Pac-10 Basketball Season: The 5 Minute Guide To 2010-2011

2010-11 Projected Rankings:

1 Washington 23-5 (14-4): The Huskies have it all; a star in Isaiah Thomas, quality senior supporting players in Justin Holiday, Venoy Overton and Matthew Bryan-Amaning, a budding point guard in Abdul Gaddy and sharp shooting freshman Terrence Ross.  Romar has the depth and play making talent to run the conference, and will be jockeying for position in the NCAA Tournament all season.

2 Arizona State 21-7 (13-5): The sun devils will be one of the more efficient and better shooting teams in the conference, returning Ty Abbott and Rihards Kuksiks, who hit over half the teams three-pointers last year.  Forward Trent Lockett will be a sophomore sensation, and no one knows better than Herb Sendek at how to adapt to his teams to produce wins.

3 Arizona 22-9 (12-6): The Wildcats have the ingredients to return to the NCAA Tournament after breaking the 25 year streak of appearances last season.  Derrick Williams is the premier big in the Pac-10, Solomon Hill has the talent to emerge and supporting veterans Kyle Fogg and Jamelle Horne will produce on a serious contender for the conference title.

4 UCLA 20-8 (11-7): One of the most talented teams in the conference, if not the nation.  NBA talent is abundant with Malcolm Lee, Tyler Honeycutt and Josh Smith, but with a relatively young team, the talent may not be ready to produce results to compete for the regular season title yet.

5 Washington State 16-12 (9-9): Dark horse pick to win the Pac-10 conference or qualify for the NCAA Tournament by winning the Pac-10 Tournament for an automatic bid.  The big 3 of Thompson, Casto, and Moore are the carrying force for the team, but they don’t have a great supporting cast to make a serious run, and are probably a year away.

6 Cal-Berkeley 15-13 (9-9): Defensive star Jorge Gutierrez returns, with Harper Kamp in the post recovering from injury, but lose 7’3” center Max Zhang opting to go pro in his home country of China.  Although no where near as good as they were last year after losing four fantastic seniors, don’t count out one of the best coached teams under Mike Montgomery to produce some results and a winning season, as he has done in 27 of his last 28 seasons.

7 Oregon State 16-13 (8-10): One of the most ‘Jekyl and Hyde’ teams in the nation, the Beavers have a proven scorer in Calvin Haynes, and solid supporting players like Omari Johnson, Lathan Wallace, Joe Burton and Jared Cunningham.  Pac-10 Defensive Player of the Year Seth Tarver is gone, but the beavers can make some noise with Craig Robinson becoming a national coaching name and promising recruiter.

8 USC 16-15 overall (7-11): The Trojans boast a terrific low post game, one of the best in conference, with Nikola Vucevic and Alex Stephenson.  However, without experienced guard play and consistent shooting, this team will be exploitable from the perimeter and struggle throughout the season.

9 Oregon 14-16 (5-13): New head coach Dana Altman has his hands full trying to rebuild a roster that was significantly depleted by transfers last season, but he still has some nice players to pick up a few conference wins as the team moves to Matthew Knight Arena.  Malcolm Armstead is one of the conference’s best point guards, EJ Singler an solid all-around player and play making post Joevan Catron returns from injury. 

10 Stanford 7-20 (3-15): No team is hurt more by the departure of a star player more than the Cardinal are by losing Landry Fields.  Jeremy Green is a quality scorer and Jarrett Mann is an emerging play maker, but Johnny Dawkins is thin on talent to compete, let alone get wins, in conference.

Best Non-Conference Games: 

Arizona @ Kansas 

Arizona State @ Baylor 

New Mexico @ Cal-Berkeley 

Duke @ Oregon 

Oregon State @ Colorado 

Stanford @ Butler 

UCLA @ Kansas 

Texas @ USC 

Washington @ Texas A&M 

Kansas State @ Washington State

Pac-10 All-Conference Selections

Player of The Year: Isaiah Thomas, Washington 

Defensive Player of The Year: DeAngelo Casto, Washington State

Freshman of The Year: Josh Smith, UCLA 

First Team 

Derrick Williams, Arizona 

Ty Abbott, Arizona State 

Calvin Haynes, Oregon State 

Jeremy Green, Stanford 

Malcolm Lee, UCLA 

Tyler Honeycutt, UCLA 

Nikola Vucevic, USC 

Isaiah Thomas, Washington 

DeAngelo Casto, Washington State 

Klay Thompson, Washington State

Second Team 

Solomon Hill, Arizona 

Rihards Kuksiks, Arizona State 

Malcolm Armstead, Oregon

Josh Smith, UCLA

Reggie Moore, Washington State

Third Team

Trent Lockett, Arizona State

Jared Cunningham, Oregon State

Reeves Nelson, UCLA

Alex Stephenson, USC

Matthew Bryan-Amaning, Washington

Honorable Mention: Kyle Fogg, Arizona; Jamelle Horne, Arizona; Harper Kamp, Cal; Joevan Catron, Oregon; EJ Singler, Oregon; Joe Burton, Oregon State; Jarrett Mann, Stanford; Abdul Gaddy, Washington

All-Freshman Team:

Keala King, Arizona State

Allen Crabbe, Cal

Josh Smith, UCLA

Bryce Jones, USC

Terrence Ross, Washington

All-Defensive Team:

Jorge Gutierrez, Cal

Malcolm Armstead, Oregon

Venoy Overston, Washington

Justin Holiday, Washington

DeAngelo Casto, Washington State