Pac-10: Bizarre week in competitive league

The Pac-10 is a tough league, perhaps college basketball’s toughest from top to bottom, but what happened over the previous week was unbelievably competitive if not incredibly bizarre.

Eight of the 10 conference teams won games.

Six of them came away with splits.

Visiting teams captured six of the nine outings.

Then there were the Oregon State Beavers, who, while winless and hopeless through all seven weeks of Pac-10 play, tried desperate means to make something positive happen and had a churlish ploy backfire.

Hosting Washington, the league’s ninth-place team and supposedly their best chance at victory, the Beavers tried to intimidate their visitors the day before last Saturday’s game, first confronting them at a supposedly closed practice in Gill Coliseum, and again at the hotel housing the Huskies, the Hilton Garden Inn, located on campus, one long block from the arena.

A half dozen Beavers angrily and inexplicably marched onto the floor while a handful of Huskies were launching shots at the end of a Friday workout. Oregon State freshman forward Sean Carter led a terse, verbal assault.

“What are you doing talking like that in our house!” screamed Carter in the direction of Washington’s Venoy Overton, challenging the freshman guard to fight on the spot.

Overton was guilty of no more than providing a running commentary while laughing, shooting and darting around the floor with a pair of teammates.

“We thought they were joking,” Huskies senior guard Ryan Appleby said.

A nasty exchange went on for several moments, forcing Washington coach Lorenzo Romar, seated at the far end of the gym with a reporter, to run the length of the floor and intercede.

The Huskies were sent to their waiting charter bus while Romar needed several minutes to calm the hopped-up Oregon State players.

It wasn’t quite over, either.

Later that afternoon, Washington players were in a mandatory study table at their hotel when reserve guard Joel Smith discovered a voice mail message on his cell phone from Oregon State’s Marcel Jones, inviting the Huskies outside to the parking lot while suggesting they would have their backsides whipped, or something a little stronger than that.

“That was probably a little bit weird,” Appleby said. “We were all laughing about it. It was, ‘Are you going to come in and fight us in the hotel?’ ”

That’s when Romar called the other coaching staff, asking for an end to harassment that had gotten out of hand and getting more than his wish.

These guys still had a Saturday game to play. Just one team showed up. Washington won 97-59, further dressing down the Corvallis team with its 15th consecutive defeat.

“When somebody comes into your practice and tells you what they’re going to do to you, you better be ready to play,” Romar said. “I thought we had focus, a no-nonsense attitude.”

Oregon State (6-19 overall, 0-13 Pac-10) led early, the most at 5-1, before doing a full face-plant. The Beavers couldn’t stop Appleby, who got free for a career-high 32 points and a school-record nine 3-pointers (out of 15 attempts).

The home team was down 1-0 before the game started, assessed a technical foul for failing to submit a lineup card in time.

The Beavers were behind by 20 points with three minutes left in the opening half, and trailed 48-24 at the break. Nothing changed after play resumed, with Washington (14-12, 5-8) moving in front by 41 before dishing out Oregon State’s worst loss of the season.

The hotheaded Carter drew a second-half technical foul for arguing with an official after the Huskies’ Artem Wallace beat him to an offensive rebound and scored.

Oregon State’s Omari Johnson, moments earlier, was flagged for an intentional foul after purposely clipping Overton on a breakaway dunk attempt.

Otherwise, play was orderly throughout the lopsided encounter. Lead official Dave Libbey had made sure there was no more unruliness.

Said the Huskies’ Jon Brockman, “He said, ‘We’ll throw people out. We’re not going to let one thing happen. We know what happened yesterday and we’re going to play basketball.’ ”

The Beavers are a total mess. Their coach, Jay John, was fired a day after they lost to Washington the first time in Seattle, and their starting center, C.J. Giles, was dismissed from the team the following day, told he was a detriment. They haven’t won a game since Dec. 19, since beating Northern Colorado, and haven’t won a league outing in 12 months, since edging Washington at home.

