A week ago at this time, Washington was in the midst of confusing Pac-12 pundits, having locked down Colorado on their way to its fourth straight win to start Pac-12 play. At that time, despite some ugly non-conference performances that included losses to Albany and Nevada along with blowout losses to Colorado State and Ohio State, the Huskies were firmly in the conversation for inclusion in the NCAA Tournament field. Granted, that conversation is little more than bluster at this point in the season, but improbably, and with not a little help from a general mediocrity in the middle of the pack nationally, the Huskies were in that conversation. And then they came out Saturday night and laid an egg against Utah, never leading in the game and riding poor shooting and a disinterested defense to a nine-point home loss. And then last night, they went on the road to Corvallis against a team without a conference win and, yup, you guessed it, went a long way towards repeating that effort. They trailed by as many as 20 in the first half and, despite a late run, again never led in the game. So, are the Huskies’ at-large hopes officially dead?

After A Strong Conference Start, A Couple of Bad Losses Leave Washington In Trouble (Geoffrey McAllister, AP)

According to Joe Lunardi’s most recent Bracketology, Washington is among the first four teams out. Andy Glockner’s most recent Bubble Watch includes the Huskies still in the mix. Both of those were published before the Oregon State loss, but one road loss in conference play in the middle of January is by no means enough to eliminate a team from Tournament contention. The Huskies still have two-thirds of their conference schedule ahead of them and with six games against Oregon, Arizona and UCLA remaining, they’ve got plenty of chances to add big wins in the future. And, with teams like BYU, Iowa, Indiana State and Texas A&M hanging around the bubble, there is plenty of room for a team with UW’s current flawed resume to remain in the discussion, with a couple of caveats. First, losses to the back end of the Pac-12 need to cease. The Huskies play Oregon State and Washington State once more and they’ve still got USC on the schedule twice; those all need to be Ws. Secondly, they need to score a couple of good conference wins against those three top teams. Their best chances will be at home, but it sure wouldn’t hurt the Huskies’ resume if they could go on the road and steal a win, like for instance, against Oregon on Saturday (and, if they did that, UCLA and Arizona would probably send the Huskies’ a nice gift basket or something). Long story short, despite a mediocre 12-7 record with some befuddling losses mixed in there, the Huskies aren’t dead yet. But man, do they have a lot of work to do.

Just about one-third of the way through our semester, Oregon is the favorite pupil, having earned all As in their exams. Join Professor Pac as we once again break down our class and see who’s joining the Ducks at the front of the class and who’s in the corner with the dunce cap.

Oregon – A

Before we give props to the Ducks for their 5-0 conference start and vault to the favorite position in the conference, let’s take a minute to mourn the loss of the full 18-game home-and-away round-robin of the Pac-10. You see, with UO’s win at UCLA this week and home win against Arizona last week, the Ducks have wrapped up this seasons’ meeting with those two teams. Neither the Wildcats nor the Bruins will get a chance for revenge, at least until and unless they meet up in Vegas come mid-March. But, that’s not the Ducks fault. No, they’ve done what they’ve needed to do early and they’ve set themselves up well. Now, they’ve still got more than two-thirds of the conference schedule remaining, but here are their remaining road games in conference play: Stanford, Cal, Washington, Washington State, Colorado and Utah. They’ll be favorites in all of those games, as well as all of their home games. Sure, there are probably a couple of losses in the mix there somewhere, but barring some significant slide that Dana Altman-coached teams are not known for, the Ducks are a heavy favorite to be the #1 seed in the Pac-12 tournament.

The Diminutive Jonathan Loyd Brings Energy Off The Bench For Oregon (goducks.com)

Focus on: Jonathan Loyd. Freshman point guard Dominic Artis is the rightful recipient of plenty of positive buzz regarding his play, but the diminutive junior backup deserves some credit for accepting his decreased minutes and filling his role. Sure, he can’t shoot a lick. And his turnovers are through the roof this season. But you can see that his defensive intensity has carried over to his freshman pupil and he always brings energy aplenty when he’s on the court. And, consider this: a 5’8” he swatted away a Larry Drew II fastbreak layup tattempt this weekend

Looking ahead: The Ducks host the Washington schools this week and Ken Pomeroy puts the chances that they win each game somewhere north of 85%. Beware the letdown, Ducks.

