Utah Women’s Basketball Independent
Unaffiliated but friendly with the University of Utah, the Big 16 Conference, and other Pac-12 remnants
Say Leger-Walker doesn’t miss four games, and the Cougars win all four of them. The top 8 then looks like this: Stanford 15 3Utah 14 4Washington St 13 5Colorado 12 6Arizona 11 7UCLA 10 8USC 10 8Oregon 7 11 It’s amazing how little changes. Washington St. doesn’t have to play Cal on Wednesday, but they […]
In an effort to preserve some interest in the conference tournament, I note that the even-numbered seeds were all eliminated as soon as possible — #12 Arizona St. by #7 UCLA, #10 Cal by #7 Washington St., #8 Washington by #9 Oregon, #6 USC by #11 Oregon St., #4 Arizona by #5 UCLA, #2 Utah […]
The sharks are circling at Cal, where men’s coach Mark Fox is a few days from the end of the Golden Bears’ worst season ever. The coach at San Jose St. is suggested as a good candidate to replace Fox, but they really ought to call Lindsay Gottlieb. Coach Gottlieb has two years of NBA […]
At least I’m not stuck in Las Vegas. In the online application for media credentials, it asks you which team you’re there to cover, with a checkbox “do you plan to stick around after they lose?”. I always check ‘yes’ because on my own dime, I can’t afford not to. Like I said after the […]
I said the winner of the 2023 Pac-12 tournament would face a harder road at the round of 8 than the eventual NCAA champion. Preposterous? Inconceivable? Last year, South Carolina beat NET #31 Creighton, #5 Louisville, #4 Connecticut. If UCLA wins the conference tournament, the NET rankings of Arizona, Stanford, and Utah are #26, #3, […]
Huh. I think #5 UCLA could win the tournament. They have to do is beat Arizona, then probably Stanford and Utah. Nothing to it. The Bruins are #25 NET, behind #19 Oregon. NET even places Oregon ahead of Colorado and Arizona, but I think the Ducks are frauds. I must be quite wrong, since these […]
To the question “Who’d you rather play in the quarters: Southern Cal or Colorado?”, the answer was a toss-up. In the NET, Colorado is #21, USC #32, both outstanding defensive teams. You might think the choice between Colorado or Oregon State is easier, but the Beavers — 4-14 in conference play — are #55. OSU […]
The people for whom the NCAA men’s tournament is all there is, they don’t notice the 270 teams who are already done. For the truly nuts, the madness and sadness began yesterday, when some kids played the last game of their lives. I was complaining about the sprints in March demeaning the regular season marathons, […]
Indulge me this trivial observation after the first day of the Pac-12 women’s basketball tournament: Something’s amiss with the hardware. How many times do you see a field goal attempt stick itself between the right or left heel of the rim and the backboard? Once per week if your team if the team shoots around […]
I wrote a minute ago that when I began traveling for basketball, I thought I’d be traveloguing as well as sportswriting, but travel quickly grew to suck. Rudy Tomjanovich said about scouting that hotel staff gets to know you better than your family does. I used to append: “AND you get to watch four games […]