Pac-10 Race Still Wide Open

The Pacific 10 Conference’s regular season has reached the halfway point, which allows for some observations and speculation:

* Pac-10 coaches kept saying they didn’t expect Stanford, the conference’s best team, to go through the conference season unbeaten. But can they feel a lot better, now that USC has proven them right?

No team is without flaws. Stanford depends too heavily on Nicole Powell for its offense. Neither Arizona nor Arizona State has proved it can beat a good team on the road. USC has energy and depth but is young, raw and mistake-prone.

UCLA has no inside game. Washington has no depth, its juniors wiped out by injuries. Oregon State can’t rebound or defend against the three-point shot. Oregon and California have imploded because of injury and tragedy. Washington State continues to rebuild.

Stanford, Arizona, USC and Arizona State have separated themselves from the rest of the conference. The Cardinal (15-3) and Wildcats (16-4) are tied for first with 8-1 records and are strong contenders to make the NCAA tournament. The Trojans (10-7, 7-2) and Sun Devils (12-6, 6-3) need strong finishes -- and maybe two wins in the conference tournament -- to give the Pac-10 four NCAA tournament teams for the first time since the 2000-01 season.

But no coach is going to let her team think too far ahead.

“First, there’s the idea you’re in the hunt for the Pac-10 title, and I stress we’re only in the hunt,” USC Coach Chris Gobrecht said. “The next-biggest thing is getting wins and building a number of wins for the NCAA selection committee to take a look at you.

“As far as the Pac-10 tournament, that’s a distant thought. Right now, it’s trying to finish as high in the conference as we can. The whole conference is so good, anybody we’d have to play is going to be a difficult game.”

* The surprises are Washington and Arizona State.

The Huskies (11-7, 4-5), tied for fifth with UCLA and Oregon State, were expected to contend but don’t have another consistent scorer to go with reigning player of the year Giuliana Mendiola.

“Where we are [in Pac-10 play] is where we are,” Coach June Daugherty said. “What’s important ... is how we continue to focus on playing very hard and continue to improve.

“We have to limit the mistakes we’ve had in the first round. Make sure each day we can step on court and practice well, then go into games with improved focus. If we can do that, with the race as long as it is, we’ll be fine.”

The Sun Devils have had to fight through injuries, including the season-ending knee injury to sophomore guard Jill Noe, last season’s leading scorer. Still, Coach Charli Turner Thorne has massaged Arizona State through its relatively challenging schedule. And the Sun Devils will play five of their final nine conference games at home, where they are 8-1.

No one knows just how good Arizona State is, but it’s better than people thought.

* UCLA, Oregon and Oregon State have nine games left to figure out where they are going. All three are capable of playing well in stretches, but 40-minute efforts have been sporadic.

“We’re [still] finding our strengths and weaknesses, which is crazy because we are so far in the season,” Bruin Coach Kathy Olivier said. “We have a team that likes to be entertainers and is not always as fundamentally sound as I want it to be.”

Oregon State Coach Judy Spoelstra can empathize. She said the Beavers had to “get back to enjoying the way we play and find the intensity we can sustain for 40 minutes. We have to remember we can still play good defense and rebound if we’re missing shots.”

As for the Ducks, Coach Bev Smith is trying to restore the equilibrium lost when senior forward Catherine Kraayveld suffered a knee injury that cost her a second consecutive season.

“We’re looking up at most of the [Pac-10] teams,” Smith said. “I just feel we have to have some offensive flow and defensive grittiness that we can expand for 40 minutes. We have been looking to hang on in games, rather than going after it. We’re at a point where we can no longer be scared of making a mistake.”

*

There is no timetable for Cal to recover from the loss of junior forward Alisa Lewis, who died last week of bacterial meningitis.

So there is no telling whether the Bears, who have lost seven of their last eight, can pull out of the tailspin. “I don’t think this year will ever be just about basketball again,” said assistant coach Barb Smith, speaking for Coach Caren Horstmeyer who was traveling to Spokane, Wash., to attend Lewis’ funeral.

“Everything is going to be a ‘first’ for the rest of the year. We’re going to have so many ‘firsts’ with something reminding them Alisa is not here. That is the toughest thing. So, throughout the year, things will pop up and we’ll have to deal with them as they come.

“USC gave us a moment of silence, and after that game, our kids came up and asked, could we please ask others not to give us a moment of silence because it brought everything back to them. The Pac-10 has been so supportive and outreaching and we’re just thankful for that. At the same time, none of us have been through something like this; we’re trying to figure out what’s best for the team, what really takes the kids away from their focus on basketball.”