Pac10 Preview – Overview

Posted on June 30, 2009 by stone86

Alright, I figured it’s time to get this project underway.  The idea of doing in-depth analysis of every club in the Pac 10 conference scared me, so I decided to break it apart.  Today we’ll look at the conference in general and begin the team previews with the  Oregon Ducks.  Choosing to look at the Ducks first may seem a bit arbitrary but it’s the club I know best and thus it will be the easiest to do.  (Which is nice because I’m a busy man.)pac10

Pac 10 clubs lost a lot of talent, NBA caliber talent.  Both Arizona schools have to replace the bulk of their scoring after the departures of Harden and Pendergraph at ASU, along with Budinger and Hill at Arizona.  Besides Taj Gibson and Demar DeRozan leaving the club, SC lost Coach Tim Floyd to resignation in a veritable debacle.  At UCLA, Coach Howland will be without the experience of Aboya, Collinson, and Josh Shipp.  Washington and WSU also lost considerably, especially at WSU where the Tony Bennett exit will be exacerbated by a youthful squad.  So what’s the result of all the commotion?  As you would expect, a watered down conference.  But conference play should be competitive and open.

So who’s going to win the conference?  The top two positions are clear and relatively interchangeable in my mind.

1.  Cal

2. Washington

After that things get a bit hairy.

3. Arizona

4. UCLA

5. Oregon

6. Oregon State

7. ASU

8. Stanford

9. USC

10. Washington State

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Better yet, which college team lost the most in the 2009 NBA draft?

Posted on June 28, 2009 by Dino Gomez

It’s fun to discuss the NBA draft in terms of which NBA team will benefit the most from their picks as well as which players were drafted too soon or too late. However it is rare that a rookie comes into the league and dominates right away. They may snatch a starting position and put up impressive numbers in their first year, but they almost never make a huge impact right away. They have to develop first. That is why after the NBA draft it is more fun to discuss the NCAA. Imagine losing an NBA quality player at the college level? Now that makes an impact on your team. So instead of further dissecting where the draft picks are headed, were taking you back to where these players came from to see which programs have gaping holes to fill next season. The rules of this evaluation are simple: Two NBA players that leave the NCAA affect the college they attended more than if just one player left. So below are all the colleges that lost 2 or more players this year to the 2009 NBA draft.Louisville Media Day Basketball

  • Arizona – Jordan Hill (8) and Chase Budinger (44)
  • Arizona State- James Harden (3) and Jeff Pendergraph (31)
  • Uconn- Hasheem Thabeet (2) and A.J. Price (52)
  • Louisville- Terrance Williams (11) and Earl Clark (14)
  • Memphis- Tyreke Evans (4) and Robert Dozier (60)
  • North Carolina- Tyler Hansbrough (13)/ Ty Lawson (18)/ Wayne Ellington (28)/ Danny Green (46)
  • Oklahoma- Blake Griffin (1) and Taylor Griffin (48)
  • Pittsburgh- Sam Young (36) and Dejuan Blair (37)
  • UCLA- Jrue Holiday (17) and Darren Collison (21)
  • USC- DeMar DeRozan (9) and Taj Gibson (26)
  • Wake Forest– James Johnson (16) and Jeff Teague (19)
  1. North Carolina wins or technically loses this contest. Four players from their team left the Baby Blue behind. They have by far the most work to do if they are to match the caliber of their championship team this past year.
  2. Louisville loses the second most.  Terrance Willams and Earl Clark closed business deals for them on the court and losing them hurts.
  3. Arizona State and Wake Forest tie for third. ASU will have a tough time in the Pac-10 without Harden’s scoring and Pendergraph rebounding and blocking shots. Wake Forest finished poorly this last season but will be hard to recognize without James Johnson and Jeff Teague.

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