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. Wilmington Star News: North Carolina State entered this season as the favorite to win the ACC, but a few shaky games and some tough losses gave fans reason to doubt if this team could live up to its lofty expectations. Now, dodging the question of whether or not these expectations were ever reasonable, the Wolfpack is starting to look like a real contender. In a victory Tuesday night over Stanford, the team’s four core veteran starters all scored over 15 points and looked cohesive. Though NCSU’s vaunted freshman class was mostly quiet while the veterans did their thing, the signs are clear that this squad could be very good by the time March rolls around.
2. Fayetteville Observer:  Mark Gottfried has given his team quite a bit of UCLA flavor, drawing upon his experience as an assistant coach for the Bruins for nearly 10 years, but the rest of the staff brings over some of that same culture. Director of Operations Jeff Dunlap played for UCLA, as did the Director of Player Development Larry Farmer. Of course, while Dunlap played during Gottfried’s time in Los Angeles, Farmer represents a different era. His teams went 89-1 and won three NCAA titles as a player on the legendary John Wooden squads that featured Bill Walton and Sidney Wicks. Farmer would later coach at UCLA for a few seasons in the 1980s, but those seasons naturally pale before his place as a player on the greatest dynasty in men’s college basketball. I can’t speak for how effective Farmer is or will be at developing NC State players, but if his talent is anywhere close to his acumen in telling stories about partying with Bill Walton, then he will definitely be a substantial resource.
3. Washington Post: Very quietly, the Maryland Terrapins have put together a nice 9-1 record, blemished only by a surprisingly close season-opening loss to Kentucky. Now, granted, since that game, the caliber of competition that Maryland has been playing has been somewhat lacking, yet a win over a George Mason team that beat Virginia, a blowout victory over Northwestern, and a collection of convincing landslide wins over the likes of Monmouth and South Carolina State paint the picture of a team that could be very good. Alex Len has gone from unknown foreign prospect to one of the top prospects in the NBA draft, yet, somehow, Maryland remains unranked. It’s a small thing, and something that doesn’t really concern the team that much, but don’t be surprised when Maryland starts popping up in the polls sooner rather than later.
4. ESPN: Dexter Strickland was never a point guard. In high school he played at the wing and, in his own mind, he was always a combo guard. Yet in his college career at North Carolina, Strickland has often been used at the point, spelling Larry Drew II, Kendall Marshall, and now Marcus Paige as needed. Somehow, the defense-and-dribble-drive focused guard became a true point guard, and so far this season, Strickland ranks fourth in the ACC in assists per game. Though he still plays the bulk of his minutes at shooting guard, a combination of experience and a more cerebral  approach to the game have made him one of the better distributors in the conference, and an asset to the Tar Heels as a second ball-handler and playmaker alongside the freshman Paige.
5. Syracuse Online: Michael Gbinije had a very brief career at Duke before transferring to Syracuse. Yet, because of the strange alignment of this particular historical moment, namely both Mike Krzyzewski and Jim Boeheim passing the 900-win threshold and the weirdness of conference realignment, means that Gbinije will have managed to play under the two winningest coaches in college basketball history as soon as Boeheim passes Bob Knight. He is also notable (or he will be notable) as being the only player in history to play on two separate ACC teams once Syracuse arrives in the league next season. I wouldn’t say this really means anything in particular, but it’s a nice weird footnote.

Andrew Murawa is an RTC correspondent and a Pac-12 Microsite writer. He filed this report after tonight’s UCLA-Long Beach State game in Westwood.

Three Key Takeaways.