Arizona – A-

For three quarters of their battle with in-state rival Arizona State on Saturday, the ‘Cats had a battle on their hands, played basically to a draw. But over the last 10 minutes, a time that coincided almost exactly with Mark Lyons coming back in the game (and, with Lyons drawing the fourth foul on Jahii Carson), they outscored the Sun Devils by 15 and equaled the biggest defeat ASU has suffered this season. Over those ten minutes, Lyons repeatedly got to the hoop, scoring 12 points and handing out three assists in likely his best 10-minute stretch as the UA point guard. The problem is the previous 30 minutes, wherein Lyons had 12 points on 11 field goal attempts, zero assists and four turnovers. Sure, he’s one heck of a closer, but as the season ramps up come March, the ‘Cats will need a more complete performance.

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Here’s this week’s rendition of the Pac-12′s peak performers…

Team of the Week – Oregon

This week the Ducks flew south and swept through a tough Los Angeles-area road trip, extending their winning streak to seven, including a perfect 5-0 record in the Pac-12. Along the way, with wins over pre-conference favorites Arizona and UCLA in their back pockets and neither of those teams remaining on the schedule the rest of the way, Dana Altman’s team became the favorite to earn the regular season title and the top seed in the Pac-12 Tournament. Behind a pair of freshman guards who are playing beyond their years and a veteran frontcourt that is locking up the boards and providing some scoring punch, the Ducks as they stand right now are very much a complete team, but they’ve still got room for improvement – a scary thought for the rest of the conference.

Brandon Taylor’s Big Week Makes Him The Surprise Winner of The Pac-12 Player of the Week (Elaine Thompson, AP)

Player (and Newcomer) of the Week – Brandon Taylor, Utah

Not a name I expected to be writing in this space this season, there were questions when Taylor signed with the Utes this past offseason whether he was up to competing at the Pac-12 level. Those questions have been answered time and again this season, as Taylor has steadily earned more minutes from head coach Larry Krystkowiak, with this past week against the Washington schools being the high-water mark. Over the course of the two games (which Utah split), Taylor earned 56 total minutes, scored 32 points, handed out nine assists, snatched four steals, and knocked down six of his nine three-point attempts on the way to a 81.3% effective field goal rate for the week. It remains to be seen if Taylor can duplicate any of those numbers in the future, but if nothing else, the freshman has proven himself a trustworthy option off the bench if any of the Ute veterans run into injuries, foul trouble or prolonged slumps.

Professor Pac is back to break down and evaluate each team’s performances in the past week. With three pet pupils atop the leaderboard still without a loss, it’s no surprise who is earning the As thus far.

Washington – A

After winning a conference road game over an intrastate rival last week, the Huskies decided to one-up themselves this week, taking down two more road games, this time over slightly more significant competition, to begin the season with a surprising three-game road winning streak.

Focus on: Andrew Andrews. The stats this week weren’t anywhere near mind-blowing for the redshirt freshman (9 PPG, 4 RPG, 0.5 APG), but he brings an energy and athleticism to a Husky backcourt that definitely needed it. Offensively, he is a threat to get to the paint and create opportunities on any possession, and on defense, as his four steals against Stanford on Saturday showed, he is capable of wreaking havoc on the opposition. He’s still green, but look for his role to continue to expand this season.

Looking ahead: For a team with a history of struggling on the road, the Huskies have taken care of business there in recent weeks. Now they have to prove they can win at home, something they have failed to do three separate times in the non-conference schedule. Colorado is the first test tonight with Utah visiting on Sunday.

