From West Coast Correspondent Molly

It's much too hard to cover all the conference tournaments by ourselves, of course; and there is action all across the land. For example:

Oral Roberts got their conference's automatic bid! Heh, I said "Oral." Those young Christians and their wacky names.

The Southern Illinois Salukis are in, training another set of neophyte viewers on what a "saluki" is. I'm hoping the St Louis University Billikens get in next year, because the debate over what a "Billiken" is will always be curious.

The Temple Owls are making life hard for the Atlantic 10. Earlier this year, Coach John Chaney was assailed for scheduling too hard-- the NCAA tourney's selection process gives more credit to conference wins over teams with good overall records, and Temple always starts conference play with a relatively poor record, because they'd play pro teams if they could. Now it pays off with a win over the 6th ranked George "Gotta Have My Pops!" Washington Colonials.

And Gerry MacNamara doesn't want college to end, hitting big threes to send Cincinnati packing, and then to dispatch top-ranked U Conn.

But then, there is the Wack-10. Teams that roll over in the NCAA tournament, teams from places we all want to move to, teams with fun colors and adorable mascots and sun-kissed people. My dear friend Molly is an Oregon partisan-- she's new-ish to basketball, but the past few years have found her listening to games on the radio while her boyfriend plays amateur games, passing along updates.

That, people, is basketball fan street cred. Her note from last night (BEFORE the Oregon Ducks gave the Washington Huskies a good quacking):

Basketball.

Is eating.

My brain.

Glad to see Arizona beat Stanford; if that ends Stanford's many-year run of tournament appearances, well, the little part of me that irrationally hates Chris Hernandez will smile.

Arizona did it without Hassan Adams, too, which makes it all the better. Even my hatred for Lute Olson can't keep me from wanting the Wildcats to do better than most of the other Pac 10 teams. Not sure why that is. Maybe because it's fun to make dirty, rude jokes about what Olson will do when his players lose to teams like, oh, say, Oregon. (Oregon almost beat them AT Arizona, after winning at home. I laugh.)

Speaking of Oregon, I can't help but hope they have a chance tonight against UW. The last game was a three point loss; no surprise there as I believe it's eight games Oregon has lost by three or less points, which, while I know it's the W or L that really matters, seems to suggest that the games were winnable right up to the end, unlike a 30 point blowout. And Chamberlain Oguchi (spelled on the captions last night as 'Chamber Lynn,' 'Agucci,' 'Oguchically,' and about three other ways I forget) has really, seriously, truly been a force to be reckoned with, which he was not, earlier in
the season. Last night, Hairston scored the quietest 20 points I've ever seen an Oregon player score. Very interesting. Hope they keep it up.

I realize that no one else in the country gives a shit about the Pac 10. Thus my little
newbie fan self feels all the more compelled to comment. In the rest of the
world, nice that Syracuse beat Connecticut, just to see a #1 team lose. (I'm a
long-time underdog fan, what can I say.) I haven't seen many East Coast schools
play and tend to pick favorites as the tournament starts, often just by player,
but I will be rooting for Gonzaga, I can tell you that much. That Adam Morrison
is fucking crazy.

-Molly

(image thanks to http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/sports/)