Taking time out of my lunch break to drop this in:
Let's pretend the magic number to get to the tournament is 10 Pac-10 wins. I know, we're dreaming a bit, but just go with me on this.
We have the home stand this weekend against UCLA and USC. If we lose both, we fall to 3-4 in conference. Not great, but not the end of the world, right?
Wrong.
Because after this weekend we have what I affectionately call "the road trip from hell":
at Arizona State
at Arizona
at Stanford
at California
We will probably not be favored in a single game on this upcoming road trip. Let's say, realistically, that we go 1-3. That puts us at 4-7 coming out of the Bay Area.
Meaning, that to get to ten Pac-10 wins, we'd have to go 6-1 over the final seven games. That's not happening, because we'd have to not only be perfect at home, but also take 2 out of 3 on the road from UCLA, USC and Washington.
On the other hand, if we can win one of these two at home this weekend, we come out at 4-3 in conference, and in the scenario above would only need to go 5-2 down the stretch. More realistic, considering we have four of our last seven at home, which includes the Oregon schools (yay!).
A sweep this weekend would be ideal. So would making out with Scarlett Johansson. But we can't always get what we want.
So let's beat UCLA and/or USC!