1. With all of the Pac-12 microsite correspondents in the middle of battling hellacious flu-like symptoms, we’ve taken some time out over the past few days to have our headquarters fumigated. But, as a new week dawns, we’re grateful that we’ve had some good basketball to distract us from our discomfort and look forward to a week of feeling better and another batch of interesting games. Week two of the Pac-12 season ended Sunday night with Oregon holding off Arizona State in yet another entertaining ball game, with the battle between freshmen point guards Dominic Artis and Jahii Carson headlining. The Ducks vault to 4-0 and a first-place tie with UCLA (with the two teams set to square off on national television Saturday afternoon), but even Sun Devil fans should come out of this game with confidence in their team’s viability in the Pac-12 race.
2. While folks around these parts have known that the Ducks are legit for some time now, the national audience got a heads up about their credentials on Thursday night when they knocked off previously unbeaten Arizona. The Wildcats bounced back strong on Saturday evening by sending Oregon State off to an 0-3 conference start with a full-team effort. While Sean Miller was loathe to single out one player for recognition, I’ll just mention that this was the first conference game in which the three freshman bigs all played well; Brandon Ashley, Kaleb Tarczewski and Grant Jerrett combined for 25 points, 17 boards and six blocked shots (well, Jerrett got all of those) on ten-for-16 shooting in 64 minutes of action. Really, that’s about the baseline for that trio ; the ceiling is still to be determined.
3. Meanwhile, the other traditional Pac-12 heavyweight is getting back to throwing its weight around, as UCLA went on a Rocky Mountain run this weekend and rolled back into LAX with a 4-0 conference record and a nine-game winning streak to show for its troubles. Jeff Goodman writes that where the Bruins were a punchline on Thanksgiving Sunday night, they’re now a team that has the attention of their conference foes and are beginning to remind people why they were considered a potential top ten team prior to the season.
4. Meanwhile, the Bruins’ last foe, Colorado, has some soul searching to do, after their third loss in four games leaves them looking up from the back half of the conference standings. While there is some solace to take in the fact that the team fought back from a late deficit to give itself a chance on Saturday, Tad Boyle knows that if things are going to get turned around in Boulder, it needs to start with defense and rebounding, two areas that were once thought to be potential strengths for the Buffaloes which have been weaknesses of late.
5. Lastly, circling back to the 0-3 Beavers, they played their two games against the Arizona schools this week without the services of sophomore forward Eric Moreland, who was suspended indefinitely, along with freshman Victor Robbins, prior to Thursday night’s game against Arizona State for an undisclosed violation of team rules. While Robbins will be cleared for action by head coach Craig Robinson for Saturday’s game against USC (not that Robbins, who has played just 63 minutes this season, is expected to play a big role), the head coach is said he will decide Moreland’s fate today. Moreland is expected back with the Beavs this season and, according to Robinson, both players have responded to the situation “about as good as you can.”

Here’s a look at the power rankings that Drew, Parker, Adam, and I have compiled after the eighth week of Pac-12 games (delta in parentheses):

1. Arizona, 14-0 (2-0, -): By the skin of its teeth, Arizona remained undefeated through eight weeks of basketball. Visiting Colorado built up a 17-point lead against the Wildcats, only to see Zona climb all the way back and pull even at 80 with 10 seconds left. It appeared as if Buffalo guard Sabatino Chen banked in the winning three as time expired, but the officials controversially overturned the call on the court and sent the game into overtime. The Wildcats shut down a deflated Colorado squad in the extra session, and would pull out another closer-than-expected game against Utah two days later, 60-57. They now take their spotless record on the road, venturing to the great Northwest to face the Oregon schools. Up Next: 1/10 @ Oregon.
2. UCLA, 12-3 (2-0,^2): UCLA added to its winning streak by dispatching California and Stanford in week eight. The Bruins didn’t have much trouble in doing so against either, winning by an average of 11 points. On Thursday, the Golden Bears hung with UCLA for 35 minutes before falling apart and eventually losing by 14. The Stanford game ended up with a closer score than it probably should have, thanks to the 11 points scored by Chasson Randle in the game’s final 80 seconds. UCLA’s seven-game winning streak will be put to the test as the Bruins trek to Salt Lake City for their first road game of the year, and that of course will be followed by a visit to the Coors Events Center to face Colorado. Up Next: 1/10 @ Utah.
   

