Pac Ten hoops and the greatest line ever

College basketball is officially on full tilt as we revel in the meat of the December holidays. Pitt v Oklahoma State and Duke v Gonzaga, tonight. Couple of major seeding battles. But it was last night's impressive showing by the Pac Ten that should have the country taking notice. Arizona dismissed an athletic, dangerous Memphis squad and the Washington Huskies finally arrived, dismantling overrated LSU and Fat Baby Davis. It's rare that FSN ever broadcasts a double-header of this quality, but last night was a treat. I'm well aware that no teams are good or bad because of the conference they play in (Arizona State is still a Pac Ten school, isn't it?), but at last check, the Pac Ten conference had the highest win percentage of any conference in America, with scalps like Memphis, LSU, Georgetown, Kentucky, Texas A&M, Gonzaga, Louisville, Illinois, and Georgia Tech on the resume so far. We know about UCLA and Arizona. We know that Oregon is still undefeated and bringing it hard. We know Washington can play. Lurking in the shadows this season, though, be wary of Washington State and USC (yes, even a year before the arrival of O.J. Mayo). Pac Ten play is going to be excellent this year and the conference is getting no less than four bids (none less than a 6-seed) to the dance.

With respect to my beloved Arizona Wildcats, J.P. Prince won't be missed. A fine player, to be sure, but he never had a chance to impact the squad in any true capacity. What's scary about the Cats, though, is that they're playing all of this excellent basketball without the lynchpin that I think is absolutely crucial to them making a Final Four, possibly a national title run: Kirk Walters. You may laugh, but Walters is one of the most hard-working, scrappy big men in the country. His presence on the defensive glass will be a monsterous boost to an already lethal team. When they want to buckle down, Arizona is unstoppable.

Switching gears to the NHL, opting not to discuss how horrid the Kings are, the news out of Pittsburgh is dour, to say the least. And all because of a lousy slots license. That's a new one, isn't it? "Hey, everybody. We're probably going to move the team because our financial backers didn't get permission to cater to 68-year-old slot jockey grandmas. Sorry!" In a perfect world, Super Mario will be able to keep what has now become the NHL's most marketable team (ahem -- Crosby & Malkin) in Pittsburgh, in a new arena at no cost to the team or the city (which is what the Isle of Capri Casinos had proposed), but we shall see. The irony with the Penguins is so incredibly thick. Everyone wants to see them, but they can barely afford to stay afloat.

Speaking of Mario, he appeared on ESPN's top NHL lines of all time, um, a few times. I guess I (and presumably the rest of the reasonable world) were mistaken in thinking that a player could only appear once in this list or that, you know, it actually mattered if they played their natural position. Naturally, Gretzky is centering all four lines. Oh, and while I'm thinking of it, why wasn't Pavel Bure on that list of 50? Where's the love for the Russian Rocket?! Perhaps the most lethal sniper of the 90s!

One last thing and then I'm done raiding ESPN.com for nuggets of banter. In their on-going top 100 stories of the year, Zidane v Materazzi clocked in at #2 for the year. If you want to talk about sheer coverage, then this is unquestionably the top sports story of perhaps the last three years, but this is an American audience, so not the case for these purposes. This story being #2, however, means that "Vince Young toppling USC in the Rose Bowl" will be #1 and, frankly, I take a lot of issue with that. There's no denying that Young's performance in that game was excellent, but to suggest that he singlehandedly defeated the Trojans is asinine. Let's be clear about this: Texas didn't win the national championship, USC lost it. Reggie Bush's lateral, quitting after going up two scores in the 4th, not having Bush in the game on the last play, shoddy tackling... Vince Young may get the glory, but the reasons why are masked.

At the very least, the following stories have more significance than Texas winning the college football national title: Zidane-gate, George Mason's ultimate Cinderella run, Roger Federer/Tiger Woods (they're inseparable in terms of domination, as far as I'm concerned)