NCAA Tournament Pool Runs Too Deep for Pacific

The one thing missing from the Pacific Life Pacific 10 Conference tournament was Pacific.

As in, University of the Pacific.

To catch the team with the nation’s longest winning streak you had to bypass downtown Los Angeles and head to the big conquistador helmet on Katella Avenue, the Anaheim Convention Center.

That’s where Pacific, ranked No. 18, winner of 22 in a row, was in action at the Big West tournament.

I wish I could tell you I saw the next mouse that roared, this year’s slept-on mid-major team that will wreak bracket havoc in the NCAA tournament.

Sorry. Not here. Not Pacific.

The Tigers barely survived their Big West semifinal game against Cal State Northridge, when two Northridge misses in the final 10 seconds allowed them to escape with a 63-61 victory.

They don’t appear ready to make as much March noise this time as they did last season, when they knocked off No. 5-seeded Providence in the NCAA’s opening round, then hung with Kansas for 30 minutes in the second round.

Actually, they can’t be completely assured of a tournament berth at all if they don’t tighten things up by tonight’s Big West final against Utah State.

“I don’t think we’re [already] in the tournament at all,� Pacific forward Christian Maraker said. “You just have to look back and see what happened to Utah State.�

Utah State went 25-4 last season but lost to Pacific in the conference tournament, then got no love -- and no bid -- on Selection Sunday.

But Pacific is counting on the strong upstarts’ showing from last year’s tournament -- including runs by Nevada and Alabama Birmingham -- to erase the stigma that the power conferences deserve all of the extra spots.

“Why wouldn’t they want a team that’s 46-4 in the tournament?� said Pacific Coach Bob Thomason, referring to Pacific’s record since Jan. 1, 2004.

He pointed to his team’s 13-1 road record and its four victories over Western Athletic Conference schools (Nevada, Fresno State, San Jose State and Texas El Paso), plus a quality loss at Kansas this season.

“We did what they asked,� Thomason said.

Yes, they deserve a spot in the tournament.

Just don’t expect them to stick around very long.

While they have two tournament pluses in a good point guard (David Doubley) and an athletic big man (Guillaume Yango), they lack team speed and are sloppy with the ball, two no-nos come March. They bobbled and misplayed their way to 23 turnovers Friday night.

Although Thomason said, “It’s not like us to turn the ball over for layups that much,� the Tigers did have 57 more turnovers than their opponents during the regular season. And they had 18 turnovers when they went to Kansas.

The Tigers were fortunate that Northridge couldn’t take advantage. Northridge converted like dollars into Euros, managing only four points off Pacific’s 13 first-half turnovers. That’s because the Matadors shot 20% and committed seven turnovers themselves in the half.

If any other Northridge player besides senior forward Ian Boylan came through, Pacific would have been done.

Boylan produced one of the three best individual March performances I’ve ever seen in person. His stat line said plenty: 32 points, seven steals, six rebounds and two assists. But it didn’t speak to the hustle through the passing lanes, the power to the hoop, the dive to the floor to grab a loose ball.

(My other two: Andre Miller’s triple-double for Utah against Arizona in the NCAA regional finals at the Arrowhead Pond in 1998 and Wally Szczerbiak’s 43-point first-round outburst for Miami of Ohio against Washington in the Louisiana Superdome in 1999.)

Boylan said he didn’t feel he had to win it himself, but “when teammates looked for me, I was in attack mode.�

For a while, it looked as if everyone else was in retreat. Boylan had four of his team’s six baskets in the first half, and 11 of Northridge’s 19 for the game.

But Boylan couldn’t make his last shot, on a drive into the heart of the lane with the Matadors down a point in the final seconds. After a Pacific free throw, Boylan penetrated again and dished to Joseph Frazier, whose three-point attempt went wide left.

One night isn’t always enough to summarize a season.

And this wasn’t an ideal showcase, playing in an arena that featured loose rims and fat, slow nets and a court with too much give.

Perhaps more alarming than what I saw were two statements from Thomason.

One: “Our lateral quickness is a little suspect.�

And then he offered this indictment of Doubley when describing a late turnover by Mike Webb that allowed Northridge to take the lead when he had his pocket picked at midcourt by Frazier, who went in for a layup and the lead with 1:03 remaining: “David should have come back and got the ball. David ran away from it.�

Not what you want to hear about your starting point guard, the Big West player of the year in crunch time.

But Doubley did have a game-high five assists, including the setup for Pacific’s last field goal, a shot by Maraker with 2:44 remaining.

And, in what might have been the most promising sign for Pacific all night, the Tigers made a nice run in the first half with Doubley and most of the starters on the bench.

Scoring depth is always healthy come the tournament. Advancing isn’t always about winning with your best, but surviving with something less.

“Maybe we only have one good game in us,� Thomason said.

Come next week, even that might not be enough.

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J.A. Adande can be reached at [email protected]. To read previous columns by Adande, go to latimes.com/adande.