Lots of sweeps in Pac-10 baseball this past weekend. The best team and the worst team both took care of Mountain West schools. One struggling team pulled off a shocking win and another struggling team dropped to a new low.

ASU won both vs. BYU. Scores: 14-0, 7-2
Wildcat fans can only hope the Devils are tired of all these easy wins.

OSU won all three vs. Oregon. Scores: 2-1 (10 inn.), 4-3 (11 inn.), 6-5
The wow of the week. I guess the Beavers found their lug nuts.

UCLA won all three at Washington. Scores: 7-2, 14-6, 7-6
The Bruins responded the best possible way after getting swept last week.

Cal doesn’t believe in diversity.
Photo by Crystal Ochoa/The Arizona Republic

WSU won all three vs. Cal.
Scores: 13-10, 11-9, 9-4
The all-or-nothing Bears continued to do their thing. Cal has played seven Pac-10 series to date, and six of them have ended in a sweep.

ARIZONA lost two of three vs.
Cal State Bakersfield.
Scores: 2-7 (11 innings), 17-6, 5-22
At the time when you want to be peaking, this team is valleying.

Stanford won two of three at
Long Beach State. Scores: 3-2, 4-3 (10 inn.), 5-10
The losses drop the Dirtbags to 7-8 in Pac-10 play this year. LBSU must be auditioning in case the Pac-10 expansion rumors are true.

USC won all three vs. Utah. Scores: 8-1, 6-5, 11-6
That makes wins in six of their last seven for the Trojans, the anti-Arizona.

The updated league standings:

It was a week of big moves as Oregon dropped from 3rd to 7th and UCLA went from 7th to 2nd. Arizona actually moved up after its horrid showing, going from 6th place to a tie for 5th by virtue of losing to someone other than a Pac-10 team.

The rankings, however, were not as kind to the UA:

BAS = Baseball America
COL = Collegiate Baseball
NAT = National Collegiate Baseball Writers
USA = USA Today/ESPN coaches’ poll
RIV = Rivals.com
CBCRDI = College Baseball Cumulative Rankings Directional Indicator

The Wildcats should send a fruit basket to the National Collegiate Baseball Writers for keeping them in the top-25. Can Arizona shockingly turn things around against the high-flying Sun Devils this weekend?

That would be bananas.

As expected, Cal is finding the tougher portion of its schedule to be, well, tough. Stanford is on the move, Oregon State is on the bad kind of move, and the same old team is at the top of the heap.

ASU won two of three vs. Washington. Scores: 10-2, 4-9, 10-4
Arizona State continues to get it done but the Devils only have one home conference series left.

Oregon won two of three at USC. Scores: 12-2, 4-5 (10 inn.), 8-4
The Ducks now have a winning Pac-10 record which is very impressive for the program’s sophomore season.

Stanford scooped up another sweep.
Photo by Andrea Bloom/The Arizona Republic

Stanford won all three vs. Cal.
Scores: 3-2, 15-12, 11-10
It’s the Cardinal’s turn to be the red-hot team…on the weekends. Stanford has won seven straight Pac-10 games but has lost five of its last six midweek games.

UCLA won two of three at ARIZONA. Scores: 6-3 (10 inn.), 6-2, 4-6
The UA’s Friday night error means the Bruins are in 3rd place instead of the Cats.

WSU won two of three vs. OSU. Scores: 5-1, 12-4, 2-3
That’s three straight series losses for the Beavers. Better get them some lug nuts. The wheels are falling off.

Stanford spanking Cal means we have a new team in ASU’s rearview mirror. Ye Pac-Tenne Standyngs:

The polls, however, aren’t as high on Stanford. That’s where those midweek losses come in.

BAS = Baseball America
COL = Collegiate Baseball
NAT = National Collegiate Baseball Writers
USA = USA Today/ESPN coaches’ poll
RIV = Rivals.com
CBCRDI = College Baseball Cumulative Rankings Directional Indicator

Seven Pac-10 teams are represented in the polls but only two are moving in the right direction. ASU went from the unanimous #1 to the unanimous not-#1 after splitting four games on the week. Stanford understandably made the biggest jump with Cal taking the biggest tumble. OSU continues to get votes in the coaches’ poll which proves, even in baseball, the coaches don’t pay again when they vote.

