All of these players showed promise at the point and had flashes of brilliance. Tanner is the best scorer of the bunch and the most consistent, Carey may be the quickest, and Wright can challenge to be the best distributor and handler. Watson should probably be among the most experienced, but has not been a full-time point guard. He and Gardner have the biggest shoes to fill. The Pac 10 is a league with a large middle.
Several teams are contenders, and there are precious few easy wins for the top teams.
How the point guards perform will determine how good the Pac 10 will be. Look for Arizona, Stanford, UCLA and Oregon to fight it out for the top spot, with Oregon State, Southern Cal and Washington better than people think. Mark Madsen Madsen spent the summer working on his game. He played on the World University Games team, and wound up sitting behind Kenyon Martin because he needed work on his overall skills. Madsen is an absolute beast in the paint, and he is responsible for much of Stanford's offense when shooters curl around him down in the low post.