Andrew Andrews Has Been Providing A Spark Off The Bench For The Huskies (Elaine Thompson, AP Photo)

Oregon – A

If you wanted to pick one weakness on this Ducks team, it might be the lack of a proven go-to scorer at this point. This week, for instance, in each of their two home wins over the Arizona schools, four of the five starters scored in double figures, with nobody scoring more than 14 points. In fact, only four times all season has a Duck scored 20 or more (Damyean Dotson twice, Arsalan Kazemi once, and E.J. Singler once). I’m not one who thinks this is always necessarily a problem – if you have plenty of good offensive options and you wind up with balanced scoring that way, it certainly keeps the defense guessing – but I think in the Ducks’ case, they have a bunch of good players, none of whom are completely polished offensive options. And against Arizona down the stretch, the possibility of that being a problem raised its head. Part of it has to do with the decision to milk the clock way too early, but at some point they probably need somebody (the best candidate is Dotson) to become the go-to guy down the stretch.

Focus on: E.J. Singler. The senior had a great all-around game in the win over Arizona, going for 14 points, seven rebounds, seven assists, and three steals, while knocking down some key free throws late, but then once again disappeared for the most part against Arizona State, hitting just one of nine field goal attempts and grabbing only one board in 36 minutes of play. That’s been the M.O. for the most part this season for a guy expected to be an all-conference caliber guy: inconsistency.

Looking ahead: The Ducks leave the state of Oregon for the first time in almost a month and just the third game all year when they head down Los Angeles way. They will be the opponent for Bob Cantu’s debut with USC tomorrow night before headlining the Pac-12 schedule on Saturday with a visit to Pauley Pavilion and UCLA for the first conference match-up between Top 25 teams since 2009.

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1. The big news on Monday morning was the surpise firing of a Los Angeles area head basketball coach. Less than a month ago, the odds were probably on the rest of this paragraph being about the end of the Ben Howland era in Westwood, but instead, the “other” LA-area Pac-12 basketball program ended the Kevin O’Neill era abruptly. We posted our thoughts on the matter yesterday, but gave scant attention to USC’s new interim head coach, Bob Cantu, who has now outlasted three Trojan head coaches at the institution. Cantu said he plans to try to speed the game up a bit (but really, doesn’t every coach say that?), may opt for more zone defense, and will try to get USC’s two seven-footers (Dewayne Dedmon and Omar Oraby) on the court together at the same time. In addition, he hopes to get transfers Ari Stewart and Renaldo Woolridge, a pair of guys who have been all but forgotten this season, some more run.
2. Names like Jamie Dixon, Randy Bennett and Dan Monson seem to be the obvious lead choices for the next USC head coaching position, but plenty of other names have surfaced already, including one who is currently employed by another Pac-12 institution: Arizona State assistant Eric Musselman. Musselman, who has been a head coach in the NBA twice, is apparently interested in the job, according to Marc Spears of Yahoo! Sports. But, the question is, just how far down the list is Musselman? And, as always, Reggie Theus is also on the list, at least, according to Theus, that is. And, how about a really deep cut? Former Laker and Lobo star Michael Cooper is presently the head women’s basketball coach at USC. Like I said, a seriously deep cut.
3. Meanwhile, across town, Ben Howland has turned it around, getting his team back into the Top 25 riding a nine-game winning streak. David Wharton of the Los Angeles Times has a big feature on Howland that does a good job of slapping a human face on the often introverted coach. The article touches on his relationship with his players, his assistants, and, as always, UCLA fans. But perhaps most interesting is how Howland has made the change from playing the grind-it-out, defense-first style that has characterized his last decade-plus as a head coach, to the more transition-oriented team that has currently got those rather picky Bruin fans interested again.
4. As for the team that USC just beat, Utah, head coach Larry Krystkowiak’s job is in no immediate danger, but in order to make sure it stays that way, and in order to make sure he has his team on the right track, he held one-on-one meetings with each player this week to ensure that both coach and player were both on the same page. The meetings are in an effort to let the players know what Krystkowiak needs them to work on and to hear back from the players any suggestions that they have for the coaching staff. With an 0-4 start featuring three hotly contested games now in the rear view mirror, the Utes hope to use these meetings as a springboard for future improvements.
5. It’s about that time of the year where, for one reason or another, suspensions and other little punishments begin to crop up here and there around the nation, especially on teams that have had their struggles. We saw Eric Moreland get suspended last week (and it was announced today that he’ll return Saturday against USC, making it a three-game suspension in total), but we glossed over the fact that Stanford point guard Chasson Randle got a slap on the wrist for being late to a shootaround prior to the game against Washington, having to start the game on the bench. He still wound up earning 28 minutes (and scoring 16 effective points along the way), but it’s something to stick in the back of your mind, given Stanford’s early struggles.

