleston Southern, Long Beach State and Southern Miss. While none of those three teams is a huge name, both Long Beach State and Southern Miss made the NCAA Tournament last year and should provide solid challenges for an already strong Arizona schedule. The Wildcats are still looking to add two more games, both of which are expected to be home-and-home series’.
4. Continuing our tour around the conference, Oregon State is on the verge of breaking ground on a new basketball practice facility. The structure will be a four-story structure with a couple different regulation-sized basketball courts layer in with locker rooms, support areas, offices and an entrance to the facility that will feature an Oregon State basketball hall of fame. With the upgrade in facilities, head coach Craig Robinson hopes to be able to induce a higher caliber of recruit to Corvallis.
5. Lastly, last week Pacific Takes unveiled a feature on the ten best sleeper recruits in the last decade, with Kyle Weaver of Washington State leading the way. Interesting to note that of the 14 players on the list (including a four-man honorable mention), six of the players (Weaver, Derrick Low, Brock Motum, DeAngelo Casto, Robbie Cowgill and Reggie Moore) matriculated to Washington State. This speaks well for the Cougar coaching staffs’ (beginning with Dick and Tony Bennett and continuing to current head coach Ken Bone) ability to target under the radar players and develop the talent once it arrives on campus. Given that five-star recruits are rarely going to find their way to Pullman, that is a must for the Cougs.