HOW THE WEST WAS WON, PAC-10 STYLE; ARIZONA'S HIRING OF OLSON STARTED THE BALL ROLLING.

Byline: Jon Wilner Daily News Staff Writer

On March 25, 1983, Villanova center John Pinone made two free throws with 12 seconds remaining to preserve a 55-54 victory over Iowa in a second-round NCAA Tournament game in Kansas City.

Arizona athletic director Cedric Dempsey, on the lookout for a new coach, was sitting behind the Villanova bench. He had fired Ben Lindsey after a 4-24 season and his short list of candidates included Iowa's Lute Olson and Villanova's Rollie Massimino.

Hoping to salvage recruiting and wash away the Lindsey aftertaste, Dempsey wanted to move quickly. As Pinone's free throws extended Villanova's season, they ended Iowa's - freeing Olson to interview for the Arizona vacancy. (If Iowa had won, Massimino would have interviewed first.) Olson was hired three days later and Arizona would never be the same.

Neither would the Pac-10.

Although Olson isn't the only reason Pac-10 basketball is better than ever, his hiring was the benchmark for the conference's revival. Just as the gap between UCLA, Arizona and everyone else has narrowed in recent years, so too has the chasm between the Pac-10 and the ACC, Big Ten and Big East.

``The Pac-10 has improved, the coaches are better, it's had a big showing in the NCAA Tournament,'' Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim said. ``It's tougher to recruit out there.''

From 1980-94, the Pac-10 won 37 NCAA Tournament games and no national titles.

In the last four years, it has won 36 tournament games and two championships (UCLA in 1995 and Arizona in 1997). In that same span, the ACC has won 32 tournament games, the Big Ten 21.

``The Pac-10 has more going for it than it ever has,'' said former Washington State and USC coach George Raveling, who has been involved in the Pac-10 since the mid-1970s. He now works as an analyst with Fox Sports.

``When you have two national champs in a three-year period and four teams in the Sweet 16 for two straight years (1997-98), those are the greatest signals the league has arrived. Now there are three teams in the top 15. For anyone to say the league doesn't deserve respect, it's foolishness.''

No one has had more influence than Olson, who turned the Wildcats into the league's model program. In 1986, they began a run of seven league titles in nine years. They reached the Final Four in 1988 and '94, and they consistently produced NBA talent.

They became the first Pac-10 team - UCLA excepted - to schedule elite nonconference competition. Olson played Duke, Michigan and Oklahoma, expanding Arizona's reputation while gaining valuable and profitable national television exposure. Olson pulled Arizona to UCLA's level and beyond, and in so doing he raised the standard for everyone else.

``He did all that,'' Pac-10 commissioner Tom Hansen said. ``Lute threw the gauntlet down to everyone and he challenged UCLA. He was way ahead of the curve.''

Olson knew he couldn't consistently beat UCLA for the top Southern California talent, so he picked his targets selectively. He gorged on second-tier players like Steve Kerr, Jud Buechler and Anthony Cook, tweaking his system to suit changing personnel. He beat UCLA with lesser talent, thus establishing an example for Stanford, Cal and Washington.

``He showed people in the league that you could have a quality program and not be located in Southern California,'' Raveling said.

Olson's impact was significant but not total. Athletic directors took Arizona's cue and committed to improving their programs. They hired better coaches who recruited better players, who then won more games. Call it Roundball Reaganomics - changes at the top trickling down to success on the court.

Recruiting budgets are bigger, television viewership is greater, schedules are tougher. And significantly, the best players on the West Coast are staying on the West Coast. The talent raids by Syracuse, Connecticut, Kansas and Duke that devastated the Pac-10 for a decade now occur infrequently.

``People are realizing you don't have to go to the East to get the exposure you want,'' said UCLA sophomore Baron Davis, who chose UCLA over Kansas and Duke. ``West Coast basketball is becoming more powerful. It's cool to stay home.''

From 1985-93, an average of 7.5 first-team members of the Long Beach Press-Telegram's Best in the West poll attended Pac-10 schools.

In the last five years, an average of 10 first-teamers have matriculated to the Pac-10.

Gone are the days Syracuse scoops up both Earl Duncan (St. Monica High School) and Stevie Thompson (Crenshaw), as it did in 1986. No longer does Kansas snatch both Scot Pollard (San Diego) and Jacque Vaughn (Muir High), as it did in 1993.

``At one time in the late '80s, we had five kids from California,'' Syracuse's Boeheim said. ``That was a real down period for the Pac-10. But this is a different era and we have to be more selective out there. Now we've only got two L.A. kids (Tony Bland and Jason Hart).''

Changes at the administrative level began in the early '90s. At a series of meetings with coaches and athletic directors, Hansen emphasized the necessity - and potential - of successful men's basketball programs. He brought in marketing specialists, directed dollars at promotion campaigns and urged member schools to do the same.

Proof of the pot came from two directions. In Tucson, Olson's program netted between $150,000 to $200,000 per home game, thanks to television contracts, constant sellouts and a priority-seating system. In Kansas City, the NCAA signed a $1 billion deal with CBS, giving the network the rights to televise every round of the tournament. The resulting distribution formula was based on number of intercollegiate sports, scholarships and tournament victories.

``We didn't lessen the resources we poured into football,'' Hansen said. ``But we stepped them up for basketball. There was more emphasis and more effort.''

