TheWestBias Poseur

How the West Was Won … California knows how to party … The West is the best … Go west young man … There's a feeling I get when I look to the west …

Ok, so it looks like I’ve run out of “west” analogies here. My mom and dad went to the “lede” store and all I got was this cheesy opening paragraph. But the fact of the matter is that the West Coast is the epicenter of the college basketball universe these days. And when March’s madness arrives, it is quite likely that the NCAA title will go though the west coast.

Now, this is not a novel thought by any means. I’m not going out on a limb here with this semi-prediction. At the Ralph’s Grocery store of college basketball column ideas, this checkout line should be closed. With one of those collapsible yellow “Achtung/Cuidado” signs blocking my way. Or at least it should be one of those unmanned self-checkout lines. By the way, don’t you hate the people who can’t figure out how to scan the massive bar code on their box of Doritos? Or the ones who sidle up in front of you with 400 items …

But it is something that can’t be stated (or overstated) enough. With a national sports media that likes to throw panties at every ACC and Big East team that strings together consecutive wins, it is nice to finally see the PAC-10 get its props.

Currently, it looks like at least six teams from the PAC-10 will make the NCAA tourney (UCLA, Washington State, Stanford, Arizona, Arizona State and USC). Nine out of 10 teams have won at least 12 games going into the second round of conference play. Five of the 10 teams are in the top 50 in the latest RPI rankings. The difference between the third-place team (Arizona, 5-3) and the eighth-place team (Oregon, 4-5) is one notch in the win column. This race is going to be tight. Tighter than the denim on Jessica Simpson’s blue jeans. Tighter than a fiddle’s string. Tighter than bark on a tree. Tighter than a wet knot. Tighter than a nun’s … easy there.

After a few beers, you could even make the case that everyone in the PAC-10 except Oregon State has a realistic shot to qualify for the Big Dance. After a six-pack, you could even say Washington State still has an outside shot at a ticket to March Madness. If you finish the whole case, you could make a passionate, beer-goggled argument that Oregon State could run the table in the PAC-10 tourney and qualify for postseason play

Over the next month, expect many of the PAC-10 contenders to be in “Gladiator” mode. Kill or be killed. The birthday party is over and all the cupcakes are gone. Survive and live another day. In fact, the road ahead is so grueling that many observers expect the eventual PAC-10 champion to have at least four losses. Maybe more.

“This league is the best it’s ever been,” UCLA Coach Ben Howland said in a recent Press-Enterprise interview. “This league has the best players in the country, top to bottom. For sure, there are 10 to 12 first-round picks in this conference out of the starting 50, probably more. There’s no weakness anywhere.”

That says it all, Ben. It should be fun to watch.

Oh look here! I found another lame “west” reference ….

She's so mean but I don't careI love her eyes and her wild wild hairDance to the beat that we love bestHeading for the ninetiesLiving in the wild wild westThe wild wild west


David Gignilliat is a regular contributor to TheWestBias. He currently lives in the Washington, DC area (which is about as east as it gets), but sketchily claims “West Coast street cred” because he (thinks he) chased ski bunnies for two seasons while living in South Lake Tahoe, CA. In between working at a florist/pinball store and a non-descript inside sales job, he freelances for several online and print publications, … waxing dorky about the out-of-left-field, off-the-beaten-path stories that keep him up late at night. And when he’s not daydreaming about unicorns and waiting patiently for a Justin Timberlake/Britney Spears remix of Patsy Cline’s “Crazy”, he runs a blog called Quixotica, … where he comes up with silly, clever words for everyday events that lack the appropriate word or phrase. Like “slutter” and “marteau’d” … Check him out at uvadavidg@gmail.com