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Coach Kathy Olivier’s team is the No. 3 seed in the Pac-10 tournament and will face No. 6 C
No. 3 seed in Pac-10 tourney may help team get into NCAAs
The UCLA women’s basketball team might have gotten help from a pair of unlikely sources. While UCLA (17-10, 12-6 Pac-10) helped further its NCAA Tournament candidacy with a road sweep of the Oregon schools, two of its biggest competitors for the precious few postseason spots stumbled and might not have time to get back to full speed. Washington (18-9, 11-7) and USC (17-10, 11-7) had been in the thrust of a three-team dogfight for the coveted No. 3 place finish in the conference standings. What may seem like an arbitrary placement actually figures to decide who will be dancing in March and who will be watching at home. As the fourth and fifth-place teams in the conference, respectively, Washington and USC will face each other in the first round of the Pac-10 Tournament in San Jose on Saturday night while UCLA will play sixth-place California (18-10, 10-8). All four of the team’s are on the bubble, and the upcoming games will be a war of attrition. “It now looks like whoever wins the Washington-USC game will get into the tournament and the other will probably be left out,” UCLA coach Kathy Olivier said. “For Cal to make it, they would probably have to beat us and then win another game, too.” Olivier’s opinion is swayed by the fact that Washington recently was swept in the Bay Area by No. 13 Stanford and Cal. It’s hard for any team to get an at-large bid having lost its last three games. It would be even less likely considering Cal has a weak Rating Percentage Index ranking of 59. While not always a household name, the RPI has long been a deciding factor in strength of a team based on quality wins and schedule difficulty. USC, meanwhile, has been a mediocre 4-5 in it last 9 games and its RPI is 56. Even though the Trojans have the same overall record as the Bruins and have beat them twice, the NCAA selection committee tends to reward teams that finish the season on a high note. In that vein, UCLA controls its own destiny after winning five of its last six to really strengthen its NCAA Tournament candidacy. Additionally, the team has an RPI ranking of 40 because of a daunting nonconference schedule. “Getting our first sweep on the road (in Oregon) this year is nice to have on our resume,” Olivier said. “We were really the only team in the Pac-10 to strengthen our place. Everyone stayed the same or were hurt.”
WILLIS HONORED: UCLA senior guard Lisa Willis has been named the U.S. Bank Pac-10 Women’s Basketball Player of the Week for Feb. 20-26. Willis averaged 20.5 points and 11 rebounds against the Oregon schools, and had a career-high 14 rebounds in the win over the Ducks. It was the sixth time this season that a Bruin has been named Pac-10 player of the week, and all the honors were garnered by Willis and junior guard Noelle Quinn. Each player has won the award three times this year.
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