It was a hold serve kinda night in the Pac-12 Wednesday, with No. 12 Arizona beating Washington 70-52 at the McKale Center. Bruce Pascoe writes that is was the most complete game Arizona has played since a Feb. 2 win at Washington State. When you shoot 47 percent from the floor and hold the opponent to 31 percent shooting, that qualifies as a complete game.
It’s always good to get the Gregg Bell perspective on things, so here’s the UW Director of Writing’s take on C.J. Wilcox and the Huskies’ defense going frigid in the loss to Arizona.
One hundred or so miles north, Arizona State held off Washington State 69-57 to improve to 9-5 in Pac-12 play. If you predicted Arizona State to have at least a .500 conference record before the season started, you’re either a huge Sun Devil supporter or lying to yourself. Picked to finish 11th in the Pac-12, Arizona State has already amassed 20 wins on the season. Do I smell a Pac-12 Coach of the Year honor for Herb Sendek?
As usual, you can get your tale of the tape from Washington State’s loss at Arizona State courtesy of the always reliable Christian Caple. Also in the Palouse, Washington State baseball is opening an 8-game homestand that starts this Friday against Eastern Michigan. Earl Boykins stand up.
Three more men’s basketball games on the slate tonight, starting with arguably the most enticing game of the weekend when Cal heads to Eugene to take on the Oregon Ducks. As Jeff Faraudo writes, this is a huge week for Cal as far as its NCAA tournament hopes are concerned (it’s also a huge week for Saint Mary’s according to the article, but how dare we mention a WCC school?!).
Dana Altman has relied on a couple of freshmen to provide big minutes for his Ducks. One of those freshmen is Damyean Dotson, and his confidence is growing on both ends of the floor.
The next game of the night takes us to Boulder, where Utah and Colorado will square off in a battle for Mountain supremacy. After what happened to Josh Scott (who is day-to-day, by the way) against Arizona State, Colorado fans aren’t going to want to hear that the Utes have another Bachynski.
The contest at the Coors Events Center marks the start of three straight on the road for the Runnin’ Utes, who are not interested in moral victories.
The night will wrap up with a Corvallis affair between Oregon State and Stanford. It’s a little sad to think about it like this, but the unique college career of Joe Burton is coming to an end. This is a great feature from The Oregonian, and if there is only one link you read from the roundup, I recommend it to be this.
Here are some Stanford game notes for the Oregon State contest, but I’d also like to tell you about Stepfan Taylor looking to turn heads at the NFL Combine. Kulabafi was nice enough to take time out of his busy schedule to sit down with the Pac-12 Networks to discuss the combine and his senior season.
UCLA-USC doesn’t happen until Sunday for the men’s side, so let’s talk about some other sports. On the Bruins’ diamond, senior infielder Cody Regis has been cleared to play this weekend after missing last weekend because of an academic issue. The Bru Cru will be in Waco to take on the Baylor Bears this weekend.
USC is dominant in so many sports, but the link roundup has more or less neglected the Trojans’ men’s swimming team…until now, because No. 4 men’s swimming closes its season at Utah on Friday. The Men of Troy are led by a slew of All-Americans, including juniors Vladimir Morozov and Dmitri Colupaev.