2007 Pac 10 Basketball preview

Pac 10 play starts tonight, and Washington plays at USC and then at UCLA on New Years Eve. Tough two games. The Pac-10 is the best conference in basketball, and I'm going to review each team in the Pac 10, then predict who'll get the player of the conference for each conference, and which teams will make the tourney cut.

Pac-10:
Arizona:
Preaseason top 10 by most for good reason. They have a solid starting 5, great depth, and a hall-of-fame coach. Their loss to Virginia was a fluke, and now they'll show the nation that they're capable of playing like a number 1 seed.
PG Mustafa Shakur A 6-3 190 pounds Senior
A highly touted propect who never lived up to his billing til now. Averages 13.4 points, 4.4 rebounds, 7.4 assists (unreal for college), while shooting 52% from the field, 1.5 steals, 72% ft, and 43% from 3 point range. He has also displayed excellent floor leadership as a senior on the team.
SG Jawann McClellen B+ 6-4 225 pounds Junior
I liken him to a Reyshawn Terry type, sort of burried on the bench of a perrenially deep team until now, now it's his time to shine. He averages 13 points, 5.6 rebounds, 2 assist, while shooting 45.5% from the field, and an excellent 40% from three point land. He's also made a three in every game. If he was on Arizona State or some lesser school, he'd be Rodney Stuckey Light.
SF: Chase Budinger A 6-7 190 pounds Freshman
One of the best freshman prospects along with Greg Oden, Kevin Durant, Thaddeus Young, and Spencer Hawes. He has gotten off to a hot start average 17.4 points, 5.9 rebounds, 1.7 assist, .8 steals and blocks, on 55% shooting 82% ft, and 37% 3 point shooting. A freshman red headed pogo stick who is already a stud on a very talented lineup. He doesn't get his looks all the time, but seems to be tied with Durant for freshman of the year.
SF: Marcus Williams A 6-7 205 pounds Sophomore
A great Seattle product who was arguably the best player on Arizona last year. He's basically Budinger except more skilled and less of a jumper. He averages 15 points 7.5 rebounds 1.4 assists, 1.2 steals, 1 block, on 49% shooting, 49% FT, and 36% 3 point shooting. I'm not sure why his FT's are so low, but except for that, he plays the swing forward positiong flawlessly.
PF/C: Ivan Radenovic A 6-10 245 pounds Senior
Everyone in the Pac-10 knew about this guy before, but now the rest of the nation will. He's basically a better version of James Augustine. He's averaging 17.5 points, 7.4 rebounds, 2 assists, .8 steals, .4 blocks, on 58% FG, 87% FT, and 50% 3pt shooting.
Bench: They were supposed to have Kirk Walters and JP Prince there to solidify their bench with a good big man and a good swing man, unfortunately, both are injured. Their bench consists of a 5'10" freshman combo guard a-la Kyle Lowry in Nic Wise, a 6'3" junior point guard in Daniel Dillon, and a 6'8" freshman forward in Jordan Hill. Not a very deep bench, and this gets a C unless Kirk Walters and Prince are back, in which case an 8 man rotation will suffice and it's bench will be an A-.
Overall: A-, weakness is the bench, and if Radenovic gets early fouls, they really just have 3 small forwards as their big guy option. The plusses on this team are that they have 4 NBA caliber players, and everyone on the starting lineup can shoot lights out.
Arizona State:
PG: Antwi Atuahene C+ 6-4 205 pounds Junior
He averages 8.6 points, 4 rebounds, and 4 assists. A serviceable all-around point guard, but nothing spectacular.
SG: Christian Polk B+ 6-3 175 pounds Freshman
Only a freshman, and already the star of this team. He's averaging 14.7 points, 2.5 rebounds, and 2.4 assists per game. One of a few reasons people think the Pac-10 is getting stronger because of Arizona State's rise to being good.
SG: Jerren Shipp B- 6-4 200 pounds Freshman
A good freshman, but nothing compared to Polk. He's averaging 8.5 points, 3.5 rebounds, and 1.5 assists per game and already playing 30 minutes a night.
