ESPN Men's Basketball

LOS ANGELES -- The Pac-10 tournament final Saturday between Washington and Cal saw 22 lead changes and 12 ties, and mirrored the constantly fluctuating season the downtrodden conference had. The way both teams played, however, belied the national perception the league was only sending one team to the NCAA tournament.

While Washington (24-9) earned the conference’s automatic bid with a 79-75 win, there is no question Cal (23-10) is just as deserving. After splitting the season series, both seemed to split baskets from the opening tip in what was easily the best game of an otherwise forgettable tournament played in front of a mostly empty arena the past four days.

As maligned as the Pac-10 has been this season, it at least saved its best performance for a national television audience. It would be hard to find a better tournament final from start to finish than the one Washington and Cal put on at the Staples Center.

Elston Turner's five straight points, including a 3-pointer, put Washington ahead for good, 71-68, with 3:22 remaining.

After depending on the play of leading scorers Jerome Randle and Patrick Christopher all season, the Bears were forced to look elsewhere as their talented senior duo had combined for just 10 points with 9:30 left in the game. Fellow seniors Jamal Boykin, who finished with 20 points and 14 rebounds, and Theo Robertson, who had 25 points, were the only reasons Cal was in the game.

“He got two fouls early which is a little unusual,” said Cal coach Mike Montgomery of Randle. “We had him [Randle] out of the game for a fair portion trying to get him back and forth and not get a third foul. He’s small so they can post him with a variety of different people. It caused a problem, no question.”

Washington guard Isaiah Thomas, who was named the tournament’s most valuable player, scored 16 points and smiled when asked about guarding Randle. The Huskies made it known they believed Washington forward Quincy Pondexter, who scored 18 points, should have been named the conference’s player of the year over Randle.

“I feel [Pondexter] should have won player of the year and I feel like we should have won the Pac-10 championship,” said Thomas. “We brought all the motivation we could to get this win.”

This was the marquee final the Pac-10 had hoped for in the preseason when Cal and Washington were ranked in the top 15 in the country in both polls. As the season progressed it became impossible to predict which teams would play in the Pac-10 tournament final.

“Some of the losses we got early on in the league hurt the perception,” Montgomery said. “Washington just really lost Brockman from last year. They’re pretty good. I don’t know how there could have been any question about Washington getting in. But if there was, it’s obviously erased. Now we just have to wait and see if they give Arizona State a tumble.”

As much as the Huskies felt they deserved to be in the NCAA tournament, if they had not beaten Cal on Saturday, there was a fairly good chance they would be sitting home next week.

After the game, Pondexter smiled as he hugged the Pac-10 tournament trophy.

“I’m going to be able to sleep tonight finally,” said Pondexter. “I’ve been going to sleep watching 'SportsCenter' every night hearing if we’re in or out, or on the bubble or off the bubble. ... We told each other if we handle business we don’t need a committee to decide if we’re good enough.”

LOS ANGELES -- The precarious bubble Washington sat on heading into the Pac-10 tournament final against Cal became even shakier before the game began. Houston’s upset win in the Conference USA final over No. 25 UTEP, not to mention big wins by fellow bubble teams Minnesota and Mississippi State over ranked teams, means Washington may be in a position where it must win the Pac-10 tournament in order earn an NCAA tournament bid.

In the first half, the Huskies have done everything in their power to keep the decision out of the selection committee's hands, taking a 41-37 lead. Quincy Pondexter has 12 points, half of them coming at the free-throw line.

In a back-and-forth first half that saw 16 lead changes and eight ties, Cal was able to stay in the game thanks to Theo Robertson, who scored 16 points. The Bears also scored 12 points off eight Washington turnovers. California, which shot 70.8 percent in the second half of its win over UCLA will likely shoot better than the 37.1 percent it did in the first half. The Huskies can also expect Jerome Randle and Patrick Christopher, who combined for only 10 points in the first half, to find their stride in the second half.

At the very least, if Washington continues to battle Cal the way it has in the first half, and the eye-ball test still means anything to the selection committee, the Huskies -- who split the season series with the Bears this season -- have proven they are on par with Cal.

