How the Pac-10 shapes up heading into conference play

Most of the non-conference portion of the schedule is over in Pac-10 hoops, which means it’s nearly time to get into the “meat” of the college basketball schedule.

Experts from around the country expected the Pac-10 to be down this year, and, at least at this point, you’d have to say they were right. Only 9-2 Washington is ranked in either the AP Top 25 or the ESPN USA/Today Coaches Poll, coming in at 17th and 16th, respectively. USC and Cal received votes in the most recent polls, while Arizona State and Washington State each got mention in the latest Coaches Poll.

Back in October, the Golden Bears were picked by the conference media to win the Pac-10 crown, and be followed by Washington, UCLA, Arizona and Oregon State.

But there have been surprises so far….UCLA has struggled, and their cross-town rival USC, picked to finish 9th in the conference, has played well despite a rugged non-con schedule.

Conference play gets underway Thursday as Arizona State visits the Bruins at Pauley Pavilion, Arizona takes on USC, Washington State hosts Oregon and Oregon State travels to Washington.

Here’s the way the teams look going into Pac-10 play…

Pac-10 Non-Conference

	Rank	Team	Record	Comment
	1.	Washington State	10-2	Sophomore Klay Thompson is a stud and is 3rd in the nation in scoring (25.0 ppg) making Ken Bone’s transition to the Pac-10 much nicer. But the Cougars don’t have many great non-con wins on that schedule.
	2.	Washington	9-2	Quincy Pondexter is top five in the Pac-10 in scoring (21.9), rebounding (8.4) and field goal percentage (.586).
	3.	Arizona State	10-3	It ain’t sexy, but the Sun Devils are winning by committee–no player averages more than 11.8 points per game. Derek Glasser leads the conference in assist-to-turnover ratio.
	4.	USC	8-4	After losing 4 of their first six, Kevin O’Neill’s Trojans have reeled off six straight, including wins over #8 Tennessee and #20 UNLV.
	5.	Oregon	7-4	The Ducks have almost matched their 2008-09 win total (8) by feasting on a weak non-conference schedule. They’ll finish up their non-conference schedule tonight vs. 0-10 Arkansas-Pine Bluff.
	6.	California	6-4	Cal’s record may not jump out at you, but they’ve played a quality schedule that includes Syracuse, Ohio State (with Evan Turner) and Kansas.
	7.	Arizona	6-5	The Wildcats are two Nic Wise buzzer beaters away from being 4-7 heading into conference play. Wise beat Lipscomb with an overtime three and N.C. State with a last-second layup last week. The ‘Cats wrap up non-conference play against BYU tonight.
	8.	Oregon State	6-5	Craig Robinson’s Beavers have won 5 of their last 7 heading into Pac-10 play. Seth Tarver leads OSU, averaging 13.4 points per game.
	9.	Stanford	5-6	Landry Fields and Jeremy Green combine to score nearly 40 points per game. The rest of the roster? About 34 points per game. The Cardinal wrap up non-conference play Tuesday vs. James Madison.
	10.	UCLA	5-7	Looks weird to see the Bruins on the bottom, huh? Struggling UCLA already has losses to Cal State Fullerton, Portland and Long Beach State this season.

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