Danville, Ca--It's what makes college basketball such a wonderful fan sports...the surprise team that somehow rights its ship and emerges as a contender for their conference title.
Take Stanford, for instance. Coach Johnny Dawkins has certainly had his struggles in his season and a half at the helm of the Cardinal. Last year, the Cardinal started by winning their first nine games under the rookie coach, then fell flat in Pac-10 conference play. This season, Stanford got off to a 6-6 non conference mark, and were not picked to finish higher than 8th in the race. Well, guess what? The Cardinal is currently tied for second with two others with 4-3 records.
It seems like the Big Sky Conference is just filled with surprises. Weber State seems to do well in conference every year, so that's not a surprise anymore. Northern Colorado let the rest of the league know it wasn't going to be an "also ran" with its superb non-conference performances. But, the Big Surprise in the Big Sky just has to be Montana State. The Bobcats were just 5 and 6 in non-conference play, but are 6-2 in confernce. Head Coach Brad Huse has his Bobcats in a cat fight with the 7-1 Wildcats of Weber State.
While LaTech has current control of the WAC and are 7-1 league play, their lone loss came at the hands of the San Jose State Spartans. SJSU was just 6-10 last year in the WAC. So far this year, they are 4-3 in conference and 11-8 overalland tied with Nevada for third. The primary reason for their season-to-season turnaround is the absolutely superb play of two-guard Adrian Oliver. Oliver leads the league in scoring and has the NBA scouts shaking their heads, like they did Thursday night when he scored 39 points in every conceivable manner. The Spartans are deep with Chris Oakes averaging a double-double, Mac Peterson and Robert Owens scoring better than 9.3 each, and CJ Webster and Justin Graham 10.5. The confernce tourney should be worth going to.
The absolute biggest surprise on the coast is the play of Cal-Poly. Last season, the Mustangs were a miserable 7-21 overall, and just 3-13 in conference play. They were picked to finish last by the coaches and scribes this year, and their pre-conference 3-8 record made the prognasticators look like geniuses. However, Poly HAS TURNED IT AROUND. They are currently sitting in second with a 5-2 confernce mark, just a half game behind Pacific (5-1). They own impressive road wins over Irvine and Long Beach State. If they continue to improve, Joe Callero should be a shoe-in for BWC Coach of the Year.
