LOS ANGELES - We're a little more than a week away from watching our first college basketball game of the 2009-10 season, and that means it's time to get down to business.

While our senior college basketball writer Jeff Goodman is pumping out more preview copy over the next week before heading down to Tobacco Road to watch Isiah Thomas make his college debut against the Tar Heels, I thought I'd spare him the 3,000-mile trip out to L.A. from Boston and play substitute reporter at Pac-10 Media Day.

The truth is, the Pac-10 this season doesn't appear to be what it was two years ago, when it was in the conversation for the country's top conference with the Big East.

But the league still sent six teams to the NCAA tournament last spring - the same as the year before.

Much of that is thanks to USC's title run in the Pac-10 Tournament last season, but year in and year out, the conference has shown that it can compete with the other BCS big boys come March.

This season, it'll be Cal's job to carry the torch.

In what was not a surprise to me, the Golden Bears were picked by the media to finish first.

But when it came time to eat lunch and talk to the coaches after the morning press conferences, it wasn't Cal coach Mike Montgomery's table which was filled with reporters.

It was UCLA coach Ben Howland's.

That's because, believe it or not, it's the first time in 10 years that a team other than UCLA or Arizona has been picked to win the conference.

Knowing that, it won't be that easy for Montgomery's team to overtake defending champion Washington, which returns an explosive backcourt made up of three point guards - Isaiah Thomas, Venoy Overton and Abdul Gaddy - and a frontcourt anchored by long and athletic senior forward Quincy Pondexter.

Cal, of course, brings back a talented veteran core, led by senior point guard Jerome Randle, and has talent in the frontcourt with seniors Patrick Christopher, Theo Robertson and Jamal Boykin.

UCLA, despite being banged up the past few weeks and having lost its senior trio of Darren Collison, Josh Shipp and Alfred Aboya, has two talented guards in sophomores Jerime Anderson and Malcolm Lee, along with a highly rated recruiting class led by Tyler Honeycutt and Mike Moser.

And Arizona, though young and inexperienced for the most part (and first-year coach Sean Miller said so himself at the podium today), does bring back the conference's best point guard in senior Nic Wise.

But in a league that's still short on seniors and welcomes three new coaches, anything can happen down the stretch of conference play.

Montgomery echoed that sentiment as we ate lunch and discussed the high expectations that have been placed upon his team this year.

Howland, better yet, said it even before lunch: "Anyone can beat anyone on any given day in the Pac-10."

So with that in mind, it should be an exciting conference race out west this spring.

Who will win it?

My bet's on Washington and Lorenzo Romar - with Cal and then UCLA not too far behind.

Anyway, here are some more notes from the day's events at the LAX Hilton:

ARIZONA

No matter how much he may want to disregard it, Arizona coach Sean Miller can't go very far without hearing about the Wildcats' NCAA tournament streak.

25 years.

The longest streak in the nation.

That's what's at jeopardy this season as Miller takes over in Tucson after a successful five-year stint at Xavier that saw the Musketeers reach the Elite Eight and Sweet 16 in consecutive years.

"It's reality," he said regarding the streak at hand. "It's the greatest thing our program has. It's something that drives kids to Arizona."

And yet, at the same time, Miller admits that the Wildcats have never been so vulnerable in their quest to keep that precious streak alive.

"Could that streak break under my watch?" Miller asked. "Absolutely.

"But I want to continue so many of the things that have taken place here."

That's not going to be easy, with this Arizona team a lot further behind the learning curve than the last two teams that Miller has coached at Xavier.

Fortunately for Miller, he has senior point guard Nic Wise ready to take over a program that exceeded expectations last year under interim head coach Russ Pennell and reached the Sweet 16 - the furthest any Pac-10 team advanced in the NCAA tournament last March.

Wise, who will be playing for his fourth head coach in four years, averaged 15.7 points, 4.6 assists and 2.5 rebounds per game last season while shooting 41.5 from beyond the arc.

Now, the 5-foot-10 senior out of Houston will be the guy who Miller will count on to lead the team on both ends of the floor.

"He has the arguably one of the hardest leadership jobs in college basketball," Miller said. "He's being asked to lead nine freshmen and sophomores and learn a brand new system at the same time."

The scenario doesn't sound glamorous for Wise, who will have to be patient with the inexperience that surrounds the team this year.

Miller, of course, understands that as well.

And Wise, whether he'll be able to handle the job that's been presented to him or not, has the opportunity to earn his way into the NBA this season thanks to a draft this June that doesn't look any better than the last one.

"He came back to college for all the right reasons," Miller said of Wise's decision to return to Arizona for his senior season. "I think he'll be one of the best point guards in college basketball. He wanted to finish his career the right way."

In a day and age where so few highly touted student-athletes are staying in college to play all four years at the Division I level, Wise is a refreshing reminder of how much four years can make a difference in a player's development.

So while Wise's journey in the desert certainly hasn't been like most NBA prospects coming out of Arizona, Miller can hope that his players adjust and learn fast enough over the course of the season to keep an esteemed streak alive come Selection Sunday.

