Coaches say Cal best in Pac-10

By Percy Allen
The Seattle Times

E-Mail

reprint or license

Comments (0)

Text Size:

tool goes here

LOS ANGELES -- If Cal guard Jerome Randle could have skipped Thursday's Pac-10 basketball media day, he would have gone to the gym to prepare for the season.

He hates the hype and the hoopla. Hates the polls and predictions. And he hates the media preseason rankings, which put the Bears atop the list ahead of defending champion Washington.

"I try to stay away from things like rankings and predictions," Randle said. "I really don't like reading about anything.

I don't like to really hear about anything, but I guess that comes with the game of basketball. I just want to focus on basketball. I love the game and just focus on getting better day in and day out."

California, which hasn't won a Pac-10 title since 1960, got 350 points and 25 first-place votes to edge Washington, which had 330 points and seven first-place votes. UCLA was third and Washington State eighth. It's the first time in 10 years the Bruins or Arizona weren't picked to win the conference crown.

"There's a lot of balance and parity in the conference," UCLA coach Ben Howland said. "Anybody can beat anybody on a given night in the Pac-10. That's one of the great things about this league."

Pac-10 coaches spent a lot of time Thursday countering a perception nationally that it's a down year for their conference.

"We've got to do a better job of promoting ourselves," Cal coach Mike Montgomery said. "This has never been a two-team conference and I don't suspect it will be this year." During the past three years, the Big East (21) is the only conference to send more teams to the NCAA Tournament than the Pac-10, which is tied with the ACC with 18.

The Pac-10 has also had more NBA draft picks (27), more first-round picks (17) and more top-10 picks (eight) in the past three years than any conference.

Randle is the reason Cal was picked No. 1. Yet, he's playing with a chip on his shoulder, saying of conference foes: "I know they're coming after me, and I'll be ready."

Montgomery said the Bears will have to improve their defense and toughness.

At Stanford, second-year coach Johnny Dawkins has lost four starters and freshman Andy Brown, who is out for the season with a knee injury.