The Pacific 12 Conference’s men’s basketball lifespan officially ended in the haughty confines of what will always be the Staples Center to those of us that don’t buy into ponzi schemes.
There, the Arizona Wildcats were out-foxed by a team that last reached the Elite Eight in the run-up to the Ronald Reagan administration, with a coach that entered the year on the hot seat outmaneuvering the shining star from Southern Arizona in Tinseltown.
There, the No. 2 Wildcats were outgunned (and outclassed) by the sixth seeded Clemson Tigers, who had as many tourney wins (three) between 2000 and 2023 as Arizona did in the last two editions of March Madness.
Nonetheless, Brad Brownell’s Tigers team did the little (and not-so-little) things to a T in L.A., rolling over the roadkill that was an Arizona team that was less amenable to an uppercut than an over-the-hill boxer.
A WBB Conference of Champions
The defeat on Thursday ended the Pac-12’s four-team MBB Madness, leaving us to hope that Colorado, Oregon State, Stanford, UCLA or USC can punch their ticket to next week’s Final Four.
Tara Vanderveer, who is among the most decorated coaches in collegiate basketball in Palo Alto, with 1,158 victories across 42 seasons at Stanford and Indiana, summed up the special nature of WBB out West in the runup to the Cardinal’s Sweet 16 clash with No. 3 NC State on Friday.
In her pregame comments, Vanderveer unloaded the whopper of all whopper quotes, telling members of the media about a group text she sent to each of the Pac-12’s head coaches.
Per Breanna Greene of KOIN, Vanderveer said as follows:
"We had so many teams in the tournament, I just said, 'What the heck, I'm just going to be one big one.' I just said, 'As we end our Pac-12 family, just want to wish everyone the best of luck in the tournament. Going our separate ways, we've had a great and special thing.' ...I feel like I can call any single coach, talk to them. We have a really close group. It is incredibly sad to see the end to such a great conference that has the most teams in the Sweet 16... We have worked together to make the Pac-12 successful... If anything it was, 'Best wishes, but remember how special it has been.'"
Requiem For A West Coast Dream…
Such grandiose statements fall flat most places, getting dismissed as being overwrought or overblown.
Vanderveer’s words are the exception to that rule, however, as the winningest coach in Pac-12 history provided the perfect epitaph for a dying conference that was put out to pasture well ahead of its time.
The CBB lifer has earned three of the Pac-12’s five national championships (USC won the other two in 1983 & 1984), with her most recent conquest in 2021 coming at the expense of conference rival Arizona.
Vanderveer is the perfect messenger to deliver the conference’s eulogy, with no one else on the men’s or women’s side having anywhere near the longevity (or success) that the 70-year-old Massachusetts native has achieved.
The longest tenured coach on the men’s side, for reference, is Colorado’s Tad Boyle, who is a newbie by comparison to Vanderveer, having only arrived in Boulder 14 years ago.
Vanderveer’s pregame quote above about the state of the Pac-12 hammers home a simple message: That it’s high time to enjoy the last dance of what’s been a uniquely West Coast league for 100-plus years.
In the end, it’s too bad that the success and camaraderie shown by the league’s leaders on the court couldn’t save it from the vultures in the boardroom.