<p>Let?s make one thing clear: Washington State was supposed to be bad. Really bad.
<br/>This team was expected to struggle through a non-conference schedule that included Gonzaga and San Diego State. It was expected to bring up the rear in the Pac-10 with Oregon State and Arizona State.
<br/>Because prognostication in sports is usually based on equal parts ignorance and, well, ignorance, the Cougars of course came into Thursday?s game against the No. 1 Bruins 11-1 with their sole loss coming against Utah on the road.
<br/>To say the Cougars came out on fire on Thursday would be doing a disservice to fire. They came out slow. And they remained slow. They had exactly two fast break points in the game.
<br/>But sometimes slow is effective.
<br/>Washington State led at the half 28-24. And please, keep in mind this was against the No. 1 team in the nation on UCLA?s home floor in front of a large, loud crowd.
<br/>Sure, UCLA pulled out the victory (as the Bruins should on their home floor against a less-talented team) but the thing to come away with from this game is the following: The Pac-10 is really good this year.
<br/>The only team not currently above .500 is Arizona State, which has a 6-6 record. Other than that, every team has at least eight wins.<br/>It?s going to be really hard for a couple of teams to pull away from the rest. Anyone expecting UCLA to go undefeated through the conference schedule also likely expects the UCLA football team to win the national championship next year.<br/>This is the best the Pac-10 has been in years. There is a dangerous Arizona team that, although it doesn?t play a lick of defense, has seemingly a cast of thousands who can all score 20 points a game. There is a young Washington team that seems to be playing a lot like an early-career Steve Lavin team, meaning they scare the bejeezus out of highly ranked teams.<br/>I have an old man?s appreciation for unexciting blowouts, so this conference season will likely not be a pleasurable one for me. There are four games I think will definitely be blowouts for UCLA: both games against ASU, both games against OSU. I am basing that prediction entirely off of preseason estimations, and hey, maybe that does make me a fool.<br/>But there will have to be at least a couple of blowouts. Otherwise, I might be the youngest person in history to have a massive coronary.<br/><hr><i>E-mail Woods at if you think it would be really amazing if the Pac-10 refs could match the quality of the Pac-10 players.</i></p><br><br><a href='; target='_blank'>;