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After awful Pac-10 games, how about a laugh or two?

The Pac-10 should issue apologies for anyone who attended the conference tournament games Wednesday night.

Stanford-Oregon State was a pathetic showing of shooting, or lack thereof. The Beavers won, but only because the Cardinal were roughly 5 for 7,345 from the field in the first half (That’s an approximation.)
The second game was better – Oregon beat Arizona State – but hardly one I needed to watch.

So, how about a pick-me-up?

Seattle Times Pac-10 reporter Bud Withers wrote “Great moments in Pac-10 history: The best and worst of 33 years of men’s basketball” before the tourney began. And he had some great nuggets:

In 1995, [ASU coach Bill] Frieder had $5,000 stolen from his room in Eugene. Unbowed, the next year he tried unsuccessfully to interview the thief, who was lodged in Lane County jail, for his TV show.

Back in the era of Monday-night TV games — and without a shot clock — Oregon State visited an under-talented Stanford team in 1980. The Cardinal held the ball against the Beavers, and after OSU scored to take the lead with 10 minutes left, [coach Ralph] Miller had his team hold the ball — just because he could. Final score: OSU 18, Stanford 16.

For nine years, in basketball-mad, Lute-loving Tucson, [Lute] Olson wouldn’t speak to Arizona Daily Star columnist Greg Hansen after he wrote critically of the Wildcats in 1992. Hansen managed to do his job adroitly without him.


With any luck, Thursday’s Pac-10 games will be as entertaining.

You also can follow me on Twitter @MikeMillerNBC.