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 »

Starting this week and continuing through the rest of the season, we’ll take a moment in between games to run down every team in the conference, grade their previous week’s performance, highlight the performance of one of their players (either for good or for bad) and look ahead briefly to their upcoming schedule.

Arizona State: A

The Sun Devils put aside concerns that their 11-2 record going into the week was built mostly on wins over bad teams by giving the home folks a healthy dose of optimism to start the conference season.

Focus on: Jahii Carson. While Jordan Bachynski was dominating in Sunday’s win over Colorado, I was most intrigued by Carson’s performance. With CU’s Spencer Dinwiddie keeping him locked down most of the night, Carson didn’t force things, got the ball in the hands of his teammates with better match-ups and kept ASU on point, even while being limited to his lowest number of field goal attempts this season. This proves that he doesn’t need to always score to be a positive force for his team.

Looking ahead: The Sun Devils have shown their improvement, but if we’re to believe that this team’s postseason aspirations should be any higher than the CBI, we’ll need to see them win on the road. A trip to Oregon State on Thursday looks like a possible chance, while getting Oregon following its game with Arizona could mean ASU catches the Ducks in a trap game. Speaking of which, ASU could benefit mightily this year from having the ‘Cats as a traveling partner, as teams could be either looking forward to or recovering from their game with U of A.

Jahii Carson Showed Maturity On Sunday In Resisting The Urge To Force Shots (USA Today)

Oregon: A

Any win in conference play is good. Any road win in conference play is great. Any road win in conference play in a rivalry game is a reason for outright celebration. Check all three boxes for the Ducks after one game.

Focus on: Arsalan Kazemi. In his first game back from a concussion, the senior Kazemi temporarily relinquished his starting spot to Carlos Emory and saw limited action. But, even in just 21 minutes, he was an impactful player, making four of his five field goal attempts, grabbing eight boards, handing out a couple assists and, per usual, coming up with a couple steals due to his relentlessly quick hands.

Looking ahead: The consensus, around here at least, is that the Ducks are going to be legitimate factors in the Pac-12 race. They get a chance to prove that this week when they host Arizona in a battle of contrasting strengths. While Zona has been through the ringer a time or two this season, these Ducks feature a pair of freshman guards ready for their first big spotlight. Meanwhile, the Ducks’ frontcourt features plenty of veterans, while the ‘Cats mix their three freshman with senior Solomon Hill.

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1. The NCAA released its first offical RPI rankings of the season late Monday, and of course, Arizona headlines the Pac-12 list at #4. Colorado came in as a bit of a surprise at #6, and then there is a big drop-off before UCLA is spotted at #39. Utah, USC, Oregon State, and Washington State were the teams that landed outside the Top 100. Obviously, things will shift around considerably as we get deeper into conference play in the coming weeks, both in the Pac-12 and on a national scale.
2. UCLA freshman Tony Parker has seen limited action in the 2012-13 season for a multitude of reasons. There have been back spasms, sprained ankles, and migraine headaches, and when Parker has seen minutes, he has looked lost on both ends of the court and has been extremely foul-prone. All in all, those things aren’t uncommon to see early in one’s first year on campus. Bruins Nation thinks there’s more too it, however, criticizing Ben Howland for not playing Parker in important situations and concluding from a “no comment” that Parker is nearly a certainty to transfer at season’s end. The point is, the majority of college freshmen, whether they are Division 1 athletes or not, get homesick at one point or another. And as I stated above, not every young, hot recruit is going to see immediate action. And while transferring after or during one’s first season seems to be the big thing in college hoops these days, it is still a pretty big jump to assume one will leave because of a couple vague tweets and quotes.
3. After last year’s debacle, I think I speak for most Pac-12 fans that I’m thrilled to have Arizona in the Top 25, let alone, the top three. But could we be on the brink of having another Top 25 team in the Pac-12? Why that’s madness you say, what is this, the ACC? What’s next, more than one at-large team in the Big Dance? But it’s true, and if Oregon can sweep the Arizona schools at home this week, the hypothetically 14-2 Ducks would surely crack Monday’s rankings. For the sake of our national reputation, we can only hope.
4. Fresh off a 27-point performance against what is largely considered the Pac-12’s best defensive mind, the Pac-12’s leading scorer now sets his eyes on beating Washington, a game that will be played tonight in Berkeley on ESPN2. Washington has proven that they can at least contain the best of scorers out west on Saturday against Washington State’s Brock Motum, but Allen Crabbe will be a different beast entirely. The junior guard can not only get to the rack off a dribble drive from the perimeter, but he is now even more of a threat to get the ball on a pass in the lane and get an easy bucket with his new-found strength and speed he has been showing off this season. Crabbe is also more than capable of knocking down the mid-range or three-point jumper, but collecting most of his buckets right at the bucket ensures better efficiency.
5. We close with our weekly Pac-12 Hoops Pick’em selections. Adam continued to cruise last week and now leads the competition by a pair of games over the next closest prognosticator. I am doing a stellar job, showing off my vast college basketball knowledge by sitting all alone in the basement. For our games of the week, we have chosen Minnesota’s trip to Bloomington on Saturday morning and the UCLA-Colorado showdown that will be played immediately after.

