This week is Championship Week, and it’s always a nice precursor to the madness of the NCAA Tournament.
For teams in power conferences, it provides a stepping stone to the intensity of the one-and-done atmosphere of the Big Dance.
As Minnesota Timberwolves forward Craig Smith remarked to me on Friday, some teams grow nervous at this time of the year while others use the conference tourney to propel themselves for a big run in the NCAAs.
“Bright lights, big stage,” said Smith, who played in the Coke and Pepsi (the Big East and ACC) of conference tournaments while at Boston College. “It’s like playing in the NCAA Tournament.”
Point well taken! Seven of the last 10 national champions have won their conference tournaments.
After three years atop the Pac-10, UCLA (24-7, 13-5 Pac-10) was dethroned by Washington over the weekend despite two wins for the Bruins. The Huskies hadn’t won a Pac-10 Championship outright since 1953.
For UCLA, this week is primarily an opportunity to improve its seeding and location in the tournament. The dean of bracket projections, ESPN’s Joe Lunardi, currently places Ben Howland’s team as a No. 4 seed in the South Region in Memphis. But winning the conference battle royale at the Staples Center this week could keep the Bruins in the West Regional.
The Bruins find themselves on the cushy side of the bracket in Los Angeles, with Arizona State, Arizona and Washington all slated on the other side of the field.
A trip to the finals will likely go through a feisty Washington State team ““ playing better right now than some surefire tournament-bound teams ““ and the Cal-USC winner. The Bruins finished 5-1 against those schools, with the lone defeat coming against Wazzu when Taylor Rochestie played the game of his life. Neither Cal nor USC should beat UCLA at Staples.
That path of least resistance might actually hinder UCLA in the eyes of the selection committee; the Bruins won’t have an opportunity to notch a marquee win until the finals, assuming they take care of business on Thursday and Friday. Winning three times this week won’t mean much if they are all against non-tournament competition.
After last week’s tuneups ““ a 79-54 romp over Oregon State on Thursday and a 94-68 cakewalk over Oregon on Saturday ““ the Bruins enter the postseason with one primary concern: defense.
The shortcomings of this team’s defense have been chronicled throughout the year; lose a versatile defender like Luc Richard Mbah a Moute and the nation’s best perimeter defender in Russell Westbrook, and the defense is bound to take a step back.
The only problem is both of them are playing in the NBA and neither is eligible to suit up this March for UCLA. And that would be the only way the team is going to suddenly elevate its defense from good to elite.
On the bright side, Josh Shipp is shooting with “NBA-live” precision, as if the basket were as large as a swimming pool. Last week he dropped 27 and 28 points against the Oregon schools, and in the last six contests he is shooting a blazing 62 percent from behind the arc.
So the Bruins can certainly make headway with the NCAA selection committee this week in what should be an excellent Pac-10 Tournament. If Shipp’s shooting becomes contagious, perhaps the entire team can catch fire for a memorable tournament run.
If you know who’s going to win the Pac-10 Tournament, contact Taylor at btaylor@media.ucla.edu.