LOS ANGELES -- Washington’s season looked as if it was already over midway through its conference schedule. Following a loss to USC, gathered in the Trojans' visitor's locker room just two miles up the road from the Staples Center, Quincy Pondexter got up and told his teammates it was only uphill from here.

The Huskies had dropped five of their last seven games and had just lost by 26 points by a team ineligible to play in the postseason.

“The landmark moment for us was after the USC game,” said Pondexter. “At the end of the game guys knew it couldn’t get any worse. And we started playing the right way. ... I think we’ve bought into everything offensively and defensively since then and we’ve been playing much better basketball.”

Since its Jan. 23 loss to USC, Washington (23-9) has won 11 of its last 13 games and six games in a row heading into today's Pac-10 Tournament championship game against Cal (23-9). After being left for dead as late as last week, the Huskies can now claim the conference’s automatic bid or at least make a case for an at-large berth with a strong showing on national television.

The marquee final between the two best teams in the conference is the first bright spot of what has been an otherwise down year for the Pac-10, which was perceived as a one-bid league when the tournament started after sending six teams last season. Washington and Cal split the season series, winning on each other’s court by double digits. Both were perceived as the class of the conference in the preseason, when they were ranked in the top 14 the first week of the season.

“These are two teams that have really, really competed,” said Washington coach Lorenzo Romar. “I think [Cal] is better from the first time we’ve played. I think they’ve gotten into a great rhythm were they are playing very good basketball. Those three 1,000-point career scorers have been through a lot of games and a lot of situations and they play with great calm and don’t get rattled. They do a tremendous job.”

Romar was referring to Cal’s senior triumvirate of Jerome Randle, the Pac-10 Player of the Year, Patrick Christopher and Theo Robertson. A fourth senior, Jamal Boykin, will likely reach the 1,000-point plateau as well before his career wraps up.

“When you look at their seniors, they have scored 5,600 points combined between the four guys, I think the next closest in the Pac-10 is about 2,500 points for graduating seniors,” said UCLA coach Ben Howland. “Those guys are special.”

The game will feature five of the top ten scorers in the league (Pondexter and Isaiah Thomas for Washington and Randle, Christopher and Robertson for Cal) and California and Washington are ranked in the top two in the conference in scoring offense and scoring margin. Judging from their first two games the Pac-10 final could easily turn into a rout for whichever team feels more at home. Cal has certainly made it a point to run teams off court as of late, winning nine of its last 10 games by double digits.

“We have a lot of similarities,” said Pondexter. “It’s always a tough battle and whoever executes better wins. We’re both competing for a championship so that adds a great dynamic to this series, but it’s always fun playing against them.”

LOS ANGELES – It wasn’t against the opponent everyone had pegged it to play against, but Washington still provided a statement win during its 79-64 rout of Stanford in the semifinals of the Pac-10 tournament. Will it be enough to earn the Huskies an at-large bid into the NCAA tournament?

Coming into the Pac-10 tourney, a possible semifinal matchup between Washington and Arizona State basically amounted to a play-in game for an at-large spot. After Stanford beat Arizona State, however, the onus was on UW to leave no doubt its 23-9 record deserved to be included in the field of 65. Despite the win and their record, however, the Huskies understand nothing short of a conference tournament title will guarantee them a bid in the tournament.

“We don’t know if we’re in the NCAA tournament or not,” said Quincy Pondexter, who scored 19 points and grabbed 7 rebounds. “We haven’t been given an invitation or anything by them. We just have to come out and play as hard as we can and let Selection Sunday take care of itself.”

Against the Cardinal, Washington led by as many as 23 points with six minutes left in the game and put a few exclamation points at the end of their win when Matt Bryan-Armaning threw down a monster dunk over Andrew Zimmermann, and Darnell Gant threw down a pair of above the rim slams that were better than anything seen at the NBA Slam Dunk Contest this year.

The Huskies, who have won six straight games and 11 of their past 13, will now play Cal in Saturday's championship game. The teams split the season series, winning on each other’s court by double digits and both were perceived as the class of the conference in the preseason, when they were both ranked in the top 14 the first week of the season.

