Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
For Pac-12, Vegas looks like wild ride
The Pac-12 had one of the closest conference races in the country during the regular season. Five teams were within two games of the lead heading into the final week and No. 13 Oregon clinched the title on the last day of the season.
The parity should make for a fun conference tournament.
The Pac-12 Tournament starts Wednesday under the bright lights in Las Vegas, and there could be a bit of chaos before a champion is crowned Saturday.
“It’s a wide-open tournament,” Oregon coach Dana Altman said. “We hope we have seven NCAA Tournament teams. The other teams are going to try and get their spot.”
A year ago, the Ducks became the second team to win four games in four days to take the tournament title.
This season, Oregon clinched its third regular-season season title in five years by beating Stanford last weekend. That gave the Ducks the No. 1 seed in the Pac-12 Tournament and a first-round bye along with UCLA, Arizona State and Southern California.
An automatic NCAA Tournament berth goes to the team crowned champion Saturday night at T-Mobile Arena, but there’s plenty more at stake with multiple teams fighting for at-large berths.
Arizona and Colorado appear to be locks to hear their names called on Selection Sunday. Both have resumes that should get them into the field of 68.
USC seemingly burst through the NCAA Tournament bubble with its win over UCLA last week.
The Bruins had a nice turnaround at the end of the season, winning seven of their final eight games to move onto the NCAA Tournament bubble and earn Mick Cronin coach of the year honors his first season in Westwood. An early exit from the Pac-12 Tournament could make for some tense moments Sunday, though.
Arizona State has sweated out Selection Sunday the last two seasons, earning First Four spots. The Sun Devils appear to be in good shape after beating Washington State last weekend, but losing their first Pac-12 game could make it dicey again.
“I can’t say 100 percent, but I imagine we are,” Arizona State coach Bobby Hurley said. “We’ve had a great year, we have a great story, we have one of the most dynamic players in college basketball (Remy Martin) the rest of the country should get to see.”
Stanford may need to win a game or two in Las Vegas to get through to the big bracket.
NCAA punishes Siena: Siena College was handed a three-year probation and a $5,000 fine for violations an NCAA investigation of the program found under former coach Jimmy Patsos.
The NCAA found that Patsos provided impermissible benefits, including payments to players.
According to the NCAA Committee on Infractions, Patsos gave cash to student-athletes in the locker room after several games over the final three years he served as head coach. Payments ranged from $60 to $100 or more. The committee said the former coach didn’t seek guidance from the school’s compliance staff but he acknowledged some of the violations and said he misunderstood NCAA rules.
Siena, a private Catholic school outside Albany, N.Y., self-reported the violations a year and a half ago.
The NCAA said that during the probation Siena has to disassociate itself with an unnamed booster who interfered in the probe.
Punishment for the Level II violations vacates 46 wins from the final three seasons Patsos was coach. He resigned after the 2017-18 season amid a wideranging investigation by the school that unearthed allegations of problems ranging from abusive conduct to financial improprieties within the program.
The NCAA also levied a three-year, show-cause order against Patsos,.
The committee announced its findings Monday, on the eve of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Tournament in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Siena is the top seed after winning the regular-season title.
The school has two weeks to respond to the NCAA.