Pac-10 teams have plenty to play for in tournament

Since being reinstated in 2002, the Pac-10 men's basketball tournament has generally seemed as redundant as the last six or so Freddy Krueger movies.

Consider that one of the stated reasons for reviving the tournament — which had its initial life from 1987 to 1990 — was to help get more Pac-10 teams into the NCAA tournament.

But it could be argued that has never happened. Other than Oregon in 2003, when the Ducks won it after finishing fifth during the regular season — and were probably headed to the NCAA tournament anyway — the Pac-10 tournament champ has been a team that had finished in the top three and had already locked up an NCAA bid.

Nor has it ever really happened that a bubble team won a couple of games in the conference tournament to assure that it got into the NCAA, with the possible exception of Washington in 2004, though those Huskies might have been in anyway.

But that could change this year.

As the tournament gets set to begin at Staples Center in Los Angeles, four Pac-10 teams seem assured of bids to the NCAA tournament — Washington, UCLA, California and Arizona State.

Meanwhile, Arizona and USC, which each tied for fifth at 9-9 in conference play, are on the bubble — the Wildcats with a little firmer seat than the Trojans due to a better nonconference rèsumè. Each could greatly aid its case with two wins in the tournament.

"We're hopeful that if we won a couple of games we'll be looked at differently," said USC coach Tim Floyd, whose team is 18-12.

Then there's Washington State, which at 8-10 in the conference and 16-14 overall isn't going to get in as an at-large. But with the Cougars' strong finish to the season, many point to them as one of the more dangerous lower-division teams in the history of the Pac-10 tournament.

The Cougars begin play in the opening round at 8:30 p.m. today against Oregon. If WSU wins, it will play UCLA on Thursday.

The winner of the tournament gets the Pac-10's automatic berth to the NCAA.

"I think there's no question [it could be the most wide-open Pac-10 tournament] because you've got a number of teams that have a legit chance of winning it," said Arizona interim coach Russ Pennell.

Washington coach Lorenzo Romar agrees.

"If I went to sleep for a week and woke up on Sunday and you told me any team, including Oregon, won this Pac-10 tournament, it would not shock me," Romar said Tuesday.

More likely, though, one of the top teams will win it, if for no other reason than the top six teams get a first-day bye and have to win only three games to take the title.

Romar insists his team has ample motivation for the tournament, despite having just won the regular-season title, saying his team wants to continue to get better for the NCAA tournament and improve its seeding.

"This is a great feeling we have," he said. "So we welcome more games."

Washington will not play until Thursday, against the winner of tonight's other game between Oregon State and Stanford.

Washington senior forward Jon Brockman has some specific personal motivation for wanting to stay in Los Angeles a while. He missed the tournament last year due to a sprained ankle and couldn't play when UW lost its opening-round game to California. The Huskies also lost their first game in 2006 and in the quarterfinal round in 2007.

"Every time you lose from here on out you are missing out on something," Brockman said. "We are definitely not content, not complacent, not happy. We want to keep climbing the ranks."

History is against UW winning the tournament, however. Only three teams have won both the regular-season and tournament titles since the tournament was revived in 2002 — Stanford in 2004 and UCLA in 2006 and 2008.

Bob Condotta: 206-515-5699 or bcondotta@seattletimes.com