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About the only thing that plummeted further than Enron stock last year was the Pac-10’s reputation among women’s basketball fans across the nation.

Typically one of the premier conferences, the Pac-10 managed to secure just two NCAA Tournament bids last season – the lowest total in the history of the league.

“We just didn’t get enough wins,” Associate Pac-10 Commissioner Jim Muldoon said. “I was a little surprised that we only got two bids, but we had a down year. We weren’t worried though, because these things are usually cyclical.”

The conference has earned at least four invitations to the NCAA Tournament every year since 1996, but the inexperience of several marquee teams made that very difficult to achieve last season.

Perennial powers Oregon and USC failed to beat any top-notch teams during the preseason, and by mid-March, only Stanford was ranked in the RPI top 40.

The Cardinal and Pac-10 Tournament Champion Arizona State were the lone bright spots in what was otherwise a dismal campaign.

Four other teams saw the light of the postseason, Washington, USC, Oregon and Oregon State, each via their participation in the Women’s National Invitational Tournament.

The bottom three teams in the conference – including UCLA – finished a combined 6-48 overall last season.

“Every coach personally had to look at their own team,” said Arizona head coach Joan Bonvicini, whose squad finished a disappointing 14-14 last year.

“We all felt like we had a responsibility to the Pac-10, and I don’t think we did a good job as a whole last year. I think all of us as coaches felt that we had better programs than we showed.”

According to Bonvicini, the Pac-10 coaches met during the spring, and emphasized the importance of restoring the credibility of the conference in the eyes of the NCAA Selection Committee.

Thus far, they have done just that.

Three Pac-10 squads have defeated top-10 opponents, highlighted by Stanford’s 63-57 victory over No. 2 Kansas State on Nov. 31.

Several more teams have already defeated opponents that are likely bound for the NCAA Tournament.

“Last year was a fluke for us not to have a lot of teams be successful,” UCLA head coach Kathy Olivier said.

“We were young as a conference, but now we have one more season of experience. This year I expect to see a lot more Pac-10 teams in the tournament.”

Olivier’s Bruins are one of several pleasant surprises in the conference thus far. UCLA (4-2) has already defeated 2001-2002 NCAA Tournament teams in Northwestern State and UNLV.

USC (4-2 through Saturday), Washington (4-1), Arizona State (5-1) and No. 4 Stanford (4-0) are also enjoying fast starts this year.

The season is barely three weeks old, but the Pac-10 can take solace in the fact that the conference appears to be on a badly needed upswing again.

“We’ve knocked off a few big-name teams early in the season,” Muldoon said.

“We thought we were going to be a lot better this year, and early indications are that that is going to be the case.”

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