Ben Howland Called Larry Drew II’s Performance Tuesday Night The Best Of the Season (Alexa Smahl, Daily Bruin)

1. Defensive Woes. Offensively, UCLA had a lot to be happy with. Defensively, not so much. While there were stretches of defensive intensity (mostly midway through the second half), the effort wasn’t sustained throughout the game. There were the typical things like not fighting through screens, failing to box out and being late on rotations at times, but the perimeter defense was by and large solid. The most glaring issue was along the front line. Where UCLA’s frontcourt was once considered a possible strength, tonight the Wear twins were owned by Dan Jennings on the block time and again, rarely putting up much of a fight against his power moves. The only possible hope for reinforcements up front would be if Tony Parker were to earn some minutes, but tonight, after playing 18 minutes on Saturday, he only played two minutes with the game in doubt before three minutes worth of mop-up duty.
2. Dropping Dimes. Larry Drew II continued his excellent play at the point for the Bruins, as his redemption tour continues. Aside from a pretty brutal game against Texas, Drew has been excellent running the offense this year. With another nine assists tonight, he’s leading the Pac-12 with 8.4 assists per game. But Drew’s game tonight was complete: He knocked down open jumpers (6-of-7 from the field with a couple threes), he grabbed four defensive boards, he only turned the ball over once, and he earned the praise of his coach for his defensive effort.
3. Comparing UCLA to LBSU’s Other Opponents. Long Beach State has played four other big time opponents this year: North Carolina, Arizona, Syracuse and Ohio State – all currently ranked in Ken Pomeroy’s top 20. Against those teams, LBSU has not been a good team offensively, averaging just 0.83 points per possession; against UCLA, however, the 49ers scored 1.09 PPP. The good news for UCLA is that those elite teams scored an average of 1.18 points per possession themselves, but UCLA scored 1.39 PPP. Take those numbers for what they’re worth – which probably is not much given the small sample size.

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1. Yesterday was Monday, meaning a pair of new polls were released to lift fans from their post-weekend doldrums. Arizona was of course the highlight for Pac-12 fans, coming in at number four in the AP and fifth in the coaches poll. The argument could be made that there were four Mountain West teams better than the top Pac-12 team at most points in 2011-12, so that shows you just how far the top-tier of our conference has come in a year. The Wildcats are one of just seven undefeated teams ranked in the Top 25. The only other team without a loss is Wyoming, who comes in at #29 in the AP and #30 in the coaches.
2. Washington State coach Ken Bone has reinstated sophomore guard Brett Kingma following a possession of marijuana arrest and subsequent suspension in late October. The Cougars could certainly use some assistance from Kingma, as DaVonte Lacy has been the only reliable scorer in the Coug backcourt. Kingma was a freshman at Oregon in the 2011-12 season, but transferred within the conference after playing just 9.8 MPG that season. He was arrested in the middle of preseason camp on possession of “several grams” of marijuana, as well as exhibiting the effects of consuming alcohol in a public place.
3. After taking a 10-day break for Finals, Utah will return to the court tonight to face SMU. Head coach Larry Krystowiak and the Utes focused on a few different items during the layoff, with an emphasis coming in taking care of the ball and rebounding. They’ve turned the ball over at a clip of 14.4 miscues per game, including 17 in their odd, previous meeting with the Mustangs. SMU dropped Utah by a score of 62-55 in that one, but Krystowiak and company will have a chance to avenge the loss in a conference play-like second game of a home-and-home.
4. UCLA got a nice surprise on Monday morning when former Bruin great Kareem Abdul-Jabbar spoke to the team during its shootaround. Coach Ben Howland asked the all-time scoring leader in the NBA to speak to the team after taping an interview for a local news program. The current Bruins exclaimed that it was an “eye-opening experience” and a clear reminder of the legacy the UCLA program holds. The Bruins, who have started the season a disappointing 7-3, host Long Beach State tonight.
5. It may seem silly to think about for a team ranked as high as Arizona is, but Pac-12 fans always seem to cringe nowadays when a trap game arrives on the schedule. The Wildcats are doing the best to avoid that situation, quickly getting back to business to prepare for tonight’s meeting with Oral Roberts. The game comes sandwiched in between last Saturday’s thriller against Florida and a trip to Honolulu for the Diamond Head Classic, where the Cats could face a pair of high-profile teams in Miami (FL) and San Diego State. But first up are the Golden Eagles, a team that won 27 games a year ago. As the article points out, ORU faces its own challenges preparing for the match-up, having to shake off both mental and physical rust that comes from not playing a game in nearly two weeks.

