Pac-12 Tournament, Round 1

Here I am in Key Arena ready to tell you all about the first round of the Pac-12 Tournament. The arena is old, but comfortable. Only the lower bowl, which seats just under 10,000 is open. The tournament program is two 8½" x 11" sheets of paper – one with the bracket and the other with the 12 team rosters.

11:55 am

Five minutes before game time, the arena is sparsely occupied by two bands, two gaggles of cheer leaders and about 250 fans — mostly, judging by color, Cougars and Huskies, with a sprinkling of Cardinal

The USC band just performed a stirring rendition of the national anthem.

The players are entering, one by one, through clouds of theater smoke along a spotlighted path, introduced by an over-amplified woman announcer.

USC 64 - Oregon State 53

Tipoff won by USC. Here we go!

This was not an interesting game. Both teams were slow, tentative and inept. OSU showed a bit more hustle on offense, and USC was a bit tighter on defense, but neither played very well.

The action picked up somewhat in the second half as the Beavers' shooting improved. They beat the Trojans on shots made (20-13), 3-pointers (10 of 23 to 1 of 8) and shooting percentage (36.4 to 29.2), but they lost on total points.

It wasn't a particularly rough or aggressive game, but the refs were calling it very tight, and the Beavers were called for 27 fouls (three of them fouled out). The Trojans made 35 of 46 free throws! Yes, they scored 55% of their total points at the free throw line.

Here's a game report.

2:30 pm

The attendance has decreased. A lot of the OSU fans stayed on, but two large groups of kids have departed, and there aren't many fans from Arizona or Utah.

Utah 66 - Arizona 48

This was markedly different from the first game – both teams played with much more energy and skill.

Utah controlled the tip and held a comfortable lead all the way. This was not due to any lack of effort by Arizona. It was due to Utah's having more and better shooters than Arizona.

On most Utah possessions, Arizona applied an effective full-court press before settling into their consistent 2-3 zone defense. Utah countered with fast, crisp passes around the perimeter and good shooting. 55% of their scoring came from beyond the arc with 12 of 23 3-pointers by five players.

In contrast, just under half of Arizona's scoring came from Davellyn Whyte, who scored 23 points. No other Wildcat scored in double digits.

The Wildcats out-rebounded the Utes 30 - 26, but hurt themselves with frequent turnovers (14 - 5)

Here's a game report.

5:55 pm

The evening session is about to start. Attendance has increased to maybe 1,500. About a third are WSU fans, and almost all the others are rooting for the Cougars too.

Mike Daugherty is coaching the Cougars tonight. June had acute appendicitis and was scheduled to have an appendectomy tonight and be discharged from the hospital tomorrow.

Washington State 48 - Arizona State 41

The first half was fast-paced, but unproductive. Good defense combined with poor shooting (27% for ASU, 22 % for WSU) produced an 8-6 score after ten minutes and 18-13 at the break, with ASU in the lead.

The Cougars improved their shooting to 48% in the second half and won the game. Cougar freshman Lia Galdeira put on an impressive, although sometimes undisciplined, shooting clinic. She made two of the only three 3-pointers of the game and scored a total of 17 points.

Here's a game report.

8:25 pm

There are about two dozen Duck fans. Purple prevails, but the attendance hasn't increased much for the home team game.

Washington 69 - Oregon 62

The Ducks were ahead 26-8 after nine minutes of play. They were shooting very well — 64% in all, 75% from beyond the arc! The Huskies were turning the ball over a lot and missing most of their shots.

The Huskies managed to slow the pace down a bit after that, made smarter shots and chipped away at the Ducks' lead. The score was 39-28 at the break.

The Huskies got their first lead (53-52) with eight minutes left to play and hung on for an eventual victory.

Here's a game report

Finis

The seeding held today. Numbers 5, 6, 7 and 8 go on to the second round tomorrow:

#2 California vs USC at 12:00
#3 UCLA vs Utah at 2:30
#1 Stanford vs Washington State at 6:00
#4 Colorado vs Washington at 8:30

Remember that the games are being televised by the Pac-12 Networks.

See FBC FanPix for a few photos from inside and outside day 1 of the tournament.