SF: Serge Angounou B+ 6-8 230 pounds Senior
A solid senior and needed big man, he's averaging 11 points, 8.4 rebounds and 2 assists per game.
PF: Jeff Pendergraph A- 6-10 210 pounds Sophomore
The other star of this team, and another young reason to think that Arizona State could be good in years to come. He's averaging 11.6 points per game, 9.5 rebounds per game, and .9 assists per game. A good big man that every team in nation would love to have.
Bench: A sophomore and three freshman at heights of 6-9, 6-2, 6-1, and 6-4. As with most benches, its guard dominated, but the fact that it's young gives this team hope. C+
Overall: A solid team, and for being the 9th best team in the conference, pretty damn good. B-
California:
PG: Ayinde Ubaka B 6-4 200 pounds Senior
A solid point guard who averages 13.8 points, 2 rebounds, and 5.4 assists per game.
SG: Omar Wilkes B- 6-4 185 pounds Junior
Another solid, but unspectacular guard who averages 10.5 points, 2 rebounds, and 1.3 assists per game.
SF: Theo Robertson C 6-5 200 pound Sophomore
Decent role player who averages 7.5 points, 4.5 rebounds, and 2.3 assists per game.
PF: Ryan Anderson A 6-9 225 pound Freshman
The new Leon Powe, and star of the team, he's averaging 18 points, 9 rebounds, and 1 block a game. He might beat out Hawes, Pondexter, and Budinger for freshman of the year at this rate.
C: DeVon Hardin B 6-11 235 pounds Junior
A pretty good center, worthy of starting on Arizona, UCLA, or Oregon. He averages 10.3 points, 8.3 rebounds, and 2 blocks a game.
Bench: Two freshman and a junior who are 5-9, 6-5, and 6-7. The 5-9 guy averages only 19 minutes a game, but gets 8 points and 3 assists per game. B-
Overall: It seemed like with Leon Powe, this team would flounder, but with Ryan Anderson, and 2 good freshman off the bench, this team is still good and could make the tournament. B-

Oregon
PG: Aaron Brooks A- 6-0 165 pounds Senior
This stud from Seattle Washington competed with Adam Morrison for best Washingtonian in High School He's averaging a studly 16.6 points 4 rebounds, and 4.9 assists per game. He has 1.4 steals per game, along with 44% fg, 83% FT, and 26% 3 points.
SG: Tajuan Porter A- 5-6 160 pounds Freshman
Short freshman dynamo averages 18 points 2 rebounds and 3 assists a game. A pleasant surprise for Oregon, as the successor to Aaron Brooks is found. Also another strong candidate for Freshman of the year. Lot of good freshman this year putting up big numbers, considering Marcus Williams and Luc Richard Mbah a Moute were by far the strongest candidates last year.
SG: Bryce Taylor A- 6-5 205 pounds Junior
17.4 points, 5.9 rebounds, 2.5 assists, 58% fg and 48% 3 pointers. Taylor rounds out a brilliant three guard starting lineup for Oregon, and Oregon looks like its chomping on the bit to join the ranks of Arizona, UCLA, and Washington.
SF: Malik Hairston A- 6-6 200 pounds Junior
This Carmelo-like small forward predicted a win early on and never got it. Him and Brooks never got it done, but with their new supplementing cast, (remains to be seen how much longer they will be supplementing before taking over) Oregon has a chance to go far in the tournament.
PF: Marty Luenen B+ 6-9 215 pounds Junior
Good big man averages 10 and 10. Solid and reliable.
Bench: Consists of three swingmen at 6-5 range, including Chamberlain Oguchi. Good bench, but needs more big men. B
Overall: Not quite up to a sweet sixteen team, but could be ranked by end of year, and definetley a tournament team. B
Oregon State:
PG: Josh Tarver B 6-3 175 pounds Freshman
Solid freshman, averages 10.4 points, 2.8 rebounds, and 3.5 assists per game. One of three solid players on Oregon State.
SG: Wesley Washington C- 6-3 175 pounds Junior
An ok swingman, shows why Oregon state is the worst team in the Pac-10 because a guy like him is in their starting lineup.