We’re now five full weeks into the 2012-13 college basketball season, plenty of time to get a read on some of the teams that everyone thought was better or worse than their preseason projections. So how does Las Vegas view it? Check the following list, which shows a number of popular schools with three correlated columns: each school’s preseason odds to win the national title (“Preseason”); its current odds to win the national title (“1st Qtr”); and the plus/minus in the interim. Note that we’ve normalized these odds to add up to 100% so that you’re viewing true odds relative to all of the other teams vying for the title this year. All odds were taken from TheGreek.com.

One other editing note is that these odds were taken and calculated prior to Saturday’s action (i.e., Butler’s upset win over Indiana and Arizona’s win over Florida).

 Some QnD analysis…

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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.

Earlier this week, Joe Lunardi posted his updated Bracketology. Amidst the returning cries of mediocrity in the Conference of Champions, ESPN’s foremost bracketologist allotted six spots to the Pac, the second largest number amongst all conferences. This is a number that the conference hasn’t sent dancing since 2009. In his projected field he’s got Arizona as the highest Pac seed (#3) and Stanford the lowest (a play-in #12). UCLA is a declining #12, Colorado a solid #7 (second highest seed), Cal an improving #9, and Oregon a solid #10. That, indeed, is six teams dancing. This, indeed, is December; but what else are we going to talk about during exams week? There’s a lot of season remaining to resume boost but it’s good to see six Pac teams projected to dance (I fully understand the arbitrary nature of December brackets). It’s certainly a different look from last season’s actual bracket in which just two teams danced; a page I like to think the conference has turned. Or have they?

Arizona Presently Leads The Way Among Pac-12 Teams, But Even They Don’t Have Any Great Quality Wins. Yet. (Casey Sapio, USA Today)

Percy Allen proposed a similar question earlier this month when he brought up the issue that, once again, the Pac-12 is struggling against ranked opponents. He makes the argument against SOS, RPI, and other acronyms for tried and true Wins. A concept I rather love. So Allen harps on the conference’s win-loss record against ranked opponents; a record the Pac has run to 2-16 this year. An unimpressive stat to be sure and one that cannot bode well in the eyes of a selection committee tasked with selecting the 37 most eligible bachelors. The conference’s collective work would not seem to be deserving of significant (say… six?) invitations. He is quick to point out that there are remaining games against ranked opponents (four, highlighted by Saturday’s Arizona-Florida game); a fleeting effort to bolster that conference win-loss record against ranked opponents. But for what? Will Colorado not dance because USC over-scheduled and went oh-for-the-season against ranked opponents? Could Oregon wind up a #10 seed but not a #8 because Stanford struggled at the Battle 4 Atlantis? Not necessarily. A team’s success helps the conference, giving everyone a chance to play a better opponent. But they’re flounderings? Well those can only hurt if you lose to them in which case what’s it even matter if the conference is undefeated or defeated against ranked opponents? The name of the game, as Allen agrees, is winning.

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Way back in the preseason, while trying to be objective, we as a group of Pac-12 writers couldn’t help but be optimistic about the immediate future of the conference. Arizona and UCLA were welcoming in elite recruiting classes, Colorado had added a nice group of freshmen to solid returnees, etc., etc. All throughout the conference there were stories of promise and hope. And then the season began. While it has certainly been nowhere near the debacle that last year was, there have been hiccups along the way. You know, a loss to Cal Poly by a team picked by one of us (ahem, me) to be a top five national team, losses elsewhere to Albany, Pepperdine, and Sacramento State. So, to say the least, things have not been all about half-full glasses around these parts. In the interest of getting the negativity out of the way now, in advance of the holiday season, we’ll take a look at the downside of the Pac-12 this week.

“Which team, player, or other entity, has been the most disappointing thus far this year?”

Parker Baruh: The biggest disappointment thus far this year in the Pac-12 is the Washington Huskies. I thought the Pac-12 media went too high when they picked them to finish fifth in the conference especially with the losses of Tony Wroten and Terrence Ross. And thus far, Washington has shown nothing this year to prove my hunch wrong. The Huskies were upset at home by Albany, were embarrassed at home by Colorado State, upset again at home by Nevada, and barely pulled out a win against a bad Cal State Fullerton team, once again, right there at home. As you can see, there is a recurring theme here: Washington’s bad play at home. One of the greatest things about college basketball is home court advantage and typically Washington has had it in spades, but this year it ceases to exist at the Alaska Airlines Arena. Washington doesn’t have the talent to win the Pac-12 and I know they are dealing with injuries, but they certainly shouldn’t look this bad. It’s still early and I expect the Huskies to bounce back somewhat, but as of right now, they are my choice for biggest disappointment.

