FRESNO ST
The visitors? last two road games were bad-looking losses at Hawaii and San Jose, but Hawaii?s deep and big guard rotation was hitting everything and they had no time to recover from the Hawaii trip when the strange, small San Jose lineup ran around the floor against them. Boise?s Coby Karl can be targeted against in a game plan and the others dared to win it for them, while Fresno?s NBA-range gunners are always eligible for sudden, random violent attacks on the twine.
Cal Poly-SLO
Do the Pollies wanna crack at Pacific? Who in the Big West wouldn?t after the Tigers cleaned up in the conference for two years in a row? The visitors are on a 0-6 SU run over three seasons in this series. But Pacific opened Big West play 2-2, probably without a bullet. The uninspiring Irvine Anteaters recently handed Pacific its most lopsided home loss since the Regan Administration and with weak rebounding and underclassmen as the leading minute- and points-getters, things could stay bad after the exposure, and with the visitors having some experienced leaders by comparison, looking to shed the Pacific monkey from their backs.
USC
It looks like the Trojans have got it to the point where they can play against various quality styles and hang with most anyone. Stanford is quite young all around and the rigors of it all should be about to hit them as Pac 10 mid-season approaches. A USC team that had a lot less depth than this current bunch held the Cardinal to only 58 points on 36% shooting in this building near the end of last season, an 0-2 year for USC vs. Stanford. Double-revenge and a cheap lay?
Oregon
The Ducks of Oregon had a very poor year last season and have been getting a lot of mileage out of the revenge angle this season, talking openly about it before and after wins like Georgetown, Oregon State, UCLA and Arizona. Guess who lost twice to Washington?s Sweet 16 team last season?