Interesting piece from ESPN's "Outside the Lines" series profiling the unusual hiring of Oregon Athletic Director Pat Kilkenny. Kilkenny was a well-heeled Oregon booster with ties to former Nike founder Phil Knight.

OTL: "The next time you consider hiring or firing a coach will you call Phil Knight first? To see what he thinks?

PK: Yeah, I'd probably would talk to him about it, I would talk to some other donors too.

This kind of stuff makes the NCAA incredibly squeamish, but Kilkenny comes across as honest about the murkier aspects of his ascent and relationship with Knight.

Previously at FanHouse
Oregon's Filthy Rich AD Draws Preschool Teacher's Salary

Conference: Pac-10
Record: 18-13, 9-10 Pac-10
RPI: 58
How They Got In: At-Large Bid
Seed/Bracket: #9 in the South

Mascot: Ducks. Despite wearing a handkerchief around his neck, this mascot is known to get in sideline fights and wear his costume out to bars. It's safe to say that no mascot has ever been this cool while looking this silly.

Big Wins: Stanford, at Kansas State, Arizona (home/away), Arizona State

Notable Losses: at Nebraska, at Oakland, at Washington

Player You Should Know: The Ducks have a number of talented guards, but Maarty Leunen poses the most difficult matchup for opponents. Leunen is a face-up forward who shoots a great percentage from outside, so he pulls out bigger defenders and opens up driving lanes for the Oregon guards.

Outlook: Let me be blunt: I don't think Oregon deserved to get in ahead of Arizona State. The Sun Devils were a much more competitive team overall in the Pac-10 and actually beat the truly terrible teams on their non-conference schedule. The Ducks, on the other hand, struggled away from Eugene the whole season and regularly blow games in crunch time. Oregon can be very tough to beat when their athletic guards hit their shots, but that hasn't been common this year. Look for an early exit.

This is a little ridiculous. The NCAA Tournament selection is only a few days away and few teams are doing much to make a case. It's getting so that the argument by fans of bubble teams will come down to, "My team sucks less."

The major and semi-major conference tournaments finished first or second round action, and one thing was very clear. All of these teams are bubble teams for a reason. They just aren't that good and they can't close the deal.

• Villanova follows up a big win over Syracuse with an equally big loss to Georgetown.
• Arizona State (with a little help from the Pac-10 refs -- of course) loses again to USC.
• Baylor had to stage a second half comeback to lose in double-OT to Colorado.
• Florida had to make a furious comeback to lose to Alabama by 11.
• Dayton couldn't make a case against Xavier.
• UAB probably needed to at least make the C-USA final, goes out in its first game.
• UMass collapsed in the second half against Charlotte.
• Oregon couldn't beat Washington State in a win-and-in type game.
• Maryland fell apart (again) in the second half to hand it to Boston College.
• Ole Miss cames back several times only to give up an easy basket just before the buzzer in OT for a Georgia win.
• New Mexico couldn't close it in OT, losing to Utah.

South Alabama and VCU are feeling a lot better tonight. Heck, Virginia Tech suddenly has a legitimate case. Ohio State and Arkansas, it's your turn on Friday.

The Pac-10 had one of its best seasons ever this year, with every team (including UCLA) beating each other up for the entirety of the last few months. Nowhere is that parity more clear than in the fact that seven teams enter this week's conference tournament as locks or legitimate contenders for the NCAA Tournament.

That sort of speculation isn't West Coast bias, either; Joe Lunardi's latest Bracketology has six Pac-10 teams in the field, with Arizona State just outside of the field as part of the "Last Four Out" group. Lunardi's list obviously isn't gospel with a week of tournaments left, but the fact remains that this year's Pac-10 Tournament holds a lot of import for more than half of the field. With that in mind, let's take a look at what's at stake for all ten teams:

1. UCLA (28-3, 16-2 Pac-10): Making the championship game will probably lock down a top seed in the West region. An early exit like last season's quarterfinal loss to Cal could result in a drop down, but the Bruins might have too many quality wins to fall.

2. Stanford (24-6; 13-5 Pac-10): Last weekend's tough weekend in SoCal could knock the Cardinal out of a protected seed and pod placement in Anaheim, but one win this week would probably keep them in California for the opening weekend of the Big Dance. Their opening game will probably come against Arizona, a team they beat twice by a combined five points.

3. Washington State (23-7; 11-7 Pac-10): The Cougs already have an at-large taken care of, but they could improve their seeding up to a #5-seed (and maybe higher if they win the tournament) with a prolonged run. They'll start on Thursday against an Oregon team that usually struggles away from Eugene.

More analysis, including that of the conference's bubble teams, after the jump:

When UCLA played at Oregon last month, star freshman center and Oregon native Kevin Love was taunted by the fans, and he responded with a big game. That is old news.

But a new account by Grant Wahl of Sports Illustrated of the abuse Love and his family took before and during the game is chilling. According to Wahl, Love canceled his cell phone because Oregon fans who got his number left death threats on his voice mail. And during the game, Oregon fans hurled insults at Love's family, including calling his mom, grandmother and 13-year-old sister "whores."

Love's father, former Oregon and NBA player Stan Love, suggests that it's time for colleges to act against rowdy fans:

"The NCAA and league commissioners and athletic directors need to put a stop to it," Love says. "I'm all for creative, loud and funny fans. But don't target one guy, don't threaten him on the phone, don't tell him you're going to break his legs or get him after the game. And don't force the parents to get security guards. Think about it: You're at a university, and you have to get security to go in and watch a kid play?"

I would take it one step further than that: Anyone who made a death threat against Love, or who throws objects at players and their families, as Wahl says is commonplace, should be criminally prosecuted. The fan behavior Wahl documents is a disgrace.

