FanHouse KyleWeaver

Conference: Pac-10
Record: 24-8, 12-8 Pac-10
RPI: 20
How They Got In: At-Large Bid
Seed/Bracket: #4 in the East

Mascot: Cougars. The Wazzu homepage proudly announces that Butch T. Cougar won 2006's Capital One Mascot of the Year competition.

Big Wins: at Gonzaga, USC (home/away), Oregon (home/away), Arizona State (home/away),

Notable Loss: at Cal. The Cougs also dropped all five of their games to conference Stanford and UCLA

Player You Should Know: Guard Derrick Low leads the team in scoring, but wing Kyle Weaver is the team's most athletic and best player overall. He's one of the best perimeter defenders in the Pac-10 and a great playmaker off the dribble.

Outlook: Simply put, Washington State is overseeded. They had some solid non-conference wins, but they failed too register a signature win in the Pac-10. They're not very deep and have questionable athleticism overall. A Sweet 16 now seems like a possibility given the draw, but don't be surprised to see them go out in the second round.

The Pac-10 announced its season awards today and, unsurprisingly, UCLA was the big winner. The Bruins picked up the hardware for Player of the Year (Kevin Love), Freshman of the Year (Love again), and Defensive Player of the Year (Russell Westbrook). The only trophy that failed to go to Westwood was Coach of the Year, which was won by Stanford's Trent Johnson. The Bruins also placed three people on the Pac-10's three All-Conference teams.

It's hard to argue with any of these choices. Love was pretty clearly the most consistent offensive player in the league this season, although his defense is not up to the level of likely runner-up Brook Lopez. Regardless, Love was a deserving winner of both his awards. Westbrook's win is a little easier to question, but he's certainly one of the two or three best wing defenders in the conference (although I prefer Washington State's Kyle Weaver), and Stanford center Robin Lopez's blocked shot totals probably weren't high enough to give him the trophy. As for Coach of the Year, that one's always emphasizes performance relative to expectations, so it's not surprising that the admittedly deserving Johnson beat out Ben Howland.

The Pac-10 recently changed their All-Conference team from one 10-person group to three five-man teams, and that was probably a good decision given the conference's strength this season. The first team included Love, Brook Lopez, Ryan Anderson, OJ Mayo, and James Harden. I'm a little surprised that Jerryd Bayless didn't beat out Harden, but it's possible that the coaches wanted to honor Arizona State for their surprisingly solid season. Other than that, though, the rest of the All-Conference teams played to form.