Abdul Gaddy and Washington Have Yet To Get It Together This Year

Adam Butler: To ask who or what has disappointed the most – particularly in early/mid-December – is baiting us into a crow consumption opportunity. It’s also fresh bait to just rip on UCLA; a task I’ve taken to three times already in this young season. Alas, I won’t take the bait – although by season’s end I will be full of crow – and I find myself most disappointed, to date, by USC. This was a group that had a chip on its shoulder, a squad that Kevin O’Neill called his hardest working team and a group of castoffs who had an opportunity to turn some heads. For the Trojans, I haven’t done much beyond turn the channel. KO teams rarely play a viewer-friendly brand of ball but I do always appreciate their effort. What’s disappointed me the most isn’t that they haven’t given effort, just that they set themselves up to fail. I suppose I could have looked at the schedule and forecast this, but I also felt they had enough dynamic pieces to overcome some of these preseason hurdles. But ultimately, these guys have played about how we unfortunately and unromantically should have figured they would. J.T. Terrell shooting 30%? Jio Fontan with a 24% turnover rate? And maybe I’ve made this selection selfishly. I figured bigger things for what, at least on paper, appeared to be a more competitive group. That said, one can say that this group has competed and maybe, just maybe, partaking in an arguably less competitive Pac-12 season will prove this group better than their non-conference effort.

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1. Stanford’s Dwight Powell and his teammates embarked on a somber road trip earlier in the year. In September, Powell’s mother, Jacqueline Weir, passed away from cancer. However, Powell’s teammates wouldn’t let him mourn the loss of his mother by himself. The NCAA allowed Stanford to fly players in Powell’s recruiting class to Canada to be at the memorial for his mother. Powell has said that everything he does this season has been and will be a tribute to his mother. However Powell plays this season, he deserves enormous credit for handling this situation so well and playing through it.
2. The Arizona Wildcats have been the class of the Pac-12 this season and are currently 7-0, but if they want to find success against Florida on Saturday and later this year, their big men are going to have to be more consistent. After Brandon Ashley’s 20 point, 10 rebound performance against Long Beach State, he followed it up with a two-point game against Northern Arizona. Kaleb Tarczewski has been a factor in every game, but hasn’t surpassed 10 points this season and Grant Jerrett followed up his 11-point performance at Texas Tech with zero points against Southern Miss. As far as the backcourt goes, Mark Lyons will need to clean up his turnover issues as the season goes on. On the season, Lyons has 18 assists and 19 turnovers, and although Lyons isn’t what you would call a typical point guard, he is the leader of this Arizona team and will have to improve in that area.
3. Oregon’s Arsalan Kazemi has made the transition from Rice to his new team very well so far this season. Kazemi is impacting the Ducks by scoring 9.3 points per game, but he also has made an impact defensively as he leads Oregon with 9.3 rebounds and 3.4 steals per game as well. He has been the hustle guy so far this season for Dana Altman and he couldn’t be more pleased with Kazemi’s work all over the floor. Just like Kazemi, Oregon has been a surprise this year in the Pac-12 by going 8-1 and upsetting UNLV in Las Vegas, and if Kazemi and the Ducks can continue this play, they look destined to become a force in the Pac-12.
4. Arizona State’s lack of energy was a big factor in its loss Wednesday night against DePaul. Herb Sendek was not pleased with his team as they shot 42% from the free throw line and mentioned that they played with no intensity. Despite playing at home, the Sun Devils came out flat and weren’t able to get in a rhythm against the active Blue Demons defense. Although Arizona State lost that game, they are still 8-2 and should look much more energetic in their next game against Dartmouth this Saturday afternoon.
5. After an uncomfortable start to the season for UCLA’s Kyle Anderson, he is now starting to come into his own at the power forward position. Anderson had intentions of coming to UCLA to play the point guard, but with Larry Drew II clearly and successfully taking that role, Anderson has spent most of his time playing at the four position. He has admitted playing that position hasn’t been easy for a player used to having the ball in his hands, but against Texas, Anderson finally started to make some more aggressive moves in the post. The precocious freshman still needs to develop consistency at the position, but Ben Howland believes that playing him there is the right decision and isn’t likely to change his mind anytime soon.