Oregon State, which next plays the Los Angeles schools on the road, is five losses from becoming the first Pac-10 team to drop every conference outing since the league expanded to its current size 30 years ago.

Interim coach Kevin Mouton, doing nothing to improve his chances for landing the permanent job in Corvallis, tried to dismiss the pre-game theatrics that he didn’t witness as little more than media hype. However, several of his players were left clearly uncomfortable with what took place.

“A lot of guys lost sight of the task at hand, and that was to play a good game against Washington,” Beavers sophomore center Calvin Hampton said. “A lot of guys got riled up and it brought a lot of energy to the negative side of the game. We don’t do that at Oregon State.”

Elsewhere across the league, only well mannered yet tightly contested games were held, topped by UCLA’s grinding 56-46 victory at USC, avenging an earlier upset loss at home to the Trojans (15-9, 6-6).

The Bruins (22-3, 10-2) relied on double double-double efforts and the season’s best defensive job on O.J. Mayo to pull away from their cross-town rivals and take a half-game lead in the Pac-10 race over the Stanford Cardinal (21-4, 10-3).

 UCLA freshman center Kevin Love provided 13 points and 11 rebounds, and junior forward Luc Richard Mbah a Moute, out two games with an ankle injury, returned to duty with 10 points and 10 rebounds. Teammate Russell Westbrook limited USC’s Mayo to a season worst four points in 40 minutes of play.

“I’d be lying if I said we didn’t look at the standings,” Love said.

Stanford had a seven-game winning streak end at Arizona State, blowing an eight-point lead and getting handed a 72-68 overtime loss, and nearly did the same at Arizona, letting a late seven-point advantage slip before hanging tough for a 67-66 win.

Brook Lopez, the more offensive-minded of the Cardinal’s 7-foot twin brothers, had a big trip to the desert, supplying 30 and 23 points, respectively.

Washington State (20-5, 8-5) was the only Pac-10 team to win a pair of games anywhere last week, playing solidly to sweep both Oregon schools in a season series for the first time since 1995.

The Cougars, without a win at Oregon in those 13 seasons, used their bothersome defense to finally make inroads in Eugene. Typically a dangerous 3-point shooting team, the Ducks were limited to a 4-for-17 performance behind the line after hitting a sizzling 32 of 56 attempts combined in previous games against California and Washington.

“Our goal was to contest every shot,” WSU coach Tony Bennett said. “This is one of the best offensive teams in the country and we knew we needed to take away their outside shots.”

Trailing UCLA and Stanford, the Cougars head a group of six teams that are lumped within 1½ games of each other in the league standings, demonstrating further evidence how difficult the Pac-10 is across the board.

USC is tied for fourth with the two Arizona schools after losing its two most recent outings, much more vulnerable now with injuries catching up to Tim Floyd’s team, with the loss of guard Daniel Hackett to a back injury the most telling.

Arizona State (16-8, 6-6) and Arizona (16-9, 6-6) split highly competitive home games with the Bay Area schools. The Sun Devils won a four-point game over Stanford in overtime and lost by three to California. The Wildcats pulled away from Cal for a 10-point victory and were beaten by one by Stanford.

Arizona could do no better than break even, even with freshman guard Jerryd Bayless supplying 33 and 31 points, giving him three consecutive 30-point scoring games.

California (15-9, 6-7) keeps hanging around thanks to its two-man attack of Ryan Anderson and Patrick Christopher. Anderson had 19 points and 15 rebounds against Arizona, and 28 and 11 against ASU, giving him a dozen double-double outings this season. Christopher had 21 and 20 points on the desert swing.

Oregon (15-10, 6-7) was disappointed it could gain only a split at McArthur Court, usually the most advantageous home court setting in the league. Yet the Ducks remain in the running for an upper-division finish and postseason play.

That leaves only Washington and Oregon State to fight it out at the bottom of the standings, though here’s hoping the beleaguered Beavers no longer take the situation so literally and find a better way to make a breakthrough.

“I guess it was a lesson learned in how not to act before a game,” OSU’s Johnson said following the 38-point blowout loss to the Huskies, 14 worse than any other defeat by the Beavers this season.