OREGON

Last year was a tough one to swallow for Ducks coach Ernie Kent.

Oregon finished the season 8-23 overall and a lousy 2-16 in conference play.

"Last year when we started our season, I had never done so much teaching at the beginning of the season," Kent said.

"But they never gave up."

Sophomore center Michael Dunigan (6-foot-10, 242 pounds) and senior forward Joevan Catron (6-foot-6, 237 pounds) will provide the muscle down low for Kent's team this season, which will feature diminutive sharpshooter Tajuan Porter at the point once again.

"This is definitely Tajuan Porter's basketball team," Kent said. "He set a relentless pace this summer with the team's workouts."

It was Porter's tireless work ethic that obviously rubbed off on Dunigan, who made an effort this offseason to shed weight and build more muscle after spending almost his entire freshman season out of shape.

And so far, Kent has liked what he's seen from the big man.

"Michael Dunnigan has come into his own," he said. "He's a different basketball player this year.

"Last year, his body just broke down. He could barely get through a practice midway through the season. Now we have a guy that can stay on the floor, and therefore, he'll be a more productive player."

Up top, while Porter holds down the point, 6-foot-5 junior LeKendric Longmire will step into the two-guard spot after averaging 8.4 points and 4.6 rebounds last year.

It's a backcourt combination that has Kent proclaiming it's his most athletic team in the 12 years he's spent in Eugene, Ore.

Now, we'll have to see if that statement holds true.

Kent, in any case, will need all the athleticism his players can provide with former Arizona assistant Mike Dunlap joining the staff and employing a full-court press that Kent plans to use as much as possible this season.

"We will press and we will press a lot," Kent said.

Hence, I press on to the next team...

OREGON STATE

In his first year at the helm, Craig Robinson did wonders to turn around Oregon State after a dreadful 2007-08 campaign in which the Beavers failed to win a Pac-10 game.

So after finishing 18-18 overall last season, Robinson's team won't creep up on anybody.

"We're trying to work on changing a culture here," he said. "Last year, we snuck up on a lot of people. This year, we won't be able to do that."

But now, the former Brown coach will have to manage their expectations.

"We have been working really hard to work up to the expectations we have this year," said Robinson, who is the brother-in-law of President Barack Obama. "We have to change that mindset."

Robinson has already put Oregon State back on the recruiting map, locking up a top 100 recruit in freshman Roberto Nelson, who is still waiting to get cleared by the NCAA.

Nelson, a 6-foot-4 guard from Santa Barbara, Calif., has a knack for scoring the ball and has the athleticism to break down his defender, something the Beavers have been missing in past years.

"We're really excited about getting him going," Robinson said about Nelson. "There's no doubt he's going to be competing for playing time with the rest of the freshmen."

Oregon State, in the meantime, brings back 6-foot-5 senior Seth Tarver (8.0 ppg, 5.4 rpg) and 6-foot-3 junior Lathen Wallace (7.9 ppg, 2.0 rpg) to Corvallis and has the potential to win half its Pac-10 games, which would be another step forward from last year's 7-11 conference mark.

STANFORD

Johnny Dawkins' first year at Stanford could have gone a lot worse.

The Cardinal struggled in the Pac-10, finishing with just a 6-12 mark, but Dawkins' team still won 20 games.

That was good enough for a trip to the postseason, where Stanford advanced to the semifinals of the College Basketball Invitational.

From the way things are looking this season though, the Cardinal will struggle much more than they did a year ago.

Dawkins, the former Duke assistant under Mike Krzyzewski, will be spending his second year in Palo Alto, Calif., without the services of Anthony Goods (16.2 ppg, 3.3 rpg) and Lawrence Hill (13.6 ppg, 5.9 rpg) - his top two scorers from last season.

So with Goods and Hill gone, it'll be up to 6-foot-7 senior Landry Fields to take over the Cardinal's offense after averaging 12.6 points and a team-high 6.6 rebounds in 2008-09.

"He's a very good competitor," Dawkins said of Fields. "He competes every game and every play. He wants to get after it."

But after Fields, there's not much in the way of scorers, particularly down low, for Stanford.

Junior big man Josh Owens, for one, started 28 games last season but only averaged 20.7 minutes, finishing with averages of 6.9 points and 3.6 rebounds. He'll need to stay healthy and out of foul trouble over the course of the season in order to help Dawkins' rather thin and inexperienced team.

That's in part due to the indefinite suspension of sophomore guard Jeremy Green, who played in all 34 games last season and averaged 6.4 points and 2.1 rebounds.

Green's absence will undoubtedly hurt the Cardinal's backcourt, which will have to use a point-guard-by-committee system with no true floor leader on the roster.

Yet the even bigger loss for Stanford could be top recruit Andy Brown, who suffered a season-ending knee injury on the second day of practice.

"We will have to tweak our offense to help accommodate our players' abilities," Dawkins said.

