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Unfortunately, we have all witnessed the implosion of USC in the off-season with a number of the talent moving to other schools and the NBA from last year’s team. The leaders in the conference heading into the 2009-10 season are Washington and California with UCLA as the third team in my rankings. Just because Abdul Gaddy is going to Washington and not a traditional basketball powerhouse, we’re not seeing the press on what his impact is going to meant to the Huskies this season. Washington finished the 2008-09 season at 14-4 in PAC-10 play and a 26-9 overall record and are my prediction to win the PAC-10 this season. (Technorati Tag: uq6vg4p2h5 )

2009 PAC-10 Basketball Rankings

#1 2009 PAC-10 Basketball Team – Washington

Put Abdul Gaddy with Isaiah Thomas this season, and we just might see Washington with the most elite backcourt west of the Mississippi River by January. Through in senior Quincy Pondexter and Matthew Bryan-Amaning and Washington may be close to reaching 30 wins this season.

#2 2009 PAC-10 Basketball Team – California

It was a close call on picking Washington over CAL for my rankings, but Cal is not far behind. If the Bears had won the PAC-10 anytime in the last 50 years, I might have given them the nod, but for now keep them a close second. The team is lead by senior guards Patrick Christopher and Jerome Randle. Look for the Bears to significantly improve on their 11-7, 22-11 record from last season and try to go a bit deeper in the 2010 NCAA tournament.

#3 2009 PAC-10 Basketball Team – UCLA

We don’t have any NBA lottery picks on this year’s Bruins team, but Coach Howland has plenty of talent on the squad. There are 9 freshmen and sophomores on the team, so look for some early hiccups followed by the team peaking closer to tournament time.

#4 2009 PAC-10 Basketball Team – Arizona

Arizona squeaked into the NCAA tournment last year finishing the season 21-14 and 9-9 in PAC-10 play. The Wildcats have a new coach in Sean Miller and will have to work to make the tournament for a 26th consecutive season.

#5 2009 PAC-10 Basketball Team – Arizona State

Coach Herb Sendek brings back several veteran players from last season’s squad that finished 25-10, 11-7. The team lost James Harden and Jeff Pendergraph to the NBA, and will find it hard to replicate last seasons 25 wins this year.

#6 2009 PAC-10 Basketball Team – Oregon State

The Beavers bring back evreyone from last season’s 18-18, 7-11 team. They have an outside shot at qualifying for the NCAA tournament this season.

#7 2009 PAC-10 Basketball Team – Washington State

The team is led by premiere shooter Klay Thompson. This will likely be enough to get State above .500 this season, but may not prove to be quite enough fire power to get the team to the NCAA tournament.

#8 2009 PAC-10 Basketball Team – Oregon

Oregon is young, however, Coach Ernie Kent is lucky that USC and Stanford are expected to be down this season or they might have trouble matching their two PAC-10 conference wins from last season.

#9 2009 PAC-10 Basketball Team – USC

The program has been left in a mess and a lot of talent has left. The one bright spot on the roster is returning shooting guard Dwight Lewis who averaged 14.4 points per game last season.

#10 2009 PAC-10 Basketball Team – Stanford

The Cardinals are coming off of a 20-14 record last season but were 6-12 in the conference. The team is young, and will miss Anthony Goods, Lawrence Hill, and Mitch Johnson from last season. Landry Fields is the lone player returning who averaged more than 10 ppg last season.

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This entry was posted on Friday, October 9th, 2009 at 11:31 am and is filed under NCAA Preseason Basketball Rankings. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.