SF: Marel Jones B+ 6-8 215 pounds Junior
Good all around play, 16 points, 5.5 rebounds, 1.4 assists. Would just be 6th or 7th guy on Washington, UCLA, or Arizona though.
PF: Sasa Cuic B- 6-10 253 pounds Junior
Not quite up to his billing, for all his height and skill, just a 12.5 points, 3.5 rebounds kind of guy.
C: Kyle Jeffers C 6-9 258 pounds Senior
Ok for a center, he's tall enough and wide enough, averages 6 points and 6.6 rebounds.
Bench: A sophomore, 2 freshman, and a junior off the bench at all kinds of heights including a 6'11" freshman with promise. B
Overall: Not bad for the worst team in the Pac-10. The recruiting has been strong as of late, as this years freshman class is one of its best classes ever. C+
Stanford:
PG: Mitch Johnson C+ 6-1 185 pounds Sophomore
Is a good distributor, but not much more, as he averages 5.5 points, 3 rebounds, and 4.8 assists in 30 minutes a game.
SG: Anthony Goods B- 6-4 170 pounds Sophomore
Good all around player who'll just get better. 12 points, 4 rebounds, and 2.3 assists per game.
SF: Fred Washington B- 6-5 210 pounds Senior
Protypical all-around sophomore. 8 points, 5 rebounds, 3 assists, with good senior leadership.
PF: Lawrence Hill B 6-8 205 pound Sophomore
Good power forward, but a bit skinny. Averages 15 points, 6 rebounds a game.
C: Robin Lopez B 7-0 245 pounds Freshman
The star recruit of the class, along with his twin brother Brook. Big man with weight and skill. Him and his brother make two top 20 recruits for a young Stanford team.
Bench: Brook Lopez, a backup 7 foooter, a SF junior, 6-5 freshman, and 6-10 junior make up the bench. This team clearly isn't lacking height, but they're just too young. B-
Overall: This year they're goal is not finish bottom 2 or 3 in the Pac-10, next year they can make the Tourney a goal. They already have solid wins, crushing Denver, and beating Texas Tech handily, but they got demolished by Airforce 79-45. 7-2 record is pretty good though. B-
UCLA:
PG: Darren Collison B+ 6-1 165 pounds Sophomore
He looked good of the bench last year, but with Farmar getting so many minutes, the question was could he handle the point and distribute the ball. He has answered the question with a definite yes, as he is average 13 points and 6 assists. He's a smart speedy guard who can distributed and is a good on-the-ball defender. Lets see how much he develops.
SG: Arron Afflalo A- 6-5 215 pounds Junior
Pre-Season Pac-10 player of the year, he hasn't lived up to his billing, because UCLA plays good team ball, and because they're deeper than people thought. For his reputation as a shooter, he only shoots 39% from 3's and 46% from FG. He has played a good role as a leader this year. He decided to not go to the draft last year, and it looks like he might stay for a fourth year, which is good, he needs to polish his game a bit and learn to take over at times, which he hasn't done yet.
SF: Josh Shipp A- 6-5 220 pounds Sophomore
Another Reyshawn Terry type, who is a bigger bodied SG/SF. He is averaging 15 points, 4 rebounds and 2 assists. He could be the best player on UCLA.
PF: Luc Richard Mbah a Moute A 6-8 230 pounds Sophomore
The best player on this team, and last year's Pac-10 freshman of the year. He has a huge wingspan, and plays a bit bigger this year than last. Last he seemed to play a similar game to Marcus Williams, this year he's getting to the basket more. He could be the Pac-10 player of the year, but UCLA's slow game is bad for stats, and the ball gets distributed pretty well also.
C: Lorenzo Mata B- 6-0 230 pounds Senior
A serviceable center, he averages 7 points 6.4 rebounds a game. Not too much height behind him, but he doesn't play a ton of minutes becuase he's just not that good.
