Pac-10 is the best ... and it ain't even close

Pac-10 is the best ... and it ain't even close
FOXSports.com.

Fans on the left coast need not concern themselves with that dreaded East Coast bias this year. The opinions up and down Tobacco Road don't hold much weight.

The Pac-10 reigns supreme.

Every year it's seemingly an argument that involves the ACC against one particular conference. Sometimes it's the Big East, others it's the Big Ten and a couple years ago it was the SEC when Florida won the national title and LSU was also in the Final Four.

Last season, the Pac-10 made a valid claim as the elite conference in America. Six teams earned a berth in the Big Dance, three advanced to the Sweet 16 and UCLA earned its second consecutive trip to the Final Four.

This time around there's no argument. The conference is even tougher this season.

"There's more experience with a lot of players returning from last year," UCLA coach Ben Howland said. "You can go right down the line. Arizona State is way better than they were a year ago, but there's just more depth than there was and players are a year older. The majority of the top players are back."

UCLA returned everyone except for Arron Afflalo. Washington State's only loss was that of Ivory Clark. Six of the 10 teams brought back four or more starters and there wasn't a single off-season coaching change.

Then add in a freshman class that rivals any conference in America — with Kevin Love (UCLA), O.J. Mayo and Davon Jefferson, (USC), Jerryd Bayless (Arizona) and as well as Arizona State's duo of James Harden and Ty Abbott.

There's just one team that Pac-10 coaches can privately say they are supposed to beat on the road — winless Oregon State, which just fired head coach Jay John.

Poor Kevin Mouton, who has the unenviable task of taking over as the interim coach of the Beavers. This isn't an audition. It's more like having to line up in front of a firing squad.

Arizona State was almost a sure-fire victory a year ago as the Sun Devils won just eight total games and a pair in conference play. ASU was picked to finish ninth in the league this season, but Herb Sendek has orchestrated a major turnaround job with an influx of freshmen.

ASU is tied with No. 6 Washington State and No. 8 UCLA for first place in the conference at 4-1 and is one of four nationally ranked Pac-10 teams. The Sun Devils are 14-3 and ranked 24th in the country.

Stanford (15-3) is coming off a sweep of the Arizona schools and checks in at No. 20 in the nation. Oregon, Arizona and USC have all been ranked in the Top 25 at one point this season.

Oregon has been up and down this season, but the Ducks returned their core from last year's squad that went all the way to the Elite Eight. Arizona, which has endured its share of adversity with Lute Olson taking the season off, has suffered three of its six losses without Bayless in the lineup.

Try and find a bad loss for USC since the season-opener against Mercer in which Tim Floyd's team was ravaged with injuries. USC has played four teams currently in the top eight — No. 1 Memphis, No. 2 Kansas, No. 6 Washington State and No. 8 UCLA.

Want a sign that the Trojans are for real? Go watch the tape of Saturday's road victory against UCLA at Pauley Pavilion.

"It's a statement game for the Pac-10," Floyd said after beating the Bruins. "The eighth-place team vs. the No. 3 team in the country. We've got nine teams who can win a minimum of two games in the (NCAA) tournament."

That's getting a wee bit carried away, but the conference should get a record seven teams in the Big Dance this season.

The difficult part is trying to separate which ones.

The eighth and ninth-best teams in the league are Washington and California. You can't count them out. The Huskies are 7-4 since the return of their top perimeter shooter, Ryan Appleby, and the Bears have a loaded roster that features a pair of potential first-round picks in Ryan Anderson and DeVon Hardin.

People may argue, but Washington and Cal could compete on a regular basis with the ACC's third-best team this year — whoever that may be.

The Pac-10 has won more non-conference games this season than any in its history. In fact, its non-conference mark is 96-25 — nearly an 80-percent winning percentage.

Yet, somehow the league is still ranked behind the ACC in the RPI.

It doesn't matter what that computer says. There's no debating it. Not this year.