CougCenter, a Washington State Cougars community

In Joe Lunardi's first bracket of the season, he has only two Pac-10 team competing in the big dance, Washington: 5 seed in the Midwest @ Spokane, and Cal: 9 seed in the South @ Oklahoma City

Apparently, the vogue thing is to do Q&A with important people, rather than take the time to compose a story. Sometimes, though, the unfiltered nature can be pretty cool, as is the case with this one -- a must read if you're interested in how the Pac-10 will be different under Larry Scott's leadership. One thing you'll notice right away? This guy is far from the typical NCAA cronie that mans so many of these positions across the country. He's a business man, pure and simple, and his business is clearly to make the conference a better business. I love it.

Not sure how I feel about this. Will she be as forward thinking as the conference needs? The one thing she'll definitely have going for her is a built-in respect level when it comes to her recommendations to the conference, so you have to figure the presidents will listen to her. She also should be a great negotiator with potential TV partners. I dunno. She's got to be better than any internal candidate, I would think.

Basketball Prospectus has an article up about the Pac 10 becoming the slowest major conference in basketball. It's not just Bennett-Ball anymore - OSU, USC, ASU and UCLA all join us as teams averaging less than 60 possessions per game. The article is mostly in fun, though the author does point out that recruits may not be so excited to join us out west if this trend continues!