As far as the Wildcats, shouldn’t splitting four games against teams ahead of you in the polls make you move up? If it was a matter of moving Stanford ahead of Arizona that would make sense, but the Cats are still ahead of the Cardinal in four of the five polls.

Ye olde confusying.

The series of the week in the Pac-10 did not disappoint, but it was overshadowed by one startling result.

(UNWARNING: Arizona Wildcat fans will be much less nauseous this week.)

ARIZONA won two of three at Washington. Scores: 7-2, 2-10, 9-1
The Cats were a lot more at home on the road this week, beating the Huskies twice and throwing in a bonus win at Gonzaga.

Cal won all three at USC. Scores: 16-9, 7-1, 4-3
I guess the Bears didn’t take too kindly to getting swept by ASU. Cal hasn’t lost since and has won eight in a row.

Oregon won two of three at Stanford. Scores: 5-2, 9-6, 1-2
This would have been the surprise of the weekend if not for what Wazzu pulled off.

UCLA won two of three at OSU. Scores: 1-4, 3-1 (16 inn.), 8-2
Huge win for the Bruins. Does this make them the new team to beat?

"Wait, I thought you were going to
order the wins!"
Photo by David Kadlubowski
The Arizona Republic

WSU won two of three vs. ASU.
Scores: 6-5, 7-11, 9-5
Say what now? I said the Devils would be able to name their score. I expected them to name more than one win.

So the road team won four of the five series and the only road team to lose was the unanimous #1 team in the country. Go figure.

Only three weeks into the Pac-10 season and we already have a Circular Reference: Arizona beat Washington who beat WSU who beat ASU who beat Cal who beat Arizona.

This is good, and not just in an it’s-always-good-when-ASU-loses kind of way. In the same way the 2009 Pac-10 football season was the most exciting in years, it’s good to have multiple teams with a realistic shot at winning the title.

ASU only lost one Pac-10 series all last year. Does dropping two in Pullman mean the Devils aren’t as good as we thought they were? Or, to continue the football analogy, is it going to be like USC losing an early game to OSU or Washington and then steamrolling everyone else?

The updated standings:

USC has established itself as the worst team, but it looks like every other position will be a dogfight. Can Cal keep pace with the league favorites? The Bears get Washington at home next so they could very well keep their streak going but then the degree of difficulty goes way up (OSU and UCLA at home and road series with Stanford, WSU and Oregon).

CBCRDI time!

BAS = Baseball America
COL = Collegiate Baseball
NAT = National Collegiate Baseball Writers
USA = USA Today/ESPN coaches’ poll
RIV = Rivals.com

We welcome a new team to the rankings as the Wazzu Coogs snuck into one poll. Oregon went rank-free for the second straight week to drop off the list and Stanford is in danger of joining the Ducks in banishment.

Cal sets an all-time CBCRDI record with a 40-point jump, which is impressive, even if the scoring system is only two weeks old.

The first full weekend of Pac-10 baseball is in the books. Here is what came to pass:

(WARNING: May cause nausea among Arizona Wildcat fans.)

Those uniforms are making me a bit queasy too.
Photo by Rick Scuteri/US Presswire

ASU won two of three at Oregon.
Scores: 1-0, 5-6 (12 inn.), 7-3.
The Ducks gave the Devils their first loss and came within a couple runs of winning the series. But that didn’t slow Sparky’s momentum, as we shall sadly see.

UCLA won two of three vs. Stanford.
Scores: 6-5 (10 inn.), 4-8, 7-5.
The Bruins also suffered their first defeat of the season but won two close games to take the series.

OSU won two of three at USC.
Scores: 4-1 (10 inn.), 2-8, 4-3.
The Beavers got outscored on the weekend but did enough to win two road games.

Washington won two of three vs. WSU.
Scores: 3-2, 5-6 (12 inn.), 4-3.
Three one-run games, and a dropped fly ball was the only thing keeping the Cougars from the series win.

Cal won all three vs. ARIZONA.
Scores: 7-2, 8-0, 4-3.
The only sweep and the only series without an extra innings game. The only way it could’ve been worse for the Cats was if their best pitcher got hit in the head. Oh. Right.

Your updated standings:

The updated rankings belonging to you:

BAS = Baseball America
COL = Collegiate Baseball
NAT = National Collegiate Baseball Writers
USA = USA Today/ESPN coaches’ poll
RIV = Rivals.com

What is the CBCRDI? I’m glad you asked. It’s the College Baseball Cumulative Rankings Directional Indicator, because if there’s one thing baseball needs it’s more stats.