“This is an opportunity for us to win a championship and make sure we take the [selection process] out of the committee’s hands for the NCAA tournament,” said Washington coach Lorenzo Romar. “You just never know. There are teams that have had great cases in the past only to be disappointed on Selection Sunday, so we have to wait and see and do everything in our power to make sure it happens.”

LOS ANGELES –- The disparity in talent was apparent each time the teams huddled on the court. On one end, Cal was lead by a quartet of seniors who had combined to score 5,536 points during their careers and collectively averaged 60.1 points per game this season.

On the other end, UCLA was led by a senior who had scored 981 points during his career and was thrust into a leadership role this season as one NBA draft pick after another left Westwood early following the school’s three straight trips to the Final Four.

As the clock ticked down on Cal’s 85-72 win over UCLA in the semifinal of the Pac-10 tournament, Michael Roll put his hands over his head and looked up at the Staples Center ceiling and exhaled. This wasn’t the way Roll was supposed to end his collegiate career. Not after the way it began with three straight trips to the Final Four and 30-plus win seasons. But that’s what happens when you are a solid role player forced to become a leader on a storied program now full of role players and no real stars.

Roll finished his career scoring a career-high 27 points while the only other active senior for UCLA, Nikola Dragovic, scored eight points and hit just 1 of 8 shots from 3-point range. Senior forward James Keefe, who was averaging 2.2 points, had season ending surgery on his left shoulder last month.

While the Bruins lacked playmaking seniors all year, Cal has been brimming with them this season.

Jerome Randle, who was named the Pac-10 Player of the Year, surpassed Sean Lampley on Friday as the all-time leading scorer in Cal history after scoring 24 points. Patrick Christopher leaped over Kevin Johnson and Joe Shipp into fourth place on the school's all-time scoring list after scoring 16 points. Theo Robertson, who is the school’s all-time leader in 3-point shooting percentage, added 20 points, including three from beyond the arc, and Jamal Boykin, who was named all-conference second team this season, rounded out the Cal seniors by scoring 10 points.

Cal’s four seniors scored 70 of the Bears’ 85 points against UCLA and sparked the team’s comeback in the second half.

“When you look at their seniors, they have scored 5,600 points combined between the four guys, I think the next closest in the Pac-10 is about 2,500 points for graduating seniors,” said UCLA coach Ben Howland. “Those guys are special.”

Howland understands he too could have had a special group if he was able to keep his players from leaving school early. In a perfect college basketball world, where players stay until they graduate, Roll would have been the fourth option in a starting lineup that would’ve featured Kevin Love, Russell Westbrook and Jrue Holiday.

“It’s always tough when you lose players early,” Howland said. “But that is the current climate in college basketball and that won’t change in the foreseeable future.”

Cal’s senior leadership was evident early in the second half when Robertson scored seven straight points, including a 3-pointer to give Cal its first lead of the game. The Bears shut down UCLA defensively and hit nearly every open shot, shooting a staggering 70.8 percent from the field in the second half and outscoring UCLA 50-33.

“We adjusted on Roll, who is hard to guard,” Cal coach Mike Montgomery said. “Roll ended up with 27 but he had 16 at the half and for the first 10-12 minutes he didn’t score which I think was the key for us to be able to get back in it. It really helped that we did a job on the key guy who was Roll.”

As Roll’s career came to a close, he sat on the bench and put his head down, raising it from time-to-time to acknowledge the fans chanting his name and giving him a standing ovation. On the other end of the court Montgomery was also giving the senior a standing ovation. The Cal coach went up to Roll after the game to tell him how much he respected him as a player and how well he played during his career.

Meanwhile the college careers of Montgomery’s seniors continued as they shattered any notion that a Pac-10 tournament championship wouldn’t mean anything to the regular-season champs.

“This group is really close, having played together for the last four years and having been through a lot of games,” Robertson said. “We want to win this tournament. There wouldn’t be a better feeling than winning tomorrow. We understand in the postseason its win or go home so that’s in the back of our minds. We really enjoy playing with each other and we’re not ready for it to end.”

