2011 Pac 10 Championship Odds

The Pacific Life PAC-10 Men’s Basketball Tournament gets underway this Wednesday, March 9 from the Staples Center in Los Angeles with the first game tipping off at 3 p.m.(ET). Arizona and possibly UCLA have already secured a spot in the field of 68 for this year’s NCAA Men’s Tournament. Washington and USC might be able to join them with a deep run this week, but the rest of the teams in the conference will need to win it all to get their invitation to the Big Dance.

The first round has the bottom four seeds in action with No.8 Stanford taking on No.9 Oregon State and No.7 Oregon taking on No.10 Arizona State.

Thursday’s quarterfinals mix things up with No.4 USC pitted against No.5 California, No.1 Arizona squaring off against the winner of the 8/9 game, No.2 UCLA drawing the winner of the 7/10 game, and No.3 Washington taking on in-state rival No.6 Washington State.

The semifinals are set for Friday night, March 11 and the championship game is scheduled for Saturday, March 12 at 6 p.m. (ET).

It what has to be a bit of a surprise, Sportsbook.com has opened Washington as the favorite at +200 to win the PAC-10 Tournament even though No.15 Arizona is the only ranked team in the conference and UCLA is the next highest rated team. Both these schools are the second favorite at +300.

The Huskies finished the regular season a very pedestrian 20-10 straight-up (14-13-1 against the spread) and went 11-7 SU in conference play including a regular season split with both the Wildcats and the Bruins. Even more intriguing is the fact they face Washington State in the first round which is a team that has already beaten them twice this year.

This team does have some merit with Isaiah Thomas and Matthew Brian-Amaning averaging over 16 points a game for a Washington squad that is ranked third in the nation in scoring with 84 points a game. The Huskies are also an excellent rebounding team with an average of 39 boards a game.

Arizona won the PAC-10 regular season title with a conference record of 14-4 SU. The Wildcats finished 25-6 SU overall (15-13-1 ATS) after going 2-2 in their final four games. The first setback was a 65-57 loss to USC in a game that closed as a ‘pick’. They followed this with an ugly 71-49 loss to UCLA as a 2 ½-point road underdog.

Derrick Williams has been the man for Arizona this season with a team-high 18.8 points and 8.2 rebounds a game. The Wildcats are shooting 47.3 percent from the field and averaging 77 points a game.

UCLA survived a slow start to finish 22-9 SU (16-14-1 ATS) after winning nine of its final 11 games. It was second in the PAC-10 with a 13-5 SU record in conference play. The Bruins finished the regular season with the lopsided win over Arizona, but also had a 70-63 loss to the Huskies as an eight-point road underdog.

Reeves Nelson and Malcolm Lee lead a Bruins team that is averaging 70 points and 37 rebounds a game. Nelson is averaging a team-high 14.2 points and 8.9 rebounds a game while Lee is second in scoring with 13.2 points a game.

The value pick in this tournament could be USC at +400. The Trojans finished strong with five wins in their last six games including the win over Arizona. They are 18-13 SU overall (14-12-4 ATS) and 10-8 SU in the PAC-10.

USC would undoubtedly need a deep run this week to have any chance of making it to the dance so the motivation is there. It also has Nikola Vucevic, who leads the team with 17.7 points and 10.3 rebounds a game. This team could be a one and done given they face Cal in the first round. However, if it gets past that game the stage could be set for a big week.