I was able to watch UCLA vs UW and Stanford vs Utah. Like everyone has said...this is going to be a heck of a conference. Stanford will take away loads of confidence in beating Utah and might propel them to a solid season. Stanford's young players will only get better. UCLA's Bryce Alford is clutch! To watch him down the stretch and OT drain 3 pointers after 3 pointers after shooting 2-12 during the first 38 minutes was impressive. Washington is going to make some noise for years to come...they have a bunch of freshmen and these boys have some skills. Yet none of them look to be 1 and done types, going to be interesting to see how UW develops over the next few years.
But a big takeaway for me was watching how the refs call games. They seem to call a ridiculous amount of ticky tack "over the back" calls, especially in the Stanford game. There was also tons of questionable calls in the UW game. The problem I see is that this style of reffing creates a "softness" within the conference that becomes a problem when the NCAA tourney begins.
But this is going to be a fun conference season. Road wins are going to be hard to come by this year.
But a big takeaway for me was watching how the refs call games. They seem to call a ridiculous amount of ticky tack "over the back" calls, especially in the Stanford game. There was also tons of questionable calls in the UW game. The problem I see is that this style of reffing creates a "softness" within the conference that becomes a problem when the NCAA tourney begins.
But this is going to be a fun conference season. Road wins are going to be hard to come by this year.
