W. basketball: Pac-10 women’s basketball demands recognition, more berths from NCAA

Slighted by the NCAA selection committee one too many times, the
Pac-10 women’s basketball conference is tired of being a
punching bag.

While most everyone recognizes the changing landscape of Pac-10
women’s basketball, those wielding voting power for the NCAA
tournament are apparently refusing to rake away their ingrained
opinions of the conference.

Stereotyped as a second-rate conference controlled by Stanford
in the 1990s, the Pac-10 is finally beginning to distance itself
from that ugly shadow in recent years.

But not everyone is convinced.

“I still don’t think the Pac-10 is getting the
recognition, and I don’t understand it,” UCLA coach
Kathy Olivier said.

Heading into the Pac-10 Tournament in San Jose this weekend,
eight teams in the conference, including UCLA (16-11), boast at
least a .500 winning percentage, a true testament to the
Pac-10’s parity and grueling competition week in and week
out.

Still, some of the Pac-10 coaches are skeptical as to whether
the NCAA selection committee is getting the message, to which they
have one thing to say: Get with the times.

“If the committee doesn’t give the Pac-10 more
(berths) than it has ever been given, then it’s punked
out,” USC coach Chris Gobrecht said. “(The selection
committee) doesn’t know squat. It’s just
ridiculous.”

Olivier, in simpler and kinder words, agrees.

“The committee needs to catch up and get in the year
2004,” Olivier said.”

Left at the altar last year after her Bruins failed to earn a
tournament berth with a record of 18-11, Olivier now wonders if a
change in how the voting committee views the Pac-10 isn’t in
order.

The sooner the better.

“Last year made me very skeptical,” Olivier
said.

Fast-forward to the 2004 season, and Olivier’s Bruins find
themselves in the same tenuous position, thinking they have
accomplished enough to secure a bid, not knowing for sure if the
committee feels the same.

While only three teams (Stanford, Arizona and Washington) made
it into the tournament last year, the Pac-10 is expecting four
teams’ names to be called during this year’s selection
show, if not more.

“The Pac-10 should get four teams in, and I know
we’re the fourth team,” Olivier said. “For USA
Conference to get four or five teams in, I don’t think that
should happen. But it’s all in the voting, and it’s
very obvious there is an East Coast bias.”

Perhaps this will be the year the Left Coast gets the respect it
deserves.