   Slo-Mo and His Team Are Surging Into Conference Play

3. Oregon, 12-2 (1-0, -): Oregon’s week, while short, was a very successful one. The Ducks marched into Corvallis for a Sunday night, nationally televised Civil War battle, and came out with a 66-53 win. Damyean Dotson imposed his will all night long against the Beavers, getting to the rim with ease and single-handedly breaking the Ducks out of multiple scoring slumps. The win now sets up a huge showdown with Arizona on Thursday. Up Next: 1/10 vs. Arizona.
4. Colorado, 10-4 (0-2, ٧2): Despite coach Tad Boyle‘s best efforts, Colorado just wasn’t the same team in Sunday’s game against Arizona State after losing in that type of fashion against the third best team in the nation. Late woes were again to blame in Tempe, as the Sun Devils went on a 21-13 run in the final eight minutes to defeat the Buffs by nine. Up Next: 1/10 vs. USC. Read the rest of this entry »

1. Three months ago, Malcolm and Marcus Allen committed to Stanford. But as we get into the thick of hoops season, the Las Vegas Review-Journal published a nice feature on the twins yesterday. The Allens, out of Centennial High School (Nevada), have both earned astounding 4.8 GPAs while in high school, which resulted in offers from Harvard, Yale, and Columbia, among others. When asked why they chose Johnny Dawkins and the Cardinal over the rest, the brothers said that Stanford’s perfect mix of athletics and academics was just too good to pass up, not to mention the fact the Pac-12 is a “premier conference.” The one and two guards will be battling Chasson Randle for minutes in their freshmen season next year.
2. It was painful for fans of upsets everywhere on Saturday afternoon when Arizona continued to give Utah chance after chance at beating the Wildcats on their home floor, only to see the Utes tighten up in the closing minutes. Scoring has been a problem in the Larry Krystowiak era, but as of late, it’s been the three-point shot that has plagued the Utes. Utah missed three of its final four shots from behind the arc, a stinging stat considering the Utes suffered only a three-point loss. Utah’s leading scorer, Loyola Marymount transfer Jarred DuBois, is in the midst of a big slump, and it seems to be contagious. Their outside stroke won’t be needed to earn a split on the weekend, considering offensively-challenged USC rolls into Salt Lake City on Saturday, but if the Utes have any shot at an upset of UCLA earlier in the week, DuBois and the rest of the team need to do some serious slump-busting.
3. The guys over at House of Sparky continually churn out great stuff, and yesterday they took a look at why the Sun Devils’ win over Colorado was so huge for the program. The first sentence pretty much sums up my thoughts on the win. I had been skeptical for all of November and December of the Sun Devils, thinking that their win total was just the product of an easy schedule. But on Sunday, Arizona State proved it was legit. The Devils completely took Andre Roberson out of the game, and with a combination of Jahii Carson, Carrick Felix, and Jordan Bachynski all attacking the ball, ASU gave the Buffaloes a migraine on defense. If they can keep up this level of play for the next two months, an NCAA Tournament bid isn’t out of the question.
4. Sticking with HoS and Arizona State, if the Sun Devils do want to return to the Big Dance, they’ll need to knock down clutch free throws as games wind down. They haven’t done a great job in this area so far in 2012-13, shooting at less than a 63% clip from the charity stripe. One thing that is becoming a noticeable trend with ASU is that all of its shots — but specifically free throws — are falling short towards the end of games. And of course, that makes sense; the more tired you get, the tougher it is for players’ legs to launch the ball to the hoop. But I want to start talking about Herb Sendek‘s guys as a legitimate Pac-12 contender, and contenders make big shots down the stretch rather than leaving them short when their bodies start wearing down.
5. For every “make you feel good” underdog story, there is another one to tell on the other side of the spectrum. The team lost in the shuffle after the first week of Pac-12 play was Colorado, who looked flat-out awful in the 45 minutes following Sabatino Chen‘s waved off game-winner at Arizona on Thursday. But as head coach Tad Boyle points out, nothing is given to you in conference play, and the Buffs need to have a short memory. Because as he puts it, they’re currently on the road to 0-18, and if they don’t prepare well for a visit from the LA schools, that road will get quite a bit shorter by Saturday night.

