Hi everybody!

I have been vocal before about the automatically playing Sonic Video Highlights widget on the sidebar.  Am I the only person who's seen a significant increase in loading time since we got that thing? Anyways, people seemed to like it during the season, so that's fine. 

But now... All it does is show football "highlights" of our 1-11 season. I can't take it.  If it showed basketball highlights I could live with it, and in fact if it showed highlights that were difficult to find otherwise I'd even enjoy it.  But for now I see no redeeming value in the video player. 

I want to know if the rest of CougCenter really likes having this thing around?  Do anyone else's eyes get drawn to the only moving object on the screen, continuous replays of the Apple Cup stomping? Do people just not notice it? One aspect of good site design is not having unnecessary clutter, but if other people don't think of it as clutter I'll shut up about it forever (maybe). 

Please vote!

Poll

The Sonic Video player... yea or nay? Or meh?

• I like it
• I don't like it
• I don't notice it / don't really care

  22 votes | Results

Here is my updated look at the Pac-10 non-conference basketball schedule and how excellently the conference has performed. I've sorted the key games thus far into Bad Losses, Bubblicious Losses, Bubblicious Wins, and Good Wins (hint, there still aren't any). I was actually pretty generous about considering some teams on the potential bubble this early in the season, so some of these wins & losses will end up looking even worse than they do now.  Of course, some may prove to be better, only time will tell.

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Bad losses:

Sacramento St. 65, Oregon St. 63

Loyola Marymount 67, Southern Cal 59

Montana 68, Oregon 55

Oral Roberts 83, Stanford 81

Cal State Fullerton 68, UCLA 65

Texas A&,M-Corpus Christi 67, Oregon St. 43

UCLA 68, Long Beach State 79

 

Bubblicious losses:

Wisconsin 65, Arizona 61

Portland 88, Oregon 81

(24) Syracuse 95, (12) California 73

(18) Ohio State 76, (23) California 70

Texas Tech 64, Oregon St. 60

San Diego 77, Stanford 64

Arizona 62, Oklahoma 79

UCLA 61, (1) Kansas 73

USC 53, (23) Georgia Tech 79

Kansas State 86, WSU 69

Missouri 106, Oregon 69

(2) Texas 69, USC 50

Texas Tech 99, (10) UW 92

ASU 61, Baylor 64

(16) Gonzaga 74, WSU 69

Arizona 72, (21) UNLV 74

New Mexico 86, (25) Cal 78

USC 48, Nebraska 51

UCLA 67, (10) Butler 69

UCLA 47, Portland 74

(5) Kentucky 73, Stanford 65

(7) Duke 64, ASU 53

(24) Vanderbilt 84, Arizona 72

 

Bubblicious wins:

Stanford 57, Virginia 52

Arizona 91, Colorado 87

Arizona St. 52, TCU 49

(14) Washington 74, Wright State 69

Iowa State 63, (25) Cal 82

OSU 74, Colorado 69

WSU 93, San Diego 56

ASU 71, LSU 52

 

Good wins:

I’m not seeing any.

 

Okay guys! Juuuuuuust peachy!  I am not seeing even one win that would make anyone think our conference is good.  There are even relatively few blowout wins over suspect competition.  Correct me if I'm wrong, but the most impressive games that I can think of are WSU beating San Diego handily in Alaska or UW crushing a mediocre Portland State squad in Seattle.  Just look at that list of supposedly respectable teams we've beaten: Virginia, Colorado, TCU, Wright State, Iowa State, San Diego and LSU.  Except  for Wright State, LSU and San Diego, these teams are still considered very outside shots to make the tourney.

 

Nearly every single game against similarly respected competition has resulted in a Pac-10 loss.  I don't think we even have a single win that would be considered a mild upset. I think it's too late to rectify this, now we must focus on damage control. I hate to say this, but it's really all up to UW and Cal now.  They have to win against Georgetown, Texas A&M and Kansas respectively to give our conference even a shred of dignity. Below is a list of important games that can help salvage our reputation, but I don't think we'll get more than three teams in the NCAA's even if the rest of the conference wins out. 

 

(14) UW

(19) Georgetown Dec. 12th.

Portland Dec. 19th.

Texas A&M Dec. 22nd.

 

(23) Cal

@ (1) Kansas Dec 22nd.

 

ASU

@ BYU Dec. 8th.

 

UCLA

Miss. State Dec. 12th.

@ Notre Dame Dec 19th.

 

Arizona

NC State Dec. 23rd.

BYU Dec. 28th.

 

WSU

LSU Dec. 22nd.

 

Oregon

 

St. Mary’s Dec. 12th.

 

Oregon State

@ Nebraska Dec. 12th.

 

USC

 (11) Tennessee Dec. 19th.

 

Stanford

Oklahoma St. Dec. 16th.

@ Northwestern Dec. 19th.

@ Texas Tech Dec. 22nd.

 

Please everyone, win some dang games!

Poll

How many teams will the conference get into the NCAA tourney?