Bench: Backup center, Alfred Aboya, Sophomore Michael Roll, and freshman Westbrook are all serviceable, but not great. I'm not a huge fan of roll because he's kind of chubby, but he plays good team ball, is an ok defender, can knock down the three. B-
Overall:
Number 1 ranked team so far, but I think Arizona has more talent. Ben Howland seems to be a really good coach though, although I'm not sure he did a great job recruiting this year with Westbrook and Keefe being his best recruits. Like Arizona, I'm not sure they have a lot of big men. I guess this doesn't matter in most cases, but their height depth, and their depth overall could come back to hurt them. A-
USC
PG: Gabriel Pruitt A- 6-4 170 pounds Junior
He's been injured this year thus far, but he's a good talent averaging 17 points, 4 rebounds, and 3 assists per game last year. One of the more underrated players in Pac-10.
SG: Lodrick Stewart B+ 6-4 210 pounds Senior
One of the Stewart twins from Seattle, he's averaging 14 points and 5 rebounds per game. He hasn't improved all that much since his sophomore year in terms of stats, but that's because he has to share the ball with Pruitt and Young.
SF: Nick Young A 6-6 195 pounds Junior
Potential Pac-10 player of the year. He averages 17 points, 3 rebounds 1.6 assists. He dominated Washington last year, and now he finally got rid of his stupid mohawk. Just a good small forward who does everything right.
PF: Taj Gibson A- 6-9 210 Freshman
Another surprise freshman and potential Pac-10 freshman of the year. He's averaging 13 points and 9.5 rebounds. Didn't play so hot against Wichita State because of foul trouble, but he'll learn how to get his calls.
C: Abdoulaye N'Diaye B- 6-11 230 pounds Senegal
Injured for some of this year, this first year player from Senegal shows potential. He's got height, and he's from Senegal, so he can't be much worst than the Sonics first round pick this year.
Bench: Great bench. Dwight Lewis, Daniel Hacket, RouSean Cromwell, and Keith Wilkinson coming off the bench. These young guys can really play, and make the USC that much more dangerous. A-
Overall: A dangerous team with a mixture of good old leadership, and hungry young talent. Their victory against Wichita State was no surprise and more victories against ranked teams should come. I'd rank them just a bit behind Oregon. B+
Washington:
PG: Justin Dentmon B+ 5-11 185 pound Sophomore
Matured quickly as a freshman and is a solid point guard. Not a highly touted prospect when he came here, but now is commanding attention. I never really loved this guy, especially after the Chris Hernandez foul last year and the fact that he's taking away time from my favorite player, Appleby, but he's a solid point who averages 12 points, 4 boards, and 5 assists. He's really improved his distance shooting and shooting overall too.
SG: Ryan Appleby B 6-2 170 pounds Junior
Sharp shooter. Love this guy because he can handle point, yet he is also a bit like McNamara or Redick. Shooting 43% from 3 range this year and last, and most of those are NBA threes. Plays solid D that doesn't show up on stat sheet, and recently had his starting job, but not minutes, taken away from him by Oliver. Oliver plays better defense, and is a good shooter in his own right, but makes several dumb mistakes at times.
SF: Quincy Pondexter B+ 6-7 220 pounds Freshman
Surprise of the year. We knew he'd be good, but no one thought he would have lead the team in scoring in the beginning. Hawes has finally surpassed him, but he plays solid D, and has a long reach for a SF. He's averaging 14 points 5 rebounds and 2 assists per game, and has shown 3 range. He's starting to slump a bit though.
PF: Jon Brockman A 6-7 245 pounds Sophomore
Captain as a sophomore, part of the dunk contest in Highschool, bruiser in the paint. He is a great boarder, and a feirce competitor. He dominated Big Baby in their matchup, and has shown that he is the heart and soul of this team. He could get a big stronger and toned, and if he was 6-9, NBA teams would be crawling a his door. He only averages 12 points, but he averages 10 boards a game. What can I say besides I love Brockman.
C: Spencer Hawes A 6'11 225 pounds Freshman
Starting to show that he's the most skilled big man in the NBA along with Josh McRoberts. He has an array of inside moves, can shoot from the outside, is a great passing big man, and is a great shot blocker. He leads the team in points per game, and has 16 points 6 rebounds, 2 assists per game. His achilles hill is that he doesn't rebound as well as he should. Usually that doesn't matter because of Brockman, but Brockman won't be in the game 40 minutes a game. He deserved Pac-10 player of the week last week, but Brockman should have also gotten it as co-award.
