Pac-12 Tournament Day 2 Recap

Published: 9^th Mar 12 12:43 pm

by David LaRose
University of Colorado Writer

RANT It!

Jayne Kamin-Oncea-US PRESSWIRE

What a day it was at the Staples Center in Los Angeles for the second roud of the Pac-12 Basketball Tournament. All the games were evenly matched resulting in the first time in the event’s history that all four quarterfinal games were decided by single digits. There were upsets up and down the bracket including the top seed Washington and, everyone’s fashionable sleeper team, Oregon going down. Day 2 had it all and here’s my thoughts:

1) The level of play picked up. Obviously one of the reasons behind this is that the top 4 teams were in action but the other teams matched their levels and even exceeded it. Oregon State did not look like the No. 9 seed in the tournament when they took on Washington. Their defense was stout when it needed to be, their press was effective in slowindg down the Huskies and they made some huge plays on the offensive end late in the game to pull off the upset. It helped that Pac-12 freshmen of the year Tony Wroten missed four free throws down the stretch but it was Oregon State that took advantage of their mistakes to win.

2) Bubble teams failed to get it done. Both Washington and Oregon are on the NCAA tournament bubble and both failed to win their first games. Even though the Huskies won the regular season Pac-12 title their resume is still rather weak, they are 1-8 against the RPI top-50, 4-8 against the RPI top-100 and their only quality non conference win was over UC Santa Barbara. The Ducks were the other team that needed to continue winning to stay on the right side of the bubble but Colorado came in and took it from them. Dana Altman’s team was in desperate need of a run through the Pac-12 tourney to be considered for an at-large bid but bowing out after their first game pretty much dooms them to the NIT.

3) Colorado won the most thrilling game of the day. Tad Boyle’s team played a sloppy game the night before against Utah but they found a way to grind out a victory. So coming into the Oregon game many thought that the Ducks would just roll through the Buffs on the way to the semi-finals but that was not the case. The Buffs got a rebound put back from first team all conference forward Andre Roberson with 10 seconds remaining and Devoe Joseph missed a buzzer beating three to give the Buffs a thrilling 63-62 victory. Colorado and Oregon have such similar playing styles that it actually helped the Buffs settle into their comfortable rhythm on the offensive end. They like to get up and down the floor and play in transition and that’s what they were able to do effectively last night. CU benefitted from a large contingent of students who made the trip out to LA on the school’s dime and utilized their support as motivation down the stretch, here’s the C-Unit’s reaction as Oregon missed the buzzer beater.