Pac-12 Tournament Day One Wrap: Pac-12 Teams Deliver Exciting First Day

Pac-12 Tournament Day One Wrap

It was a great, great day of basketball all around with good performances by every team and a number of memorable individual showings by players. The venue and increased fan attendance created an improved atmosphere. Is it safe to say the Pac-12 Tournament is back?

8) Arizona State 89 9) Stanford 88 OT

• Great way to start off the tournament, I felt like I could actually hear the crowd a bit, it was hard fought between two teams that have something to play for (ASU: Borderline bubble team & Stanford: NIT) that seemed like they genuinely wanted to be there. Conference tournaments can be fun, remember?
• Jahii Carson is the kind of guy that you can ride all the way to a tournament championship and maybe a win or two in the NCAA Tournament if he keeps playing like this (14-22, 3-4 for three, 34 points, 3 assists and 2 rebounds).
• I did a 12-Pac feature on the most underrated players on every team in the conference... Josh Huestis should have been on that with six blocks while only being 6'7 along with 12 points and 7 rebounds.
• How do you get fouled 12 times in regulation and only get to the free-throw line once if you are the Cardinal?
• A ton of great performances here that shouldn't be overshadowed by Carson's though - an out-of-nowhere explosion by Aaron Bright (27 points, 6-12 for three, 5 assists), Dwight Powell (23 points, 9 rebounds, 4 assists), Carrick Felix (19 points, 12 rebounds, 3-4 for three) and don't forget about Huestis'... seriously don't.
• Shabazz vs. Jahii in an epic battle of two of the best freshman in the country who also happen to have really fun to say names looks like it could be the marquee match-up of Thursday.

5) Colorado 74 12) Oregon State 68

• Love the energy and enthusiasm the Colorado students have brought to the tournament for the second-straight year. A great addition to the conference when it really needed it.
• Still unsure if Joe Burton's Big Daddy Viscera look is a good look. Okay, it's not. http://s481.beta.photobucket.com/user/newdavesqurerep/media/viscera-wrestling.jpg.html
• This Beaver team is talented and balanced with Nelson, Starks, Collier, Burton and Moreland, there is a reason that they only lost two games by more than 10 points this year, but they just have no depth at all. Look out for them next year if no one makes an unnecessary early leap to the NBA.
• Respect to the guy who is keeping the "Barrel Man" tradition alive up in Colorado.
• I feel like this is how almost every game against a good team has gone for the Beavers this year, they have enough talent to hang around, but just don't quite have what it takes to get over the edge.
• No outstanding individual performances in this one like there was in the opener, but just great, solid, balanced basketball from a Colorado team that I think has a great chance to grab momentum and take the tournament for the second year in a row.
• Unfortunately, this game fulfilled a painful problem that college basketball is facing at the moment, where the waning minutes and seconds drug on forever even though the game was essential sealed due to intentional fouls and time outs.

10) Utah 69 7) USC 66

• So I think that Austin Seferian-Jenkins is the only person who had a worse Saturday night last week than the Trojans as they finished off their regular season by getting pasted by last place Washington State and having two of their centers get in a fight in Spokane, Washington while apparently disparaging the number one team in the country.
• I thought that this was the least interesting of any of the first day match-ups as neither team has any post-season potential to play for unless they can win the whole tournament. Probably not even one of those dreaded tournaments that start with the letter C.
• Major props to Omar Oraby for stepping up against a very underrated frontline without his Gonzaga bashing big man brethren and filling it up with 18 points and 9 rebounds.
• Jordan Loveridge might be the best freshman in the nation that no one knows about. Or, at least the Pac-12.
• Would like to nominate J.T. Terrell for the non-existing award of Guy Who Was Just Kind of Good in College Who Ends Up Having a decent NBA Career. He had a strong game with 14 points, 7 rebounds and a huge put-back dunk that woke up the crowd.
• Okay, not to say that everyone on Utah is underrated, but Jarred DuBois is one of the most underrated seniors in the conference and hopefully some people took notice tonight as he basically won the game for Utah with 22 points on 7-12 shooting.
• This looked like it may be the first lull game of the tournament where one teams builds a comfortable, but never too comfortable lead until they wind it out until a late run by the Trojans made it gave it a life raft with a nice run at the end.
• The way the game ended may be fitting for the Trojans' season as they struggled most of the game, but made a late run only to falter sloppily at the very end, failing to get a shot off in the final seconds while down by three.

6) Washington 64 11) Washington State 62

• Always nice to have a rivalry game spice up a game that on paper seems like a fairly unimportant match-up, especially when it is a rivalry as testy as the indoor Apple Cup.
• The Cougars got Mike Ladd back but lost Davont'e Lacy, kind of a very tough trade for the Cougars.
• Tough to watch a guy like Brock Motum play so well on a team that just doesn't have much around him. He truly showed how good he is tonight with a stellar performance in what is likely his last college basketball game with 28 points.
• No team is better at relinquishing big leads maybe in the history of college basketball than Lorenzo Romar's Husky teams and they really showed that again tonight.
• Scott Suggs (19 points) and D.J. Shelton (19 points and 5 rebounds) played about as good as I have ever seen either play with Shelton taking it to the rack hard and knocking down some threes and Suggs working a hot hand from outside.
• The Huskies struggled to get much going on offense outside of Suggs in the second half and even Suggs himself only knocked down two shots.
• This looked like it was going to be the first bad game of the tournament before the Cougars' inspired run the Huskies collapse. Great job by the Cougars of showing heart and making things very, very interesting.