The way it works is you get 30 points if you’re ranked #1 in one of the five polls, 29 points per poll if you’re ranked #2, and so on. Showing up in the “Others receiving votes” section counts, down to #30. If you’re not ranked in a poll you don’t get anything. Add those numbers together, compare them to last week and – voila! – you’ve got a CBCRDI.

How do you pronounce the acronym? The “C-Bacardi.” Obviously.

Of course, just my luck, the week I start this is the week ASU becomes the unanimous #1 team in the land.

Somebody pass the CBCRDI.

Is the car gassed up? Did you check the tires? Are you stocked up on beef jerky and Tums? It’s like August all over again because the state of Arizona is heading to San Diego.

Holiday Bowl week is here!

The Las Vegas Bowl trip was an absolute blast and I’m looking forward to more of the same this year. I do hope we make this bowl game thing an annual tradition.

Although, looking at UA history the return bowl trip shouldn’t have come as a surprise. Dating back to the ‘80s every time the Cats broke a bowl draught they made it back to the postseason the following year. Now, going bowling again next year would be a bigger accomplishment as the Wildcats have only played in a bowl three straight years one time (1992-’94).

Arizona’s all-time bowl record is 6-7-1 so a win on Wednesday would even things up. That wouldn’t be bad at all considering the school went 65 years between its first bowl game (1921) and its first bowl victory (1986).

This is the first time we’ve played a school in a bowl game a second time. In our previous 14 bowls we played 14 different teams, from the obscure (Centre and Drake) to the name brand (Auburn, Georgia and Miami), but Nebraska is the first rematch.

The ’09 Cornhuskers are known for three things: defense, defense, and defense. In their last seven games Nebraska has only given up more than one offensive touchdown twice. They kept the other team’s O completely out of the end zone three different times. The Huskers intercepted 14 passes over their final six games.

This is not a game for Nick Foles to try and buy time with his feet. Holding the ball against these guys is a turnover waiting to happen. The game plan has to be read-read-read-throw it away.

I would love for our guys to score two quick TDs and coast but we’re probably going to see a game similar to the last two we played. What we need to not see is a third quarter like the last two. Just one first down in the opening period of the second half against both ASU and USC. What’s the opposite of halftime adjustments?

Sustaining long drives is going to be difficult so the Cats have got to look for a couple opportunities to take a shot deep with Juron Criner. We need to get the ball into #82’s hands as often as possible (remember the huge inside screen against Oregon) but it makes a lot of sense to try and set up a quick score or two with a one-on-one jump ball deep.

Field position is crucial in defensive struggles so Keenyn Crier needs to come up big. Thirteen-yard punts aren’t going to cut it. Along the same lines Alex Zendejas can’t miss any short field goals. Hopefully his kick against the Sun Devils will have him ready in case more 4th-quarter heroics are needed.

The fans won’t like it but I don’t see Mike Stoops doing a lot of gambling in the red zone. Yes, touchdowns are huge in this game, but field goals are semi-huge.

I will say this: One act of well-timed deception could make all the difference. I’m thinking something along the lines of going for it on 4th-and-inches, lining up in the “Hey! We’re running a quarterback sneak!” formation…and then passing. If that happens I will leave my nosebleed seat, storm the press box and lift Sonny Dykes onto my shoulders myself.

So word must have gotten out about our poor record wearing white jerseys and white pants. It’s like someone said, “Uniform stats, shmooniform stats. I see your fear of White-on-White and give you White-on-White-on-White.”

Whatever Arizona wears the program will be trying to finish a season ranked for just the sixth time in the Pac-10 era. A win would also give the Cats a rare year-ending win streak. Since leaving the WAC Arizona has only won three or more to end a season four times, with three-game streaks in 1984 and ’88 (no bowl game either year), a four-game streak to end 1997 and the seven-game run that took us to our first Holiday Bowl in ’98.

That’s a lot at stake for the guys from Tucson. What’s not at stake is a successful season. Mike Stoops has already proven that last year was no fluke and he’s providing solid evidence that he’s building a program with staying power.

Because of that it’s a perfect opportunity for the Wildcats to come out relaxed, confident, and ready to play their very best.

Grab your beef jerky and let’s ride.