Just looking at the way the schedule set up, one way or the other, Colorado was going to have problems with Arizona State on Sunday. Even in some alternate universe where the Buffaloes remained strong down the stretch on Thursday night, took care of the ball and hit some free throws on their way to a double-figure win over Arizona, you just knew they were going to have a tough time with the back end of their Arizona road trip after looking ahead to that conference opener since the schedule was announced.

And yet, at the under-12 media timeout, the Buffaloes were up 17-4 and cruising. But, here’s where the insidious hangover effect kicked in. Rather than take out all their pent-up frustration over Thursday night’s controversial loss to Arizona, CU eased up just slightly, Arizona State got a couple of easy baskets, and the momentum for the rest of the evening shifted, never to return. After hitting eight of their first 14 attempts from the field, the Buffaloes hit less than 30% of their shots the rest of the night, including just 1-of-17 from beyond the arc. Even worse, while their opponent started 2-of-12 from the field with five turnovers in their first 15 possessions, they had just five turnovers in their last 48 possessions and hit better than 50% of their field goals the rest of the way — in part because Colorado’s defensive intensity left for an early flight back to Boulder. As Spencer Dinwiddie put it, “As a group, we stopped playing defense and stopped rebounding.” And so the Buffaloes return home from a weekend in Arizona with nothing to show for their efforts.

Despite An 0-2 Start In Conference Play, All Is Not Lost For Colorado (Daily Camera)

Where to go from here? Well, the good news is they’ll be back in the friendly confines of Coors Event Center next week, as they host the Los Angeles schools, and they’ve won 41 of their last 45 games there; that stat alone indicates that nothing will heal up this Buffs team like some good old-fashioned home cooking. But, there are some deeper, long-term concerns for this team. First if not foremost is that pesky free-throw shooting thing. Back in November, the Buffaloes did their best to give away the title game of the Charleston Classic to Baylor, missing five of their last six free throws (and 15-of-19 on the day) and displaying plenty of iffy decisions in the final couple of minutes before eventually holding on for the good win. But that situation, and the fact that the team as a whole is shooting just 65.9% from the charity stripe on the year (good for 252nd in the nation) indicated that there would be problems in the future. With key figures like Andre Roberson and Xavier Johnson flirting with the 50% mark from the stripe, and with secondary ball-handler Askia Booker not much better at 64%, this doesn’t seem like a problem that is going to go away any time soon.

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From the moment it was first rumored, the relocation of the conference tournament to Las Vegas has created quite a buzz among Pac-12 basketball fans. Adam Butler (@pachoopsAB) of PacHoops will be here every week as he offers his unique perspective along our March to Vegas.

I had this whole thing on Arizona State thought up. I was going to spew some stats about Herb Sendek’s “fastest” team since 2003 and the promise he’d made about playing with more pace and whether or not there was a correlation to victories. After all, his group is off to a 12-2 start. Had I continued on this route of statistically analyzing the Devils, I’d also mention their strength of schedule or lack thereof and direct you to Ken Pomeroy’s blog post about hopping off of Kevin O’Neill’s back for the opposite (too strong of a schedule). ASU has played the nation’s 211^th most difficult schedule.

But then Arizona made its comeback. Or did Colorado hand it away? Or did the refs egregiously misuse the monitors? These were the questions that perplexed me Thursday night as I sat in my apartment and tried to wrap my Wildcat mind around that game. On the one hand, I was ecstatic, WHAT A COMEBACK! I knew I’d been presented the ultimate scenario with which to stick Buffalo noses in but that’s not my style; certainly not on an undeserving play. The other thought would be that the Buffaloes lost that game. They wound up scoring fewer points than their opposition and by the definition of competition, that’s a Colorado loss. It’s also not exactly becoming of a winner to forgo a nine-point lead and go 3-of-8 from the free throw line while committing two turnovers in the final 1:47. That is not a recipe for winning. The final thought surrounds the striped men and I never like placing a game on their shoulders but…well… I mean… I suppose… well…

This.