Rising Team: Washington State

The Cougars were the only conference team to emerge from last week with a pair of victories, sweeping the Oregon schools to push their record to an even 20 wins for the season. The trip to Eugene resulted in WSU’s first victory in that city and a season sweep of the Ducks and Beavers in 13 seasons.

Falling Team: USC

The Trojans, once promising league contenders, are simply trying to hang in there as injuries pile up, resulting in two consecutive setbacks. Sophomore guard Daniel Hackett is the latest casualty, his season in jeopardy after a back injury, joining Kasey Cunningham, Marcus Simmons and Mamadou Diarra on the sideline.

Player of the Week: Taylor Rochestie, G, Washington State

This one-time Tulane transfer has assumed a playmaker’s role much of the season for the Cougars but he turned scorer on the Oregon road swing, popping 24 points against Oregon State and 21 more against Oregon, both team-leading totals. He had surpassed 20 points just once in 23 earlier outings, providing a 22-point game against Air Force in November.

Freshman of the Week: Jerryd Bayless, G, Arizona

Bayless remains the hottest player in the league, scoring 39, 33 and 31 in his past three outings, giving him four 30-point games over his most recent 10. Unfortunately, it hasn’t carried over to success for the rest of his team, which lost two of those three games to Arizona State and Stanford.

Stats of the Week:

9: The number of 3-pointers Washington’s Ryan Appleby hit against Oregon State, a school record by two over the previous mark that he shared.

23: With only four points against UCLA, USC’s O.J. Mayo had his streak of double-digit games end at 23.

25-for-38: The number of double-double performances and games played registered by Washington’s Jon Brockman.

30: There have been 16 games of 30 points or more supplied by league players, including seven by three different freshmen, Arizona’s Jerryd Bayless, the Trojans’ Mayo and Arizona State’s Ty Abbott.

77.6: Cal’s free-throw shooting percentage, which ranks seventh nationally and is on pace to set a school record, surpassing last year’s 76.9 percent.

They Said It

“It reminded me of Muhammad Ali showing up at Joe Frazier’s training camp.” – Washington coach Lorenzo Romar said, trying to put a humorous spin on a potentially ugly situation, when Oregon State players invaded his road practice.

Key Upcoming Games

Thursday, Feb. 21
Arizona State at Washington State, 6 p.m. PT
One point separated these teams in their first meeting, with the Sun Devils’ James Harden getting bumped on a last-second shot that missed, sending water bottles raining down on the victorious Cougars after the buzzer. Beasley Arena in Pullman should be a similarly raucous atmosphere for the rematch. ASU leads the series by a bare 32-30, but has lost the past three outings.

Saturday, Feb. 23
Arizona State at Washington, 3 p.m. PT
The Huskies might be hanging around the bottom of the league, but they still own the Sun Devils, even with Herb Sendek’s team enjoying a notable program resurgence. Washington has won the past 11 consecutive games in the series, the longest such streak in the Pac-10, including a 72-61 victory in Tempe a month ago. Overall, ASU holds a slim 33-31 series advantage.

Oregon at UCLA, 12:30 p.m. PT
The Bruins’ freshman center Kevin Love plays against his father’s alma mater again, only without the distractions of Eugene and profane, spitting fans. While the Ducks are decided underdogs entering Pauley Pavilion, their 3-point shooting prowess makes them a serious threat in every outing. UCLA leads the series 80-33, winning the past six games.

Sunday, Feb. 24
California at Stanford, 6 p.m. PT
The Cardinal won the first meeting in Berkeley, 82-77, but relied more on their backcourt than their huge front line, with point guard Mitch Johnson supplying a career-best 16 points and coming up with seven assists. Usually the Lopez twins are the difference. Johnson hasn’t scored in double figures in the six games played since, but another big effort will be needed from him for a season sweep. Cal leads the series 139-111, but has lost the last two games.

Dan Raley has covered the Washington Huskies and the Pac-10 for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer for nearly three decades.

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