Bench: Good young bench, Adrian Oliver has shown he is college ready, and Phil Nelson seems to be a blend of Appleby and Pondexter. Artem Wallace is a solid big man off the bench, and Senior Brandon Burmeister is a solid defender, and a good shooter. A-
Overall: This team is still a bit young, and is sweet sixteen contening with Final Four hope on it but it probably will succumb to the older more experienced teams. It has shown it can win big at home, but can it do the same away? We'll see this week. A-
Washington State:
PG: Derrick Low A- 6-1 196 pounds Junior
Best unknown player in Pac 10 not named Nick Young. Good all around player. Switches from PG to SG sometimes. Averaging 15 points, 2.3 rebounds, and 1.7 assists, and is the clear leader of this team.
SG: Kyle Weaver B+ 6-5 185 pounds Junior
Another SG/PG, he averages a nice healthy line of 10.4/5/3.9. Good size, and uses it well.
SF: Ivory Clark B- 6-5 212 pounds Senior
A solid all around player. He doesn't fill out the stat sheet, but puts down some respectable numbers at 9 points and 5 rebounds.
PF: Daven Harmeling C 6-7 216 pounds Sophomore
A decent player, but still the worst on his starting lineup. Averages of 8 points and 3 rebounds.
C: Robbie Cowgill B- 6-10 208 pounds Junior
A pretty good player. Plays big and has talent. Numbers are only 7 and 5, but he plays good defense and is a good inside presence.
Bench: Lots of bench players are used, as 5 players average more than 10 minutes a game. It's almost a whole other lineup 3 smaller guards, a big guard, and a center. Bench is pretty deep, and they're all freshman and sophomores. B-
Overall: Washington State's strength is it's toughness, defense, and bench. They play slow ball, so their stats are all skewed. Remember the 50-30 win UCLA had when they beat WSU last year? That's what happens when two teams slow it down. The new coach is very good and really knows what he's doing. This team is on the rise, and while not a top 25 team, should definetley be a tourney team. B

1st Team Pac 10
PG: Mustafa Shakur
SG: Arron Afflalo
SF: Marcus Williams
PF: Taj Gibson
C: Spencer Hawes
2nd Team Pac 10
PG: Darren Collison
SG: TaJuan Porter
SF: Chase Budinger
PF: John Brockman
C: Ivan Radenovic
3rd Team Pac 10
PG: Derrick Low
SG: Christian Polk
SF: Nick Young
PF: Luc Richard Mbah a Moute
C: Ryan Wright

First Team All American:
PG: Mustafa Shakur
SG: Alando Tucker
SF: Jared Dudley
PF: Nick Fazekas
C: Aaron Gray
Second Team All American:
PG: Derek Raivio
SG: Rodney Stuckey
SF: Mario Boggan
PF: Tyler Hansbrough
PF: Josh McRoberts
Third Team All-American
PG: Taurean Green
SG: Acie Law
SF: Jermareo Davidson
PF: Glen Davis
PF: Greg Oden
Honorable Mention:
Corey Brewer, Jeff Adrien, Kevin Durant, Al Horford, Joakim Noah, Arron Afflalo
Player of the Year: Nick Fazekas

Teams in Tourney and player of conference
ACC: (6) Boston College, Clemson, Duke, Georgia Tech, Maryland, North Carolina (Tyler Hansbrough)
Big 10: (6) Illinois, Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio State, Purdue, Wisconsin (Alando Tucker)
Big 12: (5) Kansas, Kansas State, Oklahoma State, Texas, Texas A&M (Kevin Durant)
Big East: (6) Connecticut, Georgetown, Louisville, Marquette, Notre Dame, Villanova (Aaron Gray)
Pac 10: (7) Arizona, Oregon, Stanford, UCLA, USC, Washington, Washington State (Mustafa Shakur)
SEC: (6) Alabama, Florida, LSU, Kentucky, South Carolina, Tennessee (Glen Davis)