Pac-12 Tournament: 5 Things To Say To Sound Smart

So let me throw out a hypothetical real quick for you: on Friday night you A) went out living the life of a wild and adventurous person and B) missed the Pac-12 tournament semifinals. While this is a cardinal sin and I guarantee your Friday night would have been better off watching two high quality games of college basketball, the past is the past and you must now live with the consequences.

Let me throw another hypothetical out there for you: it’s selection Sunday and you don’t want to sound like a major jabroni when the Pac-12 gets brought up. I’m here to save your bacon. Let me recap 5 things you can regurgitate that will make you sound smart even though you didn’t even sniff the conference semifinals.

1) UCLA once threw out a defense that stopped Arizona in its tracks: a 3-2 zone with lengthy forward Kevon Looney up top and a quick double team on the post.

All season long Arizona has struggled against zone defense due to a lack of shooters and dynamic offensive players. Steve Alford drew up a scheme that once again gave Arizona hardcore offensive amnesia and stumped them for much of the first and second half.

With spider-like Kevon Looney cutting off entry passes to the middle, Arizona passed the ball in circles around the perimeter aimlessly while never making aggressive attacks to the basket. When they managed entry passes into the post, UCLA would double team the post hard and take away Arizona’s ‘more giants than the opponent’ advantage they like to deploy.

Arizona’s hot potato motion offensive response allowed UCLA to go from a 9-2 starting deficit to leading with less than ten minutes to go.

2) Brandon Ashley was the only offensive player in the game to not catch the offensive flu affecting both teams.

Finishing with 24 points on a scalding 9-11 shooting night, Ashley was the only offensive player that truly shined in the game. Through a bevy of midrange Js, post moves, and aggressive put-backs, Ashley proved to be the only trustworthy offensive player for Arizona. Norman Powell did the heavy lifting for UCLA with 21 points by way of shooting 8-17 from the field.

3) Rondae Hollis-Jefferson struggled on offense but more than made up for it on defense, including a massive block to seal the game.

Shooting 20% from the field isn’t impressive, but grabbing 12 boards with 2 steals and 2 gargantuan blocks is. After being snubbed for Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Year, Hollis-Jefferson continued to rip the Pac-12 a new one on the defensive end. After pestering UCLA all game, he blocked a 3 point attempt with less than a minute to go to seal the game for Arizona.

4) The Utah and Oregon fans went tit-for-tat battling for arena supremacy.

While Arizona fans swarmed the MGM for the first game, Utah and Oregon fans took turns going back and forth throughout the entire second game. Both led chants and got loud at the end. Props to fans making the trip out to support their teams. The true test for Oregon fans will come tonight when they go toe to toe with the Wildcat fan club. Ducks need to get loud now.

5) In a battle of two conference Player of the Year candidates (Delon Wright and Joe Young), it turned out to be Brandon Taylor that took over for most of the game . . .

Finishing with 24 points, Taylor sniped 6 three pointers while picking up the slack from backcourt POY candidate Delon Wright. Wright had 0 points heading into halftime before exploding in the second half for 16. Taylor outshone Conference POY winner Joe Young for much of the game until Young found another gear late in the game.

. . . But Joe Young will forever have the last laugh after he murdered Utah’s Pac-12 tournament dreams with one of the most disgusting game winners you’ll ever see.

You’re gonna see this on the highlight reel for the Pac-12 tournament for quite some time. After Delon Wright equalized with just seconds remaining, Joe Young looked at the clock and thought ‘Yeah that’s too much time. I’m a go poop on your dreams’. And Joe Young did just that. Welcome to March Madness folks.

Next: VIDEO: Albany Hits Buzzer-Beater To Make NCAA Tournament

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By Alex Furrier | Mar 14, 2015