LOS ANGELES -- Cal is the only Pac-10 school in a comfortable position to secure a NCAA Tournament bid and there were times during the first half of its semifinal game against UCLA where it looked as if the Bears were content to let another Pac-10 team join them at the dance.

Cal never led in the first half and fell behind by as many as 10 seven minutes into the game. Senior guard Michael Roll led the Bruins with 16 points, hitting 3-of-5 three-pointers and grabbing three rebounds.

Jerome Randle, the Pac-10 Player of the Year, scored 14 points for the Bears and scored five straight points to cut UCLA’s lead in half when it appeared as if the Bruins would run away with the game early.

Reeves Nelson is once again providing UCLA with a much-needed presence in the paint, scoring 6 points and grabbing 3 rebounds, but he is clearly frustrated by the goggles he has to wear following laser eye surgery to repair a retinal tear in his left eye. He takes off the goggles during every stoppage and threw them down on the floor when he was called out of the game.

“I don’t want to wear them,” Nelson said yesterday. “But I have to if I want to play.”

LOS ANGELES -- A quick look at Friday's semifinal games in the Pac-10 tournament:

UCLA-California, 9 p.m. ET

At stake: California (22-9) has all but secured a trip to the NCAA tournament after winning the Pac-10 regular-season title and blowing out Oregon in the Pac-10 tournament, 90-74. As much as the Bears would like to cut down the nets at Staples Center, it seems the best chance the conference has of claiming two bids is if a team other than Cal wins the conference tournament and the hometown Bruins seem to be the most likely team to do it. UCLA’s biggest win this season came in a 76-75 win in overtime at Cal when Michael Roll picked up a loose ball and scored from 13 feet out with 1.9 seconds remaining in OT. Plays like that have been few and far between for UCLA (14-17) this year as the Bruins are in the midst of their third losing season since 1947-48. UCLA, however, technically has the home-court edge and will try to get as many students to brave rush-hour traffic and head to Staples Center by offering discounted tickets for $10 online and at the Staples Center box office before tipoff.

Who has the edge: Cal should win this game fairly easily. The Bears beat the Bruins 72-58 last month at Pauley Pavilion and have won eight of their last nine games, all by double digits. UCLA meanwhile had lost six of eight games before beating Arizona Thursday.

Stat to watch: Cal and UCLA are on polar opposites of the league standings when it comes to scoring margin and free throw percentage, which is no coincidence. While Cal is shooting a league best 74.8 percent from the charity stripe, UCLA is in last place at 62.8 percent. Cal is also the best 3-point shooting team in the Pac-10 (37.7 percent) while UCLA is eighth at 32.5 percent. If Cal can continue to connect on its shots from the charity stripe and beyond the arc while UCLA struggles, Cal should win another game by double digits.

Stanford-Washington, 11:30 p.m. ET

At stake: Washington (22-9) is probably playing for an NCAA tournament berth in its matchup with Stanford (14-17). Advancing to the Pac-10 tournament championship game should be enough to send the Huskies to the NCAAs, although anything outside of winning the tournament is far from a guarantee. Stanford, which in all likelihood knocked Arizona State out of the NCAA tournament with a 70-61 upset win, is looking to play the role of spoiler again against the Huskies and will need to win the tournament to play in the postseason after finishing tied for eighth in the Pac-10 this season.

Who has the edge: Washington has a big advantage after sweeping the season series, winning both games by an average margin of 25 points. Washington has won five straight games while Stanford had lost three straight prior to its win over Arizona State Thursday.

Stat to watch: The Huskies lead the Pac-10 in scoring offense (79.8) and are tied for the lead in scoring margin (plus-9.9) while Stanford is ranked in the lower half of the conference in nearly every statistical category. If Washington plays anywhere near as well as it did in its last two games against Stanford, this game should be a rout.

LOS ANGELES – Washington kept its NCAA tournament hopes alive with a comeback victory over Oregon State, 59-52. Consequently the Pac-10 can still hold out hope for at least another day that it won’t be a one-bid conference come Selection Sunday.

