Pac-12 Redemption

I know you’re all enjoying the beginning of Spring Football and the all the promise it brings for a new era, but before we get too far ahead of ourselves, we still have a basketball season to wrap up. Tonight the Cougs host Pitt in game one of the three game championship series of the CBI. The Pac-12 has been the whipping boy of the college basketball world, including having the conference champion Huskies left out of the field of 64. That is something I never thought was possible, but hey, the Pac has struggled getting the respect it deserves in a good year, so its no surprise the powers that be decided to really pile it on in in their weakest season ever. But as this post season has unfolded, the Pac-12 teams that were sprinkled around the various other 3^rd (and 4^th) rate post-season tourneys have been on a mission for redemption and our Cougs are a big part of that mission.

What the hell am I talking about? You’ll have to jump to find out…

This was one of those seasons where it appeared the proverbial “East Coast Bias” could really be chalked up to empirical scientific evidence of Pac-12 craptasticness. But lets take a look at a few facts that our friends on the eastern sea board don’t want you to know…

First of all, as we wind down post season play there is no conference with as many teams still standing as the Pac-12 with three: Wazzu, Stanford and UW. Furthermore, there is a chance that the Pac-12 will end the regular season with 2 post season tournament championships, more than any other conference and, in fact, more than the ACC and SEC COMBINED! Take that, East Coasters. Wait, I still haven’t broken through the dense fog of your impenetrable bias? Well, how bout this little fact bomb… the Pac-12’s post season record is currently 14-5, and 2 of those 5 losses are to other Pac-12 schools! BOOM!

I think it also bears mentioning that Pac-12 teams have absolutely feasted on the Mountain West this post-season, a conference many Right-Coasters (and silly Mountain West fans) were about to dub the new basketball powerhouse conference in the West. Jokes on y’all, fools!

So while many of you have little to no interest in a post season championship that might actually not be worthy of a banner, I think its clear there is a lot more at stake here. Namely, conference bragging rights. The Pac-12’s path to redemption cuts through the Big East (Pitt), the Big 10 (Minnesota) and a U-Mass team that, while not hailing from a major conference, is situated in the very heart of East Coast bias-y-ness. So after a dissapointing regular season, our Cougs find themselves on the front lines of the Pac-12’s battle for respect. With the eyes of the Nation (well, at least the Palouse and the Pittsburgh metro area) upon us, we are carrying the banner for all the Pac-12 teams that wish they were still in the fight.

Tip off is set for 7pm at Friel Court. GO COUGS!