Early Look at the PAC-10 Tournament

UW had a big win against UCLA Thursday night led by red-shirt freshman CJ Wilcox’s 24 second half points. This leaves one more game on the schedule, Saturday at 7:30pm against USC. UW needs to secure this win in order to have a more legitimate shot at the NCAA tournament. Right now they are listed as a 9 seed by Joe Lunardi. If they lose it they may need to either win the PAC-10 tournament or make it to the championship game.

The path to the NCAA tournament may lead through the Pac-10 tournament and as of right now, the Huskies are sitting as the 3 seed in the conference. If they win against USC on Saturday and UCLA loses to WSU, the dawgs will hold the number 2 seed in the Pac-10 tournament because they hold 2 wins over UCLA.

Here is the breakdown of ‘who plays who’ in the tournament:

March 9-Day 1:
Game 1–#8 seed vs. #9 seed
Game 2–#7 seed vs. #10 seed

March 10-Day 2:
Game 3–#4 seed vs. #5 seed
Game 4–#1 seed vs. #8 or #9 seed (depending on who won in day 1)
Game 5–#2 seed vs. #7 or #10 seed (depending on who won in day 1)
Game 6–#3 seed vs. #6 seed

March 11-Day 3:
Game 7–Winner of Game 3 vs. Winner of Game 4
Game 8–Winner of Game 5 vs. Winner of Game 6

March 12-Day 4:
Game 9–Winner of Game 7 vs. Winner of Game 8

Winner of Game 9 is the Champion and gets and automatic bid into the NCAA tournament.

As it sits right now the first round and second round would look like this:

March 9-Day 1:
Game 1–Oregon vs. Oregon State
Game 2–Stanford vs. Arizona State

March 10-Day 2:
Game 3–Washington State vs. USC
Game 4–Arizona vs. Oregon or Oregon State (depending on who won in day 1)
Game 5–UCLA vs. Stanford or Arizona State (depending on who won in day 1)
Game 6–UW vs. California

The value of winning one or two games in this tournament could be the difference between not making the tournament or could boost UW out of a 9 seed and into something more favorable like a 7th seed.

Saturday will determine the final bracket for the PAC-10 tournament, as a lot can change with so many teams with a tired record. Since USC lost, UW can’t fall below a 3 seed in the PAC-10 tournament but if they do lose it could cost them in the NCAA tournament.

Stay tuned, Saturday is going to be a crazy day in the Pac-10.