Trailing by as many as 13 in the first half, the Huskies looked as if they would suffer the same fate Arizona State did a few hours before in getting upset by Stanford. Washington finally woke up with 12:33 left, when Isaiah Thomas hit a 3-pointer to tie the game, 37-37. About a minute later Elston Turner hit a 3-pointer to give Washington the lead for good.

“It became pretty clear to me that they were going to pack it in all night and not make it a high-scoring affair at all,” Washington coach Lorenzo Romar. “They were going to make us shoot 3s and because they were open early, we fell in love with it and it was fool’s gold. The 3 is fine if you move the ball, but we took too many. We did a much better job in the second half of moving the ball and preventing them from hitting 3s.”

After hitting 5-of-6 3-pointers in the first half, Oregon State only made two more in the second half, finishing with 7-of-14, as Washington established their paint presence, outscoring the Beavers 22-to-14 down low. Washington players admitted they snuck a peak at Arizona State’s upset loss before their game and came together at the half, vowing they would not suffer the same fate.

“We watched a little bit of it,” said Thomas. “In this league anybody can beat anybody on any given night so you just got to bring it. We didn’t bring it in that first half but we came together collectively at the half and dug down deep and got the win.”

LOS ANGELES -- Apparently Washington didn’t learn anything from Arizona State’s lackadaisical effort against Stanford. While the Huskies have a slim shot at making it to the NCAA tournament, whatever hopes they have rest on them at least making it the Pac- tournament title game.

Washington, which currently trails Oregon State 31-22 at the half, will be lucky just to make it out of the quarterfinals the way they’ve played.

The Beavers have hit 6-of-8 3-pointers and are shooting better from beyond the arc (75 percent) than they are from the field (45.5). Washington meanwhile has only hit 3-of-10 3-pointers and is only shooting 38.1 percent from the field.

The Huskies have come out and played like a team expecting the Beavers to lay down for them. Washington has won six straight over Oregon State and beat the Beavers 82-70 five days ago. The biggest difference in this game is that Washington isn’t getting much out of Matthew Bryan-Amaning, Isaiah Thomas and Quincy Pondexter, who combined to score 57 points last Saturday but have only combined for 10 points in the first half.

The only thing more laughable than Washington’s shooting percentage is the announced attendance of 12,255 considering the number is more like 2,255 right about now at Staples Center.

LOS ANGELES -- Arizona State, in all likelihood, had its tournament bubble burst with a 70-61 loss to Stanford in the quarterfinals of the Pac-10 tournament.

Despite sweeping the season series against the Cardinal for the first time in five years, the Sun Devils only lead by one point for 19 seconds in the game, while Stanford led by as many as 17 in the second half.

It would appear now the only chance the Pac-10 has of sending two teams to the tournament is if Washington makes it to the Pac-10 title game and doesn’t get embarrassed on national television.

“I don’t know how anybody knows [who’s going to make the NCAA tournament], it changes hourly,” said Arizona State coach Herb Sendek. “We finished second in the conference but I don’t think anybody knows until Sunday. Obviously the more you win, the better your chances get so we’ll have to hope for the best now that we weren’t able to advance in this tournament.”

One of the unlikely heroes of the game for the Cardinal was senior guard Emmanuel Igbinosa, who normally doesn’t play on Thursdays because he has to attend class (hey, this is Stanford, after all).

“Since January I’ve had a required class I had to take to graduate with the rest of my class, it’s a combination psych class and senior seminar for my major, which is Management Science & Engineering,” said Igbinosa, who scored 12 points. “They only offer them once a week and I can’t miss them so I can’t play in Thursday games, but I told them well in advance I wanted to play in the Pac-10 tournament, so I made an arrangement and did my course earlier so I could get out.”

Having him on the court paid big dividends for the Cardinal as he was the team’s sparkplug off the bench and made big shots whenever the Sun Devils attempted to comeback. His play also rewarded the patience of Stanford coach Johnny Dawkins who not only allowed Igbinosa to miss Thursday games, but also practices during the week because of his class schedule.

“He has one of the most unusual situations of any basketball player in the country where his coach will allow him to miss several practices during the week and play him on the weekends,” Dawkins said. “But there’s a reason for that, and I think he showed it tonight with how valuable he is.”