In 1993, the Pac-10 earned $1.5 million from basketball television contracts. In 1998, the league earned $4.3 million.

Athletic directors slowly adjusted their mentality, but the old-guard coaches - Don Monson (Oregon), Lynn Nance (Washington), Lou Campanelli (Cal) and Jimmy Anderson (Oregon State) - did not. They played plodding, unattractive styles. They didn't recruit nationally and they failed to identify with '90s players.

One by one, the old guard either resigned or retired, unwilling or unable to change with the times. They were replaced by young, energetic coaches - Bob Bender (Washington), Jerry Green and Ernie Kent (Oregon), Eddie Payne (Oregon State) and Ben Braun (Cal). The improvement of those programs has narrowed the gap between the conference's elite.

``We probably need to pat ourselves on the back a little and say, `Good job in hiring,' '' Washington athletic director Barbara Hedges said. ``The coaches all fit very nicely at their institutions.''

Just as the mentality changed and the coaches arrived, the Pac-10 received an unintended boost from its old nemesis, Nevada-Las Vegas coach Jerry Tarkanian.

In 1990, after a lengthy pursuit, the NCAA placed his Runnin' Rebels on probation for rules violations. The probation freed a heralded recruit from Artesia High from his conditional commitment to UNLV. A few weeks later, Ed O'Bannon enrolled at UCLA.

The repercussions were massive - for UCLA and the Pac-10. Ed O'Bannon meant Charles O'Bannon, Charles meant Toby Bailey and J.R. Henderson, and together, in 1995, they won UCLA's 11th national championship.

No probation, no O'Bannons, no title. And nothing meant more to the Pac-10 than UCLA's success.

``The one thing that has never changed is that UCLA has always been the benchmark by which the league is judged nationally,'' Raveling said. ``If seven teams have their best seasons ever and UCLA is down, people across the country will think the league's down.''

``To me,'' Hansen said, ``We arrived as a league when UCLA won the title.''

UCLA's ascension coincided with the most surprising recruiting twist of the decade. In 1991, a year after Ed O'Bannon arrived in Westwood, Jason Kidd shunned Kansas and Kentucky and committed to his hometown school, California. For the Bears and the Pac-10, it was instant credibility.

``My 10th-grade year, I tried to commit to Cal, but their coaches told me they had too many guards,'' UCLA's Davis said. ``I wanted to go there because of Jason Kidd. He set the tone for the Pac-10.''

After years of being the outsider in its own region, after years of watching Syracuse and Kansas and Connecticut lure the top talent with promises of Final Fours and ESPN time slots and sold out arenas, the Pac-10 was fashionable.

As the mid-'90s approached, UCLA and Arizona were rolling. Bender and Green had injected life into sagging programs at Washington and Oregon, respectively. Thanks to Kidd, Cal was back. At Stanford, Mike Montgomery was slowly overcoming his admissions obstacle. Top recruits were signing left and right - Todd MacCulloch (Washington) and Brevin Knight (Stanford) and Shareef Abdur-Rahim (Cal).

The proof is not at UCLA or Arizona but everywhere else. Sixteen years after two Villanova free throws changed the Pac-10 forever, the middle class has arrived.

Washington comes within a basket of beating Connecticut in last year's Sweet 16. Cal beats North Carolina. Oregon State stuns UCLA and Arizona, and Stanford rules the league.

``There are good players on every team,'' Olson said. ``A combination of coaching staffs and distribution of talent caused this to happen.''

MARCHING THROUGH MARCH

The Pac-10's improvement is best exemplified by its performance in the NCAA Tournament. A look at the league's March Madness participants in the '90s and the rounds in which they were eliminated:

1990

Oregon State - first round

Arizona - second round

Cal - second round

UCLA - Sweet 16

1991

UCLA - first round

USC - first round

Arizona State - second round

Arizona - Sweet 16

1992

Arizona - first round

Stanford - first round

USC - second round

UCLA - Elite Eight

1993

Arizona - first round

UCLA - second round

Cal - Sweet 16

1994

Washington State - first round

UCLA - first round

Cal - first round

Arizona - Final Four

1995

Arizona - first round

Oregon - first round

Stanford - second round

Arizona State - Sweet 16

UCLA - Won NCAA title

1996

UCLA - first round

Cal - first round

Stanford - second round

Arizona - Sweet 16

1997

USC - First round

Cal - Sweet 16

Stanford - Sweet 16

UCLA - Elite Eight

Arizona - Won NCAA title

1998

Washington - Sweet 16

UCLA - Sweet 16

Arizona - Elite Eight

Stanford - Final Four

WHERE THE TALENT LANDS

The Pac-10's rise coincides with improved recruiting. Here's a look at where first-team Best-in-the-West players have landed:

Year Pac-10 ACC Big East Big Ten Big 12

1986 9 2 2 0 1

1987 7 2 0 1 1

1988 8 0 2 1 0

1989 9 0 1 1 2

1990 8 0 1 0 0

1991 8 2 2 0 0

1992 7 0 1 0 0

1993 7 1 1 1 2

1994 11 2 0 0 1

1995 11 0 0 0 2

1996 100 1 0 0

1997 8 1 1 0 2

1998 10 0 2 00

- Jon Wilner

CAPTION(S):

2 Boxes

BOX: (1) MARCHING THROUGH MARCH (see text)

(2) WHERE THE TALENT LANDS (see text)