So to revisit my three questions:

1. Did Arizona win?
2. Did Colorado lose?
3. Did the refs blow it?

To answer these questions, of course, would be to get us to the resolution of the contest. Or even better, it could settle our minds about a controversial game in which Colorado spent a grand portion of time exposing Arizona as perhaps a poor shooting team with evolving bigs. Conversely, the Wildcats wore down what may be a group of Buffaloes with a short bench, what could ultimately spell the Buffs’ demise. And there’s the age old debate over Pac officiating…

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Here’s a look at the power rankings that Drew, Parker, Adam, and I have compiled after the seventh week of Pac-12 games (delta in parentheses):

1. Arizona, 12-0 (-): Technically, the undefeated Wildcats played in week seven, getting that thrilling, 68-67 win over San Diego State over in Honolulu. But due to my Christmas-inspired laziness, last week’s power rankings were delayed, and we already covered that stuff. The #3 Cats haven’t taken the floor since, giving them extra time to prepare for a visit from Colorado on Thursday. With that game in Tucson, and the Buffaloes starting off the season with a 1-2 mark on the road, the Wildcats should be able to shine on national television with their 13th victory of the year. Senior guard Mark Lyons led Arizona through non-conference play with 13.4 PPG. Up Next: 1/3 vs. Colorado.
2. Colorado, 10-2 (^1): After taking an eight-day break, Colorado returned to action without missing a beat, dispatching 7-6 Hartford, 80-52. Led by Josh Scott, the Buffs jumped out to a 26-6 lead and never looked back. Blowout wins are beginning to become a trend under head coach Tad Boyle, who has seen his team win half of its games this season by double digits. As we discussed above, the Buffaloes will venture into the McKale Center on Thursday night, and while they certainly are capable of pulling the upset, the last time they took on a top 10 team on the road, it didn’t go very well. Who can forget last month’s trip to Lawrence, where Kansas jumped out to a 27-8 lead en route to a 90-54 thrashing of CU. Getting a good start against the Wildcats will be key for an upset. Up Next: 1/3 @ Arizona.
   

   In Addition To Pulling Down 10 Rebounds, Josh Scott Led Colorado With 21 Points In A Win Over Hartford On Saturday. (credit: US Presswire)

3. Oregon, 11-2 (٧1): The Ducks and Buffaloes traded places this week, despite UO getting what is largely considered the better win over Nevada. The Wolf Pack were able to hang with Oregon for 30 minutes on New Year’s Eve before the Ducks went on a 14-6 run to lead by 16. Dana Altman‘s squad would cruise from there en route to a 56-43 win. Up Next: 1/6 @ Oregon State.
4. UCLA, 10-3 (^1): Forget Arizona over San Diego State, the conference’s marquee win in week seven came via UCLA, who outlasted Missouri in an overtime thriller, 97-94. In the extra period, Travis Wear drained a jumper to put the Bruins up three with 15 seconds remaining before grabbing the game’s final rebound to seal the upset. Up Next: 1/3 vs. California.
5. Arizona State, 11-2 (^3): It was a pretty simple week for Herb Sendek and the Sun Devils. After dominating Coppin State on Saturday, ASU sat back and watched three teams in front of them either drop games to lesser opponents or nearly escape them. As a result, they enter league play at number five in our power rankings. Up Next: 1/2 vs. Utah.
6. Stanford, 9-4 (^1): Stanford was the other team to take advantage of Oregon State and California’s misfortunes, jumping up one spot with a closer-than-expected victory over Lafayette. Stanford opens Pac-12 play with a trip to Los Angeles, where they’ll need a split to stay in the upper half of our rankings. Up Next: 1/3 @ USC. Read the rest of this entry »

