College basketball has such a soft and under hyped tip-off to the season every year but wouldn't you know it, the regular season starts tonight! The first games have already tipped off out on the East Coast but the first Pac-12 games get under way in less than one hour with 10 teams in action including a pair of marquee games. It's a little harder to cover Pac-12 basketball than it is with football because there are so many more games and it is hard to keep track of it all outside of the team you really care about (for me Oregon) and the central contenders in the conference (Arizona, Colorado, UCLA, and the Ducks). Basketball coverage will be a little loose and spotty for now because football is still going on and that obviously takes precedent.
Hoops coverage will pick up in January but until then I'll have at least a little weekly content to stay in the loop and will try my best to take a break from football to give the big non-conference match ups the attention they deserve. Night one in the Pac-12 is mostly occupied by the dregs of Evergreen State, Coppin State, Drexel, and CS Bakersfield but two teams are venturing out into headline games. The preseason #19 Oregon Ducks are in the first significant national showcase game of the year as they battle Georgetown in the Armed Forces Classic from Camp Humphreys Army Base in South Korea. Colorado, another Pac-12 contender is also eating the big meat of its non-conference schedule early with a "neutral" floor game against #25 Baylor in Dallas, TX. These two games are staggered nicely as well as you can catch the Ducks at 5:00 PM (PT) followed by the Buffs at 7:00. Because of the attention devoted to football and the Pac-12 game of the year being last night, I was unable to prepare previews for these two games but I'll have full wraps tomorrow about all 10 games.
The Pac-12 is deeper and stronger than it has been in years and will make for one of the most exciting hoops seasons on the west coast in some time. Enjoy Ducks-Hoyas and Buffs-Bears and spare a little time from your football gluttony to take in a little hard court ball.
Athletes in Space is named after ESPN/ABC's Kirk Herbstreit and his favorite saying that has spawned many drinking games. It is the most spectacularly mediocre Pac-12 Football and Men's Basketball blog on the internet and is filled with all the player analysis, game breakdowns, predictions, gambling advice, and news your pretty brain can handle. Owned and operated by Cam Stuerle, a lifelong Oregon fan, non-partisan writer, and an exiled college football lover living in Kelowna, BC, Canada.
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