If that's the only accommodation Dawkins has to make this season, Stanford could actually weather an imminent storm.

UCLA

While making my rounds during lunch, I stopped in to listen to Ben Howland's conversation with the rest of the media.

As I sat down at the round table and poked my head in, the UCLA coach wasn't talking about his team's outlook this season or who will win the Pac-10 come March.

He was talking about his faith.

Yes, I'm talking about religion.

Howland, a devout Christian, says he prays every night before he goes to sleep.

But right now, those prayers have lately been more about his team, which has gone through the ringer this offseason with seven different players getting injured the past month.

"We're a very young team, so we need the practice time," Howland said. "I'm going to be praying that we stay healthy the whole season."

Howland, however, believes the Bruins should be back to full strength at practice by Monday.

The biggest question mark still remains point guard Jerime Anderson, who has yet to practice with the team.

The 6-foot-2 sophomore from Anaheim is a major key to UCLA's success this season and will need to remain healthy with the Bruins now somewhat thin at point guard.

Those depth issues haven't been Howland's fault, though.

"We've had four point guards get drafted in the first round of the NBA Draft over the past four years," he said.

That's just been the kind of success the former Pittsburgh coach has had during his first six years in Westwood.

This season, Howland brings in another top 20 recruiting class.

Nevertheless, it will be up to Anderson to raise his game and take charge from the start.

If he does, he could be the next UCLA point guard in line to make his way to the big leagues some day.

USC

Kevin O'Neill is happy to be back in college basketball.

The former Tennessee and Northwestern coach was originally hired two years ago to become Lute Olson's top assistant before taking over as the team's interim head coach after Olson announced his leave of absence for the entire 2007-08 season.

Not long after, O'Neill was named Olson's successor.

But after extending Arizona's NCAA tournament streak and earning respect across the country for his patch-work job with the team, Olson announced that the university would not be retaining O'Neill upon his return.

Olson, however, would never coach another game for the Wildcats, who relied upon another interim head coach, Russ Pennell, to run the program last season.

O'Neill, in the meantime, headed back to the NBA, where he spent two seasons in the past as an assistant coach for the Toronto Raptors and Indiana Pacers. There, he joined the Memphis Grizzlies' bench as an assistant coach and special assistant to General Manager Chris Wallace for the 2008-09 season.

Now, after recruiting violations involving O.J. Mayo forced Tim Floyd to resign from USC in June, O'Neill is once again in charge of another Pac-10 program.

The deficiencies within the program, however, are noticeable.

The Trojans lost out on several key commitments, including 6-foot-6 local standout Solomon Hill, a top 30 recruit from Fairfax High School who averaged 16.2 points, 11.7 rebounds and 5.1 assists as a senior.

But O'Neill didn't give up the fight to keep as many players on the team.

"For me, the No. 1 job was to keep the guys that were here," O'Neill said.

Dwight Lewis is one guy who stuck around, and O'Neill will be counting on the 6-foot-5 senior to take over offensively for the Trojans.

"(He) is a No. 1 option for us," O'Neill said. "We're going to be counting on him.

"As he goes, we'll go."

Lewis finished last season as USC's top scorer with 14.4 points per game and shot a solid 37.9-percent clip from beyond the arc.

"We do know the challenges ahead, and we're up to them," O'Neill said.

One of the those challenges will be replacing Daniel Hackett, who served as the team's emotional leader and handled the point last season for Floyd.

Now, it's redshirt junior Donte Smith's turn take over the USC offense and run the show for a program that's reached the NCAA tournament the past three seasons.

Getting the Trojans back to the Big Dance for a fourth straight year won't be easy for O'Neill, who has put his abrupt and unjustified dismissal from Arizona way behind him.

"I'm very happy to be at USC," he said. "To me, things worked out really well. I don't have anything bad to say at all."

WASHINGTON STATE

Ken Bone has long been a Pacific Northwest guy.

A former assistant under head coach Lorenzo Romar at Washington, he's spent 21 years of his life in the Evergreen State.

The last four, however, have been spent down south at Portland State, where he turned the Vikings into a surprise team in the Big Sky.

Now, he's coming back to the state of Washington after the Huskies' in-state rival came calling last spring.

It'll be up to Bone to carry the tradition that Dick and Tony Bennett started, and it won't be easy with Washington State's youth and inexperience.

On the offensive end, all signs point to Clay Thompson leading Wazzu in scoring. The All-Freshman team selection averaged 12.5 points in his first collegiate season, and this summer, the 6-foot-6 sharpshooter worked on his game, playing with teammate DeAngelo Casto on Team USA at the U19 World Championship in Auckland, New Zealand.

Casto, an athletic forward from Spokane, Wash., who Bone calls "a poor man's Jon Brockman," should form a solid inside-outside duo as the coaching staff tries to instill more of a transition game than the Bennetts used during their six years combined in Pullman.

"It would be nice to play even faster than we will play this year," Bone said. "Until we find the players to fit that style, we will be somewhere in between."