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Pac-12 Tournament: Four Takeaways from the Tournament of Champions

By Daniel Tran

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With the Pac-12 Tournament completed, here are some thoughts and some general conclusions that can be made after the dust settled in Las Vegas.

It is funny how things end up in the spot you thought it would. It’s kind of like when you are taking a road trip to Aspen (Colorado, not California) and you make that wrong turn at the interchange to take you the opposite direction. But, no matter what happened, whether it is your gas fund running dry or having a less ideal form of transportation carry you the rest of the way, nothing is going to stop you from reaching your initial destination.

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That is an ample summation of how the Pac-12 Tournament transpired. No matter what upset may have occurred in the earlier rounds, the team who remained unscathed from the Las Vegas heat was Arizona, who swept the Pac-12 titles with their dominating win against Oregon on Saturday.

Though Arizona may have predictably ended up finishing on top of the Pac-12 Tournament, there were a number of interesting nuggets of knowledge to gain from the Tournament of Champions.

1. Joseph Young is the best scorer in the nation that no one is talking about.

So much for not deserving that Conference Player of the Year Award, huh? All Joe Young did keep his head down and proved that he deserved the honor by torching the Pac-12 Conference with an array of brave drives to the basket, find open teammates, and, of course, his outside shooting.

"You already know what the @ishares by @blackrock Play of the Game is. Watch it over and over. #pac12hoops http://t.co/JokJRGlH1h— Pac-12 Networks (@Pac12Networks) March 14, 2015"

When it was all said and done, Young had lit up the conference for 24.7 points in his three games in the tournament, and leading the Oregon Ducks to the conference final even though they were underdogs going against the 17th ranked Utah Utes in the semifinals. If you don’t think the Oregon Ducks have a shot of at least advancing the NCAA tournament, you don’t know Joe.

2. Utah may be in trouble in the NCAA Tournament.

It’s a classic case of, are the Utah Utes a team in trouble, or did they just run into a hot Oregon team? My first instinct was that they were more of the latter, but after their second consecutive loss to Oregon with a loss to lowly Washington sandwiched in between, Utah may be facing an issue of confidence.

Heading into the NCAA Tournament, Utah has alternated wins and losses in their last 6 games, looking good against bad teams, but has not performed well enough to win against good teams as of late. With most teams in the NCAA Tournament riding a hot streak or possessing a lot of talent, Utah could be looking at an early round exit.

3. Bill Walton needs to broadcast more games.

Sure, crucify me if you want, and tell me that Bill Walton is the worst thing to happen to college basketball since Christian Laettner (that’s you talking, not me. I love me some Christian Laettner). However, you would be wrong. Bill Walton’s brand of on-air clownery may not be the in-depth analysis you are looking for, but people cannot deny that it is entertaining. The hyperbole and the sheer length of this nature inspired diatribes about volcanoes and being milked brings broadcasts to a level of medicinal herb-based euphoria.

And in the tedious minutiae that can envelope a basketball broadcast, why not have him there to provide some nonsensical relief?

4. How is Arizona going to do against the best in the nation?

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    • We already know that the Arizona Wildcats can dominate the Pac-12 conference, but what does that really mean? The Pac-12 has been the weakest conference of the Big Six this year, so it is tough to properly gauge how well they will do against the true elite of the NCAA.

    They were tested against a hungry UCLA team that was fighting for their NCAA Tournament lives against them and came out on top, the two other Pac-12 Tournament games they played resulted in an average margin of victory of 25 points.

    However, what will happen when they come up against a Kansas, Kentucky, or even Duke? Will they have enough experience against that sort of talent to prove themselves an Elite team? We can only know once they tip off the NCAA Tournament and the real March Madness begins.

    Next: 5 Things to Say about the Pac-12 Tourney Semifinal

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