1. For the UCLA Bruins, incoming freshmen Shabazz Muhammad and Kyle Anderson were supposed to make the biggest impact, but it’s been Jordan Adams who has been the best freshman so far for the Bruins. In Adams’ first four games, he set a school record as the first freshman to record four 20-point games to start his career. Unlike other impact freshman, Adams doesn’t stand out in any part of the game — he’s not extremely athletic and his shot isn’t the prettiest, but he’s reliable and and can score in multiple ways. No one at UCLA has been surprised by his performance as he continues to impress as the second leading scorer on the team with 16.9 points per game. As the season goes on, opponents will start to notice Jordan Adams even more.
2. Washington guard Andrews Andrews continues to struggle with an ankle injury and is questionable for Thursday’s upcoming match-up against Cal Poly. Andrews has missed the past three games and Lorenzo Romar believes there’s a small chance he could play, despite the fact that Andrews has been unable to practice. The Huskies, who are 6-4 on the season, will play Thursday’s game at home, but will be eager to get back Andrews before conference play as UW starts with three Pac-12 games on the road and will need his presence to help the Huskies get off to a good start.
3. Although Colorado’s bench has had little success this year, Tad Boyle believes getting his reserves into the game earlier more often will help them out and plans to do so against Northern Arizona this Friday. In Colorado’s last game against Fresno State, the bench was outscored by a margin of 20-2, but Boyle believes that the only way his freshman-dominated bench will get better is with more playing time and experience. Andre Roberson, Josh Scott, Askia Booker and Spencer Dinwiddie, all starters, are accounting for 77 percent of the offense on the team and will need the bench to provide more scoring to help ease the burden.
4. Arizona State has been one of the surprises in the Pac-12 this season with its 9-2 record, but Herb Sendek is still concerned about the depth of his team. Only seven players are averaging more than 10 minutes per game and Sendek has said that he would like to get one more player into the rotation but it remains to be seen who will step up. Senior guard Chris Colvin has slowed down since his great start and freshman Eric Jacobsen has shown he can play, but so far only against inferior competition. If the Sun Devils want to continue to become this year’s  surprise team, they will need more production from their bench.
5. One of the surprise players this year in the Pac-12 has been Oregon’s Arsalan Kazemi. He continues to impress in each game he plays and Dana Altman has said that Kazemi hasn’t even shown all of his offensive potential yet. Part of Kazemi’s early success has been the fact that he has put the transfer situation from Rice completely behind him and is focused to on helping Oregon improve, which he has accomplished so far by leading them in rebounds and steals while helping the Ducks to a 9-1 record.

1. Although the Arizona Wildcats have been the best team in the Pac-12 this year, they showed some weaknesses this past week in victories against Clemson and Southern Miss. Senior leader Solomon Hill went 5-of-23 from the field and had nine turnovers in the two-game stretch and the Wildcats’ highly touted freshmen trio struggled as well. Grant Jerrett, Kaleb Tarczewski and Brandon Ashley only shot the ball a combined four times in Arizona’s victory over Southern Miss and Jerrett and Tarczewski combined to go 4-of-13 against Clemson. Sean Miller noted that this was the most physical front line Arizona’s big men had seen so far season, but it won’t get any easier this week as the Wildcats prepare to take on the #5 Florida Gators in Tucson this Saturday.
2. Colorado knows it has to improve its team defense if the Buffs don’t want to get humiliated again like they did this past Saturday against Kansas (90-54). Tad Boyle came into the game with a plan to force the Jayhawks to shoot contested threes and limit them in transition, but clearly that didn’t work as Kansas hit eight three-pointers and scored 20 points on the fast break. At the beginning of the year, Colorado’s defense was a key contributor to their success and was a main factor in a national ranking as high as No. 19 in the country, but now their lack of defense is the reason they have lost two of their last three. The Buffaloes will travel to Fresno State on Wednesday for their last road game before conference play and must improve their defense to pull out a victory.
3. It hasn’t been easy for Roberto Nelson since his arrival at Oregon State a few years ago. Nelson is now a junior and hasn’t lived up to the expectations of a four-star recruit who was looked at someone who could turn the program around. However, with the departure of Jared Cunningham to the NBA, Nelson is trying to step up. He worked on his game in the offseason and he’s seen results in that he’s averaging 13.9 points per game, good for second best on the team. There hasn’t been a doubt whether Nelson has had the ability to take over games and become OSU’s go-to-guy, but he still needs to improve his consistency throughout an entire season before the naysayers will drop off somewhat.
4. UCLA fans are still displeased with Ben Howland and are using some satire to show their disapproval. Arguments for keeping Howland as head coach include his three straight Final Fours and a strong recruiting class this past year. On the other hand, UCLA is arguably the most prestigious college basketball program in the nation and those results should be expected. In addition, UCLA has watched the departures of Tyler Lamb and Josh Smith from the team so far this year and were upset at home against an far less talented Cal Poly team in Pauley Pavilion. Comedy appears to be the only way that some UCLA fans can cope with Howland’s problems, which show no sign of letting up short of finding some additional eligibility for Kevin Love and Jordan Farmar.
5. At one point this year Washington was top five in the RPI, but after some unexpected losses the Huskies are experiencing a free-fall. After being ranked #36 in the RPI last week, they now find themselves all the way at #111 after losing to Nevada, the Huskies’ third home non-conference loss of the season — a feat that had never happened under Lorenzo Romar. The nightmarish start continues for a team that was once picked to finish fifth in the conference and who now looks completely lost and out of sync.

