Pac catching flack as teams stumble from gate

What's the only thing more all over the place than Pac-10 football?

Pac-10 basketball.

What's more futile than Pac-10 basketball?

Les Miles' clock management.

(But just barely.)

"And the hits keep coming for the Pac-10," ESPN analyst Doug Gottlieb said early Tuesday during halftime of the Arizona-Wisconsin game that completed the first round of the Maui Invitational. "Montana goes into Mac Court and beats [Oregon] by 13, this after Oregon State lost to Sac State, who won two games last year. The Pac-10 is down, folks. Way down."

Mike Montgomery watched his Bears get pounded by then-unranked Syracuse at MSG last week. (Getty Images)

Make that way, way, way down.

Like the ratings for NBC's Heroes.

In fairness, most knew this would be a rough year for the Pac-10 because 11 of the 15 players who last season earned all-league honors are gone, including the nine who were selected in the 2009 NBA Draft. Combine that with the fact that only one of Scout.com's top 20 prospects from the Class of 2009 (Abdul Gaddy) enrolled at a Pac-10 school, and it's no surprise that the Pac-10 is the worst of the power conferences.

But this bad?

Nobody expected it to be this bad.

California, otherwise known as the Pac-10 favorite, went to New York and got pounded by Syracuse before losing to Ohio State. Meantime, UCLA has already lost to Cal State Fullerton, Southern California to Loyola Marymount, Oregon to Montana, Stanford to Oral Roberts. And then there's Oregon State, which, after entering the season with some hype, is off to a 1-3 start. Who would've imagined it would be easier for President Obama to achieve health-care reform than it would be for his brother-in-law to avoid losses to Big Sky members? But on the same night the Senate Democrats got the 60 votes needed to bring their version of health-care reform to the Senate floor for debate, Craig Robinson lost 65-63 to Sacramento State, a team that was picked last in the Big Sky primarily because it finished 2-27 last season.

Thank God there are no midterm elections in college basketball.

If so, some coaches would be in trouble.

So now what?

Well, if you're a Pac-10 fan you're left hoping Theo Robertson (injured foot) gets healthy and elevates Cal, that Nikola Dragovic (suspended indefinitely) is reinstated while the other Bruins start to mature and lead UCLA to the Top 25, that ASU's Herb Sendek is clever enough to win with a subpar roster, that Nic Wise is talented enough to carry Arizona until Sean Miller rebuilds the program, and that Washington is just as good as Washington looks. If all that happens, maybe, just maybe, the Pac-10 can somehow put four teams in the NCAA tournament.

But three is more likely.

And two might be more like it.

And please don't bother with those East Coast bias e-mails.

Again, Cal State Fullerton beat UCLA. Montana beat Oregon. Loyola-Marymount beat Southern California. Oral Roberts beat Stanford. Sacramento State beat Oregon State. Syracuse destroyed California in New York. And I just watched Wisconsin take a 13-0 lead and go on to record a 65-61 victory over Arizona.

Bottom line, the Pac-10 is a mess from top to bottom with few exceptions.

That's not a bias.

That's a message delivered courtesy of the Big Sky.