The first week of Pac-12 conference play wrapped up on Sunday and here are some takeaways from the first two games of action for each team.

Coming into conference play, it seemed like third place would come down to Colorado and Oregon. After their performance in Corvallis against Oregon State, the Ducks are unquestionably the third best team in the conference and have a legitimate shot to make the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2008. Dana Altman‘s team went on the road and outplayed a good Oregon State team for 40 minutes and did all of this with its freshman backcourt leading the way, most notably with the performance of Damyean Dotson, who scored a career high 21 points and also added six rebounds. A pressing question for the Ducks heading into the conference season was whether E.J. Singler would break out out of his season-long slump. He certainly looked liked the player that helped the Ducks tremendously last year against the Beavers as he had 15 points, nine rebounds, and three steals in 37 minutes. Singler is still averaging only 10.2 points per game after averaging 13.7 last year, but 15 points was Singler’s second highest scoring total on the season and could prove that the senior is ready to turn his season around. As of now, it looks like Arizona and UCLA are still the top two teams in the conference, but the Oregon Ducks are looming just behind them.

Damyean Dotson led the way for the Oregon on Sunday against Oregon State and the Ducks seem to be the third best team in the Pac-12 right now.

Andrew Murawa mentioned this yesterday, but it bears repeating: Colorado needs to get more production out of its bench this year. But after viewing the first week of conference play, it just might not happen. There are fixable problems on this Colorado team like their horrid free throw shooting and too many turnovers, but the bench is another story. Besides Xavier Johnson, who has had major problems with foul trouble thus far, Tad Boyle doesn’t have anyone else available whom he feels he can go to on his bench. Shane Harris-Tunks, the only true big man among the reserves, has been used sparingly, registering only 8.7 minutes per game and only 1.6 rebounds per game despite his 6’11” stature. Freshmen guards Eli Stalzer and Xavier Talton have looked scared whenever they have played a team with physical guards, and, besides the occasional three from Stalzer, neither has shown an ability to score, averaging a combined 3.3 points per game on the year.

Having no bench would be a problem for any team but it could turn into a bigger problem for the Buffaloes if  they continue to get inefficient shooting nights from Askia Booker. Booker has taken 58 more shots than anyone on the team this year and is also shooting at the worst clip out of all the starters at 41 percent from the field. Boyle had a similar situation last year with leading scorer Carlon Brown, a player who struggled mightily near the end of conference play. However, the head coach was able to replace him with, ironically, sixth man Askia Booker. This year, Boyle simply does not have that option. If Colorado wants to stay near the top of the conference throughout the rest of the season, Boyle might not have any other choice than to play his normal starting lineup and Xavier Johnson for almost the entire game. It doesn’t seem like the ideal situation, but at this point, a fatigued yet talented starting five might be better than a bench that simply cannot compete with most teams in the Pac-12.

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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.