• 2
• 3
• 4
• 5 or more

  39 votes | Results

Okay okay, we all knew the Pac 10 was going to be "down" this year.  It seems like every day I'm hearing or reading about another non-conference loss. I wanted to examine just how bad it was.  If you would like to know, read on.  It isn't pretty.

I've sorted the key games thus far into Bad Losses, Bubblicious Losses, Bubblicious Wins, and Good Wins (hint, there aren't any). I was actually pretty generous about considering some teams on the potential bubble this early in the season, so some of these wins & losses will end up looking even worse than they do now.  Of course, some may prove to be better, only time will tell.

-------

Bad losses:

Sacramento St. 65, Oregon St. 63 (@OSU)

Loyola Marymount 67, Southern Cal 59 (@USC)

Montana 68, Oregon 55 (@Oregon)

Oral Roberts 83, Stanford 81 (@Stanford)

Cal State Fullerton 68, UCLA 65 (@UCLA)

Texas A&,M-Corpus Christi 67, Oregon St. 43 (@Lubbock)

 

Bubblicious losses:

Wisconsin 65, Arizona 61 (@Maui)

Portland 88, Oregon 81 (@Portland)

(24) Syracuse 95, (12) California 73 (@MSG)

(18) Ohio State 76, (23) California 70 (@MSG)

Texas Tech 64, Oregon St. 60 (@Lubbock)

San Diego 77, Stanford 64 (@San Diego)

 

Bubblicious wins:

Stanford 57, Virginia 52 (@Cancun)

Arizona 91, Colorado 87 (@Maui)

Arizona St. 52, TCU 49 (@ASU)

(14) Washington 74, Wright State (@UW)

Good wins:

I’m not seeing any.

 

GAH!!! Half our conference already has a bad loss at home! Nobody, I repeat, nobody has a good road win, not even a road win that will likely matter on the bubble. Nobody has a great win period. At this point, it's looking like our best conference win is UW beating a solid Wright State team in Seattle. However, we will have plenty of chances to rectify this during the next month before conference play begins.  We really need the conference to step up it’s game!

Here are some key matchups in the next month:

 

(14) UW

@ Texas Tech Dec. 3rd.

(19) Georgetown Dec. 12th.

Portland Dec. 19th.

Texas A&M Dec. 22nd.

 

(23) Cal

@ New Mexico Dec. 2nd. (no, seriously. I live here. UNM is actually pretty good)

@ (1) Kansas Dec 22nd.

 

ASU

@ (7) Duke tonight!

Baylor Dec. 3rd.

@ BYU Dec. 8th.

 

UCLA

Portland Nov. 26th.

(1) Kansas Dec. 6th.

Miss. State Dec. 12th.

@ Notre Dame Dec 19th.

 

Arizona

(24) Vanderbilt tonight!

UNLV Dec. 2nd.

@ Oklahoma Dec. 6th.

NC State Dec. 23rd.

BYU Dec. 28th.

 

WSU

vs. Oklahoma or San Diego or Houston Nov. 28th (we better get to the championship game at the Great Alaskan Shootout)

@ Gonzaga Dec. 2nd

@ Kansas St. Dec. 5th.

LSU Dec. 22nd.

 

Oregon

@ Missouri Dec. 5th.

St. Mary’s Dec. 12th.

 

Oregon State

Colorado Dec. 4th.

@ Nebraska Dec. 12th.

 

USC

Nebraska Nov. 29th.

@ (3) Texas Dec. 3rd.

@ (25) Georgia Tech Dec. 5th.

(11) Tennessee Dec. 19th.

 

Stanford

(5) Kentucky tonight!

Oklahoma St. Dec. 16th.

@ Northwestern Dec. 19th.

@ Texas Tech Dec. 22nd.

 

UW, Cal, ASU, and USC have the best chances to make some strong statements about the Pac 10 this year.  Arizona, WSU and Stanford all have opportunities to beat multiple potential tournament teams.  We need to start winning a lot of these games or the Pac 10 may not send more than 3 teams to the NCAA tournament come March.

Here is the last part of my mega-preview, inspecting the basketball teams in the great big state of Arizona.

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Here is Part IV of the mega-preview, featuring the LA schools.

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Here is Part III of the mega-preview, focusing on the most opposite rivals this year, Cal and Stanford.

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Here is Part II of the mega preview! Featured here are Oregon and Oregon State. Enjoy!

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I think we are all getting pretty excited for the upcoming basketball season.  One of the many fun previews put out every year is the Blue Ribbon preview, usually posted on ESPN.com for those with Insider access.  I decided to give everyone a synopsis of what Blue Ribbon has to say about our league this year, but nothing is for free! You also have to suffer through my crimson-tinted commentary! Enjoy.

Since this preview is massive, I’m going to do these by rivals / travel partners. Part I is WSU & UW. Most of the preview is going to be sourced from the Blue Ribbon version, but I arranged it so that each team is profiled by Head Coach, Major Departures, Key Players, Rising Stars, and Outlook.

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