LOS ANGELES – Maybe this is why some have pegged the Pac-10 as a one-bid conference this season. Arizona State is a bubble team needing to win at least two games to secure a bid in the NCAA tournament and the Sun Devils find themselves trailing Stanford, 29-28 at halftime. Arizona State has never led while Stanford has led by as many as 10.

Stanford finished tied for eighth in a dismal Pac-10 and yet the Cardinal have dominated the Sun Devils in the paint, outscoring them 14-to-6 while getting 12 points off turnovers.

Rihards Kuksiks seems to be the only active player on the court for Arizona State as he has 15 points and four rebounds. No other Sun Devil outside of Derek Glasser has more than seven points. Meanwhile seven players have scored for Stanford and their balanced attack.

If the Sun Devils, who swept the Cardinals this season, are to win this game they will have to stop settling for bad 3-point shots and get Ty Abbott, who is 1-of-5 and only has two points, more involved in the game.

LOS ANGELES – It’s hard to dissect a hug, but from all accounts, the hugs Ernie Kent gave to his players following Cal’s 90-74 win over his Oregon Ducks were more “thanks for the memories” than “see you soon.”

Kent reportedly told his players before the Pac-10 tournament that he would not return next season after 13 seasons as coach at Oregon following the Ducks’ 16-16 season.

After the game, however, Kent, who is 24-39 in his last two seasons at Oregon, refused to comment on his future.

“I will talk about the game and I’ll talk about these two outstanding young men up here, but this is not the place for me to talk about anything else right now,” Kent said. “I’m hoping we’re playing somewhere quite frankly.”

Kent was joined at the postgame press conference by LeKendric Longmire and Tajuan Porter and while Kent was unwilling to talk about the rumors, or “noise” surrounding his future, Longmire had no trouble addressing it.

“As player we try to not to focus on it but personally it sticks with me everywhere I go,” he said. “Coach is a great guy and coming here he’s changed my life tremendously not only as a basketball player but as a young man. I can’t help but respect him for everything he’s done for me and for giving me the opportunity to be here and play on this level. We love coach and we want him and we need him here. We feel like he’s the one who can take us to where we need to be. He’s proven that he can do it so that’s where we are."

LOS ANGELES -- Reeves Nelson didn't think he would be on the court for the Pacific-10 Conference tournament. He had promised his grandmother he wouldn't and had told his teammates he couldn't.

Yet there he was, foggy goggles and all, elbowing his way to the basket, fighting for loose balls and leading UCLA to a 75-69 win over Arizona. Nelson, who scored a game-high 19 points and 10 rebounds not only kept the Bruins' season alive but ended the Wildcats' run of 25 consecutive trips to the NCAA tournament.

That Nelson was even in uniform was a minor miracle he didn't think was possible when the week began. It didn't matter how many doctors tried to clear Nelson after laser-eye surgery two weeks ago to repair a tear in his left retina; his mother, Sheila Nelson, and his grandmother, Marilyn Sieferer, were having none of it. Nelson's grandmother has two detached retinas and is legally blind and when she heard about the injury Nelson suffered after falling on his face at Washington State on Feb. 18 after a slam dunk, she made it clear basketball wasn't worth losing his vision.

"They were grilling the doctors at UCLA pretty hard even though UCLA has one of the best medical schools in the world," Nelson said. "My mom said, 'Even with their reputation you're my baby boy,' and she just wanted to make sure I was safe."

Nelson was treated at UCLA's Jules Stein Eye Institute, which is regarded as the best center for vision care in the country, and was cleared to play last week in Arizona but was apprehensive about getting back on the court. It wasn't until Monday when he got a call from his mom, who had been talking to doctors for weeks that he finally decided to step back on the court.

"She's the one that convinced me to play because I originally wasn't going to play, but she said you have to stand up to your fears," Nelson said. "Even though the doctors cleared you and you're scared, you have to face your fears sooner or later because it's not like I'm not going to play basketball for the rest of my life. I talked to her this morning and she said to play as hard as you can and do your best for me."

Nelson played harder than anyone else on the court Thursday and finally gave the Bruins the presence they had been missing in the paint while losing four of their last five games with Nelson sidelined.