We are two weeks into our Pac-12 Pick’Em and things are beginning to heat up. Adam and Parker stole the show in our second week of picks, with each of them correctly picking nine of the 12 contests. Parker currently sits atop our leaderboard at 20-5 overall. I was the only one to miss UCLA’s win in Houston on Saturday afternoon, and Drew was the only one to pick Illinois’ upset of Gonzaga in Spokane. Unfortunately for Mr. Murawa, losses by Washington, USC, Fresno State, and California have put him in last place, all by himself. So now, we enter week three. Florida’s visit to Arizona and Kansas State meeting Gonzaga in Seattle headline the list as our games of the week.

Only a couple of differences in opinion this week. Drew was the only one to take the visiting Gators against Arizona, while Adam thinks #16 Creighton will knock off California in Berkeley. Adam also predicted the largest score differential in each highlighted game, taking the Wildcats to win by nine, and the Zags to win by 16.

1. Before Sean Miller‘s head coaching career started, he was a part of a group of successful assistants at Xavier under Thad Matta, who is now the current head coach at Ohio State. Several of these assistants like Miller are now head coaches and include John Groce at currently undefeated Illinois as well as Alan Major at currently undefeated Charlotte. Miller noted that all the coaches learned so much from Matta, but most important was the ability to bring out the best in a team by making sure that everyone is enjoying themselves throughout the entirety of the season.
2. Ben Howland has a career 211-99 record at UCLA and has enjoyed considerable success, but this year the Bruins’ poor start can be attributed to three mistakes. Howland has played the Wear twins too much, and although he gives them constant praise, the reality is that the David and Travis Wear have their limitations on defense and have no consistency on offense — Travis has only put up 14 points in his past two games while David has put up a total of four. Howland also hasn’t found the right fit for freshman Kyle Anderson. With Larry Drew II handling the point guard duties, UCLA hasn’t been able to run a successful offense with Anderson playing off the ball. Lastly, even with the #1 recruiting class this season, Howland has failed to find his staple of tough interior defenders such as previous Bruins Luc Richard Mbah a Moute, Alfred Aboya, and Lorenzo Mata-Real, any of whom UCLA could so desperately use this season.
3. Washington is scheduled to play Seattle University this Thursday, but the Huskies are likely to be without freshman point guard Andrew Andrews as he is still suffering from a sprained ankle. Andrews is currently averaging seven points and 3.3 assists per game this year and Washington could use his help with Lorenzo Romar’s team continuing to struggle as evident by their recent home loss to Nevada and their near home loss to Cal State Fullerton in the past two games.
4. With the early dismissal of Reggie Moore from Washington State this year, Ken Bone knew he would need a replacement at point guard and has turned to sophomore Royce Woolridge to handle the position. But it’s been senior Mike Ladd who has taken the reins in recent games. Bone praised Ladd, but said that the duties will continued to be shared regardless. Additionally, Bone has been pleased so far this year with star player Brock Motum’s improvement on the defensive end as he has become much better defending the post.
5. Last year, the Pac-12 only had two NCAA Tournament teams in Cal and Colorado who were unable to advance past the round of 32, but esteemed bracketologist Joe Lunardi came out with his latest mock yesterday and he had six Pac-12 teams currently invited into his field of 68. Arizona was a three seed, Colorado was a seven seed, Cal was a nine seed, Oregon was a ten seed, and UCLA and Stanford were twelve seeds. Although it’s only December and things will certainly change in the next three months of action, it’s still impressive to see the Pac-12 putting half its teams in the draw considering the conference’s recent inability to get more than a couple into the NCAA Tournament.