Brendon Mulvihill is the head curator for @SportsGawker and an RTC contributor. You can find him @TheMulv on Twitter. See bottom of the post for the Official RTC Star System.

With a month to go in the non-conference season, we are starting to sort out the contenders from the pretenders. This weekend provides some additional match-ups that will give us a better indication of which teams we should watch out for come March. Let’s get to the breakdowns.

Colorado at #10 Kansas – 2:00 PM EST, Saturday on ESPN2 (***)

This Weekend Colorado Tries to Beat Kansas for the First Time Since 2003

• You might call this game a renewal of a Big 12 rivalry but the reality is that it has been far from a “rivalry.” Kansas has not lost to Colorado since the 2002-03 season. While this will be the first time that CU plays Kansas as a member of the Pac-12, coach Tad Boyle is 0-3 against the Jayhawks since taking the helm in Boulder two seasons ago. The big question for the Buffaloes will be how they handle KU center Jeff Withey. A few weeks ago, CU was able to slow down another seven-footer in Isaiah Austin when they defeated Baylor. However, Withey is not a freshmen trying to fit himself into “The Pierre Jackson Show.” He’s a senior who has proven to be a dominant force on defense and a capable offensive threat. Withey also cleans up on the glass, particularly on the defensive end. Colorado needs to figure out how to grab some of those misses lest it become a long night. Keep an eye on the three-point shooting of Colorado guards Askia Booker and Spencer Dinwiddie. Both are threats from deep and both need to be on target to have a chance to win this one.

Temple vs. #1 Duke – 3:15 PM EST, Saturday on ESPN (****)

• Last season, Temple beat Duke in Philadelphia on the backs of Rahlir Hollis-Jefferson and Khalif Wyatt. Hollis-Jefferson and Wyatt combined to go 15-22 from the field in a somewhat surprising upset of the Blue Devils. The Owls also did it without this season’s leading scorer, Scootie Penn. However, when you compare this Duke team to last season’s team, they are more balanced and more patient without Austin Rivers dominating the ball. The Blue Devils have scoring threats all over the floor and point guard Quinn Cook is proving to be an excellent distributor. Additionally, Mason Plumlee has been superb. The key for the Owls will be figuring out a way to stop Plumlee in the paint. Unfortunately for Temple, scoring can come from anywhere when playing the Blue Devils. They are too balanced and too battle tested at this point to drop one to the Owls this year.

Jonathan Reed is an RTC Correspondent. He can be reached found on Big Sky Basketball or on twitter @bigskybball. He filed this report after last night’s Colorado-Colorado State game in Boulder.

When Spencer Dinwiddie called Colorado State the “little brother” earlier in the week, he knew he would have to back up those comments on the court. He sure did that last night in Boulder. Dinwiddie finished with a career high 29 points on 8-10 shooting, and at times he was the Colorado offense, particularly in the second half when they got bogged down. Dinwiddie said after the game that his comment was, “an analogy used… I didn’t mean it in a disrespectful manner.” Still, Tad Boyle followed that up with, “I gotta talk to Spencer a little bit about that… [We] have to be a little smarter about how we talk to the media.” [He did say it with a smile on his face].  Whatever extra motivation that Dinwiddie’s comment might have given Colorado State, it was more than balanced out by the great crowd and atmosphere.

Spencer Dinwiddie Backed Up His Commentary Last Night (Daily Camera)

With both teams now relevant in college basketball — each went to the NCAA Tournament last season and is likely to return this year — the rivalry brought out even more passion and intensity than normal. The crowd was a record for the Coors Event Center, with an announced attendance of 11,708 people (capacity is supposedly 11,064), and they were outstanding all evening long. They brought energy for 40 minutes, even breaking out a “Little Brother” chant in the first half. Everything that makes college basketball great in a live environment was on display.

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