"The big difference for us today was Reeves," UCLA coach Ben Howland said. "His numbers were outstanding. It helps to have Reeves back because he's really our only solid inside presence offensively. They did a good job getting him the ball and he made some very good offensive rebounds and put backs. He just has great strength and his hands are very strong, when he has the ball it's very hard to wedge it from him."

Even before his return to the court after surgery, Nelson was already a fan favorite in Westwood where students draw the Yin Yang and infinity tattoos that adorn his left bicep on theirs before games. Maybe they will now start wearing his goggles even though Nelson admits there were a few times during the game he wanted to throw them away as he did with his contacts when he was in high school.

"I have bad vision anyway," said Nelson, who admitted he couldn't read the signs sitting across from him in the Los Angeles Kings' locker room after the game. "I don't wear contacts; they got knocked out too many times during games. I need them to drive, but I play without them. My dad jokes with me and says if I wore them I would shoot a higher percentage. I had them in high school and they get knocked out on the floor and you can't find them and I just said forget it. I put on my glasses in classes because I need to see the board."

Apparently he doesn't need them to see the backboard as he connected on eight of nine shots Thursday including a breakaway dunk at the end of the game eerily similar to the play where he injured himself when he fell flat on his face after losing his grip on the rim. This time, however, Nelson landed flat on his feet and showed maybe the Bruins can do the same after their down season.

"It's been hard for everybody because nobody likes to lose especially in a town like L.A. and for a school like UCLA where they're used to greatness," Nelson said. "It's hard to have a mediocre season so we try to keep our head up the whole time and hopefully we can pull out this Pac-10 tournament and get a bid in the NCAA tournament."

It might take a miracle for it to happen but as Nelson has already shown, it isn't out of the realm of possibility when he's on the court.

LOS ANGELES – Arizona’s streak of 25 consecutive NCAA tournament appearances came to an end with the Wildcats’ 75-69 loss to UCLA in the Pac-10 tournament. Arizona, which barely slipped into the dance last year despite finishing 19-13 and losing five of its final six games, was just two invitations short of North Carolina's record 27-year run from 1975-2001.

“Any coach who came to Arizona to make the NCAA tournament for a 26th time is going to find he’s going to be a paranoid coach,” said first-year Arizona coach Sean Miller. “The reason I came to Arizona is to rebuild our program and hopefully one day get it back to the level that everybody has watched.”

Considering how Arizona has played this season in finishing 16-15, the end of the streak didn’t come as much of a surprise to anybody.

“We knew it would be tough,” said senior guard Nic Wise, who had 16 points. “A whole new system, a whole new staff again and with the five freshman it would be a mountain to climb for us to make it the [NCAA] tournament.”

Miller must now go about the work of beginning a new streak next season.

“I’m confident that the price we pay through 31 games and the 80-plus practices that we’ve had, is a system that will continue to grow and develop,” Miller said. “Young players will get bigger, stronger and older and the more depth and size we have will certainly help.”

LOS ANGELES -- Arizona will need to win the Pac-10 tournament to keep its streak of 25 consecutive NCAA tournament berths alive but that added bit of motivation hasn’t seemed to spark the Wildcats, who came out about as flat as they’ve played this season. The only player who has shown much of anything is Nic Wise, who has 10 points.

Sean Miller has probably stayed in the coach’s box for about two seconds in the first half. While screaming, pleading and all but begging his players to pick up their intensity, he has been on the court and as far as the 3-point line while the ball is still in play. He almost hit Michael Roll when the UCLA senior hit a 3-pointer and was able to tap him on the back after he made the shot.

Perhaps the most exciting part of the first half was watching Bill Murray, wearing a red Arizona visor and a red and white wig, cheering wildly every time Arizona scores a basket. Murray's son, Luke, is a graduate assistant for the Wildcats.

Not only has it been a tough year for the Pac-10 on the court but they got no breaks in terms of attendance for their conference tournament with USC not participating and UCLA playing a Noon game with Arizona while class is in session. There are about 5,000 fans in attendance who look even smaller when you consider the Staples Center holds 20,000.