You know those ridiculous uniforms the Oregon football team wears? Yeah, that has now spread to basketball. The Ducks' hoops team wore jerseys over the weekend with their names spelled out on the back in sequins, and the Pardon the Interruption guys had something to say about it today:

I thought the sequins looked completely stupid, and I'm amazed that Tony Kornheiser said, "I loved the glitter to them." And even Michael Wilbon said he was OK with sequins but just wished they had been yellow so they stood out against the green cloth.

Sometimes two teams can play a really exciting game without surprising anyone. Saturday's UCLA/Oregon clash was one of those contests. UCLA came back from an 11-point deficit with 13:59 left to top Oregon 75-65 in Westwood. As usual, the Bruins ratcheted up their defense and scoring in the final minutes and the Ducks struggled down the stretch.

UCLA finished on a 38-17 run to bury Oregon and add another game to their long list of comebacks. Russell Westbrook had 16 points, five assists, five steals, and four rebounds to lead the Bruins, and his backcourt partner Darren Collison added 17 points. It's likely that UCLA will need to start playing well in the first half if they want to get back to the Final Four, but for now it's hard to argue with their performances. No one ever wants to see a team of this quality coast, but it hasn't hurt them in any game other than the surprising loss to Washington.

Games like this one are becoming par for the course for Oregon. On Thursday, they blew a late double-digit lead to USC, and there have been several times this season when the Ducks just haven't had enough to finish late. They have a ton of talent, but they desperately miss the leadership and poise that Aaron Brooks provided last season. Oregon too often turns it over or takes bad shots when they can't afford to get away with poor decisions. Brooks brought that steadying hand, and it's fair to say that Tajuan Porter doesn't have that ability right now.

USC found themselves down 13 points to Oregon early in the second half and in grave danger of dropping below .500 in the Pac-10 on Thursday. Luckily for the Trojans, OJ Mayo decided to carry the team on his back, scoring 18 of his 31 points in the last eight-and-a-half minutes to lead USC to a 81-75 victory at the Galen Center.

This performance came on the heels of Mayo's worst performance of the season last Sunday against UCLA. His critics (including me) have knocked him for not being aggressive enough and settling for perimeter jumpers, but there was nothing to complain about in this game. Mayo went to the line 13 times (making 11) and hit 5/7 from beyond the arc. Games like this one show that, when he's at his best, Mayo deserves all of the attention that comes his way.

With this win, the Trojans now stand at 7-6 in-conference. Given that they play hapless Oregon State on Saturday, USC should be in prime position to lock up an at-large bid to the tournament at the end of this weekend. Their ability to fight back from a double-digit deficit showed great character and determination, particularly given that the Trojans are playing with an extremely short bench right now.

Oregon's at-large hopes now look like they're in some trouble. Assuming that pattern holds and the Ducks fall to UCLA this weekend, they will enter the season's essentially needing to win out to reach .500. They should beat Oregon State in Corvallis next week, but that final homestand against the Arizona schools should be tough. It's looking more and more like the Ducks will have to win a game or two in the Pac-10 Tournament if they want to reach the Big Dance this season. Losing this game was a real killer and yet another example of why Oregon dearly misses Aaron Brooks in crunch time.

During last Thursday's Oregon/UCLA game at McArthur Court, the Pit Crew student section had some unpleasant, very offensive, and largely homophobic words for Oregon native and UCLA star Kevin Love and his father Stan, a former basketball star for the Ducks.

That verbal abuse didn't do much to derail Love's performance, but, as the Associated Press reports, it has prompted a response from Oregon Athletic Director Pat Kilkenny, who called and apologized to UCLA Coach Ben Howland, UCLA AD Dan Guerrero, and Stan Love on Monday. To his credit, Oregon Coach Ernie Kent also addressed the Pit Crew before Saturday's overtime loss to USC, reminding them to remain civil without sacrificing their excitement and humor.

The Pit Crew is well-known throughout the Pac-10 for being one of the loudest, crassest, and most resourceful student sections in the conference, but that reputation comes with responsibility. Anyone who's been part of a student section knows that it's very easy to let the heat of the moment get the better of general tact and respect. At the same time, nationally televised sporting events often act as a school's best advertisements, so the students must remember to keep a level head throughout the game. In the end, the importance of your university's reputation has to outweigh the momentary thrills and minimal in-game effects of collectively yelling something unprintable at an opponent.

Arizona State opened conference play with four wins, announcing that they were one of the biggest surprises in the nation this season. Three games later, though, things are looking noticeably tougher for the Sun Devils. On Saturday, Washington State topped ASU 56-55 in Tempe, keeping the Cougs in second place despite their loss to Arizona on Thursday. WSU guards Derrick Low and Taylor Rochestie combined for 31 points, while James Harden led the way for the Sun Devils with 25 points on 10/18 FG. He had a chance for the win in the final seconds, but his drive was foiled by the Cougs' physical defense.

Of course, the ASU faithful didn't quite see it that way. Replays did show a potential foul, and the fans seem to have thought a call was warranted. According to WSU assistant coaches, a few of their players were pelted with water bottles on their way off the Wells Fargo Arena court. ASU Athletic Director Lisa Love claims she will review the tape.

That behavior could just be a symptom of Arizona State's fans sensing a potential crisis for the team. After this weekend's two home losses, the Sun Devils are now 4-3 heading into next week's trip to UCLA and USC -- arguably the toughest road trip in the conference. As for Washington State, this win stands as the difference between staying near the top of the conference and falling into the gooey, 4-3 center of the Pac-10. If the Cougars bounce back from some recent defensive troubles and reel off a few convincing wins, look back to this game as a turning point.

Elsewhere in the Pac-10: