The Kings took their annual team photo Tuesday -- prior to their only morning skate this season at Staples Center, to make use of the Kings logo at center ice in the photo -- and what was interesting about was that, had they taken one at the start of the season instead of the end, it wouldn't have been all that different.
This has not usually been the case.
The 2008-09 season has been marked by an unusual degree of stability -- compared, at least, to most of the years preceding it -- and while that almost certainly won't keep the team's playoff drought from reaching seven seasons, it does reflect a great deal of hope that better things are on the horizon.
"I remember my first couple of years here, you'd take one at the beginning of the year, and one at the end of the year," said Dustin Brown, the 24-year-old five-year veteran and team captain, "and you'd see a lot of new faces at the end of the year. ...
"My first couple of years, the key players on our team were changed over ever year. It's hard to build a team that way. That might gets result on the ice, but from a chemistry standpoint, this is the right way to do it."
How different has it been?
Well, 19 of the 25 players on the roster for Tuesday's game with Dallas were also on the roster for the season opener at San Jose back on Oct. 11. At least 12 and perhaps 13 players will appear in 70 or more games this season, indicating the core of the team has been intact from start to finish. Other than the occasional movement of players between the Kings and their Manchester farm club, the only real changes saw goalie Jason LaBarbera traded to Vancouver and forward Patrick O'Sullivan, shipped to Edmonton in the trade that brought Justin Williams from Carolina. In all, 32 players have appeared in at least one game, including just three goalies.
By way of contrast, the 2007-08 team used 37 players (including seven goalies!), with just 10 appearing in 70 or more games; the 2006-07 team used 42 (with five goalies) with eight players breaking the 70-game mark. Assuming that no one else is introduced to the mix in the remaining six games, it will be the fewest players the Kings have used in a season since 1997-98, when just 31 players saw action (and the team went 38-33-11). To find a season when more players reached the 70-game mark, you have to look back to the last playoff season, 2001-02, when 14 players reached that mark.
This stability reflects a belief the team has most of the pieces it needs to succeed, and now needs to exercise a little patience in achieving that success.
"Consistency," said coach Terry Murray, "is very important in the building process. And that's a decision that the organization made at the start of the year -- to go with youth, get those players in place, let them play and develop. And when you make that kind of commitment to yourself, to the organization, I think it means a whole lot. You learn how to win; you go through difficult times together, but you badger your way through and figure it out, and when you come out the other side, you're a better team for it."
Veteran defenseman Sean O'Donnell recognizes the commitment to development, as well.
"They have a plan now and they have people in place, for the most part, that they want to move forward with," said O'Donnell. "It's a matter of everyone getting more experience and kind of playing together. But those days of wholesale changes and 10 new guys -- I think those days are over.
"They've got the foundation here, and now it's just a matter of growing together and learning game by game."
That growing doesn't just happen on the ice, said Anze Kopitar.
"You get to know each other," he said, "and it's not that big of an age difference. So, especially on the road, we pretty much hang out together all the time. So I think that helps us bonding and getting to know each other."
Having a stable roster also has allowed Murray to get to know his players better, too.
"You know their habits, their tendencies, the areas they need to give a bigger push to," he said. "A lot of times as an athlete, you tend to put a big focus on your strengths and stay away from your weakness. So from the work side, you can put drills in place as a team, for individuals, small groups, that will put a push to the weak side of their game.
"And it's the same for the motivational part of it. ... You have your information you gather over the year on what is best for this guy, what makes him play at a higher level. What motivates him to dig in night after night? And that's the nice thing about the consistency of the L.A. Kings this year."
Now that the team has achieved a degree of consistency, what it needs is some maturity, and O'Donnell believes that will follow.
"I think the first 10 or 15 games, you know, Drew Doughty or Wayne Simmonds or Oscar Moller, those guys were still taking everything in," he said. " 'Who am I playing against tonight? I'm going into a brand new rink for the first time.'
"All those things we all go through when we first start playing, those things are starting to settle away and now it's focusing on the game that night, the practice that day. And I think as that stuff starts to come more and more, we'll be leaning on and expecting more from those guys. And they've been responding."
Inoffensive: Stability may be a good thing for the future, but there are certainly still issues in the present, most significantly the team's inability to score. The Kings entered Tuesday's game 29th in the league in scoring with 191 goals; only the New York Islanders (189) had scored fewer.
"Scoring is a funny thing," said Murray. "You have talented players, and you need to have those players who can take advantage of that one opportunity that pops up to them in a period.
"Those are your special guys, but every player can contribute in the offensive part of the game. The NHL today, with the way teams are structured and the way teams are coached, there's not a lot of great scoring opportunities that are created. ... You've got to be able to do the right things in traffic-ugly areas. You have to stake out your areas, and you have to have a shot mentality, a scoring mentality. And I think that's the one area I keep coming back to with our hockey club."
Murray pointed to Dustin Brown, who is ninth in the league in shots with 278. (In comparison, Alex Ovechkin leads with 482; just three other players are over 300.)
"We have, from there, too many players who are not putting up the shot opportunities or taking the shot opportunities. They're looking for one more better play, one more better position to get to the net, that really is not there. It closes down too quickly. ...
"It's a focus, and it's starting to come. I'm certainly seeing a little bit better in that area, but we still have a ways to go."
Kopitar, incidentally, is the only other Kings player with over 200 shots; he's at 213. Alexander Frolov is third at 163 shot. Those numbers aren't all that unusual, either; just eight teams in the league have more than two players who've taken 200 shots, although those eight often have quite a few more. The Rangers have six such players, and Detroit has five. As a team, the Kings are truly middle of the pack when it comes to shots --15th at 29.4 shots per game. (Detroit leads at 36.4; Minnesota is last at 27.4).

*--Updated with Ben Howland quotes.

In the immediate aftermath of USC's ugly but huge 65-55 win over UCLA late Friday at the Pac-10 tournament, Trojan coach Tim Floyd was asked if his team had done enough to play its way into the NCAA tournament.
Floyd reprised the spin cycle he'd employed when asked the exact same question a day earlier -- injuries, quality of the Pac-10, strength of schedule, etc., etc., etc.
And then, finally, he got to the heart of the matter.
"We've got a good basketball team," Floyd said, "but we're going to approach it like we need to win some more games."
That's how USC has played in the first two days of the tournament -- like a team that has to win.
That's why it will have the chance to win one more -- today at 3:15 p.m. against Arizona State -- and get into the tournament without any lobbying or spinning. Or, for that matter, prayer.
It may have been a slog through the mud, but when the final buzzer sounded, as far as USC was concerned, the result was a thing of beauty.
From the Trojan perspective, the night was all about defense.
"Real proud of our overall team effort on the defensive end," said Floyd. "... I thought Marcus Simmons' defense on (Darren) Collison out front was terrific."
Collison finished 1 of 9 from the field and had four points, along with three assists -- and seven turnovers. (He also brushed off a postgame question about an injury: "I'm never going to make excuses. I was perfectly fine to help my teammates out. We had a chance to win the ballgame, that's the most important thing." Ben Howland later said Collison's back was "really affecting him.")
It wasn't just Simmons playing defense.
"We were guarding," said Taj Gibson, who had 13 points and 11 rebounds before fouling out with 1:46 left. "We were getting through screens, we were denying the post, we were taking (away) the second-chance shots by rebounding the ball down. And we just got back. We didn't let Collison drive and kick.
"We were guarding tonight."
Still, that almost wasn't enough. That UCLA shot just 27 percent -- 19 of 70 from the field, a figure straight out of a 6-year-old-and-under league -- almost wasn't enough to assure USC a win. Because as much as there was good defense in this game, there was also a whole lot of bad offense.
"We really struggled to score," said UCLA coach Ben Howland. "Nineteen for 70 from the field I think really says it all for us. .... Some of the shots were really, really rushed. I think we took some shots too early. We didn't handle the pressure well and they did a really good job pressuring, and we need to execute better against pressure."
It would be hard to overstate how ugly this game could be. Let's put it this way: You'd see better basketball at a Clippers intrasquad scrimmage.
This was particularly true in the second half. At the TV time out with 11:10 remaining, the teams had combined for 29 possessions. Eight resulted in scores -- and 12 in turnovers. In one four-and-a-half minute stretch, there were turnovers on nine of 13 possessions, a stretch broken up by one basket (by USC's Daniel Hackett) and three missed shots.
If you think that's inefficient, consider UCLA's second half as a whole: 44 possessions, 10 for 41 shooting, 10 turnovers.
It was not only no surprise that USC led 57-42 with 2:44 to play, it was a wonder the lead wasn't more.
But then the Trojans did their very best to give the game away -- and the Bruins did their very best not to take it.
After that lead reached 15, here's what happened in the next 99 seconds:
Josh Shipp made a rare UCLA basket (57-44). USC turned the ball over, and Shipp and Alfred Aboya missed layups before Malcolm Lee was fouled and mad two free throws (57-46).
USC turned the ball over, and Aboya made one of two free throws (57-47), missed the second, and Jrue Holiday grabbed the rebound. Shipp and Holiday missed 3-pointers before Aboya was fouled and made one of two free throws (57-48), rebounding his own miss and missing a layup; USC's DeMar DeRozan made one of two free throws after getting the rebound, making it 58-48 with 1:40 to play.
UCLA's Jerime Anderson then scored on a layup (58-50). USC turned the ball over, with Aboya getting the steal and a dunk (58-52). USC pushed the lead back to 60-52 with two Dwight Lewis free throws, but Lee scored on a layup (60-54) after which -- stop me if you've heard this one before -- USC turned the ball over.
Holiday made one of two free throws on the ensuing possession (66-55 with 1:05 remaining) after which USC finally restored order with four DeRozan free throws.
Wild. Ugly.
But for USC, it didn't have to be good. It just had to be good enough, and it was.
History is written by the winners, which is why Gibson was able to contend, straight-faced, that USC "just stuck together; nobody panicked." That means that final flurry apparently featured the four calmest turnovers you'll ever see.
Still, USC did play some defense. And it did live to play another day.
Right now, the net result is way bigger than the sum of its flaws.

A fairly abbreviated postgame session for the late game, but then, it was a fairly abbreviated contest, at least in terms of how long it remained competitive: UCLA hammered Washington State with a 21-0 run in the first half to go up 25-5 and went on to win 64-53. The Cougars posed minimal resistance, but got close enough at the end that Ben Howland brought his starters back for the last 1:45. (He got a bit frosty when someone asked him about it, too.)
The two stories were that run, and UCLA's defensive effort. Naturally, Howland wanted to talk about the defense, which held Washington State to 30 percent shooting, just 20.6 percent (7 of 34) in the first half. The Cougars' trio of starting guards combined to go 5 for 29.
"I thought our guys really really came out and did a tremendous job," said Howland. "... That's definitely one of our best defensive games in quite a while, and that's what it takes to win in postseason play.
"I was really, really pleased particularly with Jrue Holiday's defense on Klay Thompson (who was 2 for 11 and had five points) and Darren (Collison)'s defense on (Taylor) Rochestie (1 for 11, 8 points)."
So why was this defensive effort so good?
"Just the mental preparation," said Howland. "I though Jrue Holiday's sense of urgency defensive was so good tonight. ... We doubled the post early, did it most of the first half. They did miss a couple of open shots, so we were fortunate there."
It was left to Collison to discuss the big start.
"I thought the team felt great today," he said. "I don't know if it was the later game or not, but I thought everybody was really in it, really enthusiastic before the game -- unlike the second time we played Washington State, our intensity was at a high level.
"We've said all along that when our intensity is at a high level, it's going to be tough to beat us."
That's a wrap for Thursday. Friday's semifinals are Arizona State-Washington at 6 p.m. and USC-UCLA at 8:30 p.m.

Attendance is clearly off at this year's Pac-10 tournament (despite some of the rather generous numbers we've seen on the box scores) and here's the utlimate proof: Staples Center PR maven Michael Roth just stopped at our section of press row to announce a special deal for Friday, if UCLA holds on to beat Washington State (at this writing, the Bruins are up by 17 with 8:33 left).
USC or UCLA students with a valid ID will be able to buy tickets for tomorrow's semifinals -- including, it appears, a USC-UCLA meeting in the 8:30 game -- for just $10.
Maybe that will fill some of the vast empty spaces in the upper sections -- though I believe Roth said the deal would be good for the available seats in every level.

So here's a knotty sportswriting etiquette problem ...
Made it back to my courtside seat about a minute into the UCLA-Washington State game, having posted that previous entry on USC's win over Cal, and found my seat occupied ... by USC coach Tim Floyd.
What, exactly, are you supposed to do at a moment like that? Kick him out?
Floyd apologized, saying he didn't know where he was supposed to sit to watch the game (but he didn't make any effort to move). So I grabbed the next seat over -- and the person who was supposed to be in that one grabbed another seat, etc.
After about 10 minutes, the USC coach departed, and we all slid back into our assigned seats with relief.

Briefly, since UCLA is about to tip off:
Doing its part to set up an all-local semifinal, USC hammered Cal on the boards -- with a 53-27 rebounding edge -- and held on to beat the Bears 79-75 after leading by 18 in the first half and 16 in the second.
"Rebounding was a big deal tonight," said coach Tim Floyd. "We get a point guard, (Daniel) Hackett, who goes back and gets nine boards. Taj (Gibson) gets 16, (DeMar) DeRozan gets 11 ... That was the big differential."
Gibson also had 21 points, DeRozan had 17 and Hackett had 15, but a couple of other players had huge impacts -- guard Marcus Simmons with his defense, and forward Leonard Washington, who made a big second-half contribution off the bench: eight minutes, six points, five rebounds.
"The way Leonard Washington came in and got big rebounds," said Gibson, "the way Marcus Simmons came in and played great defense on (Jerome) Randle the whole game, it was a full team effort."
Floyd said Simmons "was effective. I thought he got us going defensively in the first half, because point guards initiate defense, and he was at (Randle) at the 10-second line, and I thought everybody really responded. ... Randle got it going a little bit in the second half -- he's a terrific ballplayer -- but (Simmons) filled a role for us tonight."
Randle had seven points in the first half and finished with 18.

A few quotes from press conferences following Washington's 85-73 win over Stanford:

The fatigue factor -- with Stanford playing for the second time in 18 hours -- was a big topic of conversation:
Washington coach Lorenzo Romar: Hopefully you work hard enough that you earn the first night off and get to play someone who just played. That is kind of your reward for doing a good job in the conference. ...
"It seemed like toward the end there were a couple of air balls that came up short and maybe that (fatigue) was the case. I thought earlier in the game as we were going up and down that maybe that would be in our favor, and it was."
Stanford coach Johnny Dawkins: I thought it was a quick turnaround for us, but that is our responsibility. That is the seed we deserved. ... Our guys responded the best they could. We tried to get rest last night. We played a fast, athletic team today. Of course I think the wear and tear of that type of game can take its toll on you.
Stanford guard Anthony Goods, discounting fatigue: It just came down to shot selection. If they were shooting shots that we were shooting, they would have come up short, too. I thought we resorted to the 3 a little too early. it took its toll on us. They were able to come down and drive to the basket, get fouled and hit their free throws."

Conserving itself for Friday's game with Arizona State, Washington played no one for more than 32 minutes.
"If we could afford to do that, then that is what we were going to do,' said Romar. "We tried to substitute with that in mind. We do have a pretty deep bench and we can go to our bench and give guys breathers."

Arizona probably needed a win or two at the Pac-10 tournament to secure a place in the NCAA tournament. Coming in at 19-12, the Wildcats were listed as one of the "last four in" the field in ESPN's Bracketology projection, which means they're extremely vulnerable to the whims of the selection committee -- and to tournament upsets that allow other teams to sneak in while knocking projected champions into at-large status.
So after losing 68-56 to Arizona State in a quarterfinal, the NCAA tourney was the primary topic of postgame discussion for the Wildcats ...
Head coach Russell Pennell: "It is just out of our hands. We'll be just like everyone else sitting there watching on Sunday. We hope for the best. Righ tnow, you can take a piece of paper and a pen and drive yourself crazy if you want.
"It just boils down to, at the end of the day, is our body of work good enough?"
Guard Nic Wise: "We're going to try to do everything to take your mind off it. We're disappointed, but I know we are going to go back and look at film and see what we did wrong. (NCAA) tournament or the NIt, no matter what, we are still going to be playing."
Forward Chase Budinger: "Last year we were kind of in the same situation. Sitting there on Sunday last year, seeing our team come up at the very end, was very stressful. It does kind of feel the same as last year."

And a few comments from Arizona State, which advances to play today at 6 p.m.:
Forward Jeff Pendergraph: "It feels good to be able to get back on the bus and go back to the hotel to rest, not to go home. To know that you have another game coming up against another good opponent is good. To send somebody else home for a change is a nice feeling."
Arizona State had not won a Pac-10 tournament game since 1990, going 0-6 since the tournament was revived in 2002.
Guard James Harden, on sweeping three games from Arizona this year and winning five straight overall: "For me it feels great, never losing to U of A in my career so far. They had the upside for most of the years so it just feels great and it is special to be a part of that. They are a great team and a pwoerhouse and we are working to make this team a powerhouse as well."
Coach Herb Sendek, on keys to the game: "As much as our shooting percentage (25 of 48, 52 percent, compared to Arizona's 22 of 62, 35.5 percent), I thought key for us was not turning the ball over. Playing against their extended defenses and presses and only having six turnovers I thought was really important, because of you turn the ball over, not only does it open the door for them but it really feels their transition game and makes shots that are almost impossible to defend."

Mike Dunlap has kept a fairly low profile in the media since he turned down the Arizona head coaching job this season, low enough that one Tucson columnist called him the "Mysterious Mr. X." In large part, this was a matter of deferring to Russ Pennell's role as the public voice of the team, giving his standing as interim head coach.
And so Dunlap had given one interview to his hometown paper in Fairbanks, Alaska, and was quoted in one late-season story in the Arizona Daily Star confirming that there was no chance he'd return to Arizona next season.
So I figured our little sit-down -- which came Wednesday night at Staples Center -- was significant enough to post some of the material that didn't make it into Friday's column, starting with our discussion of his two years in the NBA, as an assistant coach of the Denver Nuggets.
Here's the transcript of that portion of the conversation:

Question: We haven't really talked since you left the Nuggets. How do you look back on the NBA experience, and how does that fit into this enhancing the resume and moving on?
Answer: That's a good question.
One is that it enhances the resume, because technically it teaches you how to handle the pick and roll game, which is a trend that has hit college and now high school. So I tried to get ahead of the trend, saying, hey, I don't know a lot about that, so I wanted to go up there and go to graduate school.
"And I was very clear with the Nuggets that I would transition out of there in three years. Well, I did it in two, because one is I had what I needed on an information basis, and second is I had an opportunity to go to one of the top programs in America, learn under another guy that's an icon, and so I was fortunate to make the transition out of there.
I enjoyed it immensely from the learning aspect. I knew the day that I got in there that there were some compromises that needed to be made, and I made them quickly, and never had an altercation with a player or any situation that was anything more than a little bit uncomfortable. You learn quickly how to handle yourself up there.
And also it's your network. When a college player is working with you, you know you've been to the other side of the fence, and so your credibility with your college and your high school players and parents, and AAU guys, goes up twofold. When you throw that out, I don't care if it's with Houston or the Nuggets, and you have that moniker, it's for a lifetime.
And that was part of rounding out my resume, which I continue to do. Internationally, Division III, II, I, NBA, that's what I wanted to do, because No. 1, first and foremost, was the learning. I wanted to learn, and I'll continue to be a life learner, because I want to be a better coach.

Question: Did you find that the kids did respond to you differently because of the NBA experience?
Answer: Yeah, I mean, you have to make an adjustment. You have to prove yourself every day in the NBA. That's a little bit different. Because they're cynical, they've had eight to nine coaches, some of them, so you can ask somebody to do something, but they're going to test you every day, to see if your knowledge base is what it is, and also, will you be there the next day and the next day, or are you a gladhander. And do you want work with Melo [Carmelo Anthony] because of the aura around him? Or do you want to work with him because you can help him?
So that's just initiation from innocence to experience. You have to kind of fight through those gates, and once you get through those gates and Melo or AI [Allen Iverson] or Kenyon Martin sees that you're for real, they'll tell everybody else, hey, this guy's knowledgeable and he can really help you. Because they have a lot of pride up there, they really do want to win, and if you don't make your mistakes during the game, they'll listen to you. And I think by the time I was done, I had that stamp on me that I was legit. And so that was a wonderful test for me.

Question: But it always seemed to me like college was the environment for you.
Answer: Yeah, because you get to teach more. The fact of the matter, it's more in my DNA to be in the college game. All that being said, I could easily transition back to the NBA and enjoy it, because I know how to get to places where I enjoy things. I'm a person that doesn't position myself in positions of political confrontation or ambition, to preen and do the things that perhaps would have gotten me a higher job that what I'm at. But I've been one of the happiest guys around and I've had tremendous autonomy and freedom because I've taken a certain tact.

A few other Dunlap comments of note:
On being a "lame-duck" coaching staff: "Well, that's a perception. I don't agree with lame-duck at all, because a lame duck is only that if accept that jacket. And we've disproved that already. We've disproved it on the front end, in the middle, and on the back end. We've had their undivided attention because we've never treated it like that.
"Where you're empowered in your last year of anything, whether it's the president or the last year of coaching, is that you have tremendous leverage individually because you can disciple and do the things and be very cavalier if you so choose, about how you look a person in the eye, and your expectations academically. We've suspended players on discipline issues, et cetera. My thing is we've just strategically, like a corporation would do, say OK, what are our strengths as coaches, and what can we get out of this group.
"So we went about strategically our theme and what we wanted and we've received it. Whatever we get tomorrow or the next day, there are no regrets whatsoever."

On his role on the coaching staff, and Lute Olson's reasons for bringing him in before Olson retired in October: "I'm the disciplinarian, I'm the one who's in charge of academics and I'm the one who strategically took the defensive side of the ball. And those things were what Coach Olson wanted. He wanted a disciplinarian. It wasn't his cup of tea at his age. He wanted someone who was going to get the best out of them defensively, which they weren't getting, quite frankly. And third, he needed development of young players. And those are things that are right up my alley. So I didn't try to get beyond my role declaration once I wasn't going to be the head coach when he stepped down.
"Coach Olson's made it very clear that he feels the University of Arizona's made a mistake, but that being done, we didn't spend any time talking about the past. And I made it a mission of mine to make sure that I communicated with the athletic director weekly -- go into his office and let him know that I was a big boy, I could handle what they did in that capacity. Because I understood it was bigger than me. It was the program. And also I have an obligation to Coach Olson to behave appropriately because he hired me and entrusted me, regardless of whether I got what I wanted or not. And I think that mission has been accomplished."

And two more thoughts on where he's headed:
-- "The future's bright. It'll go on and I'll have opportunities that are very positive.
"So even though the old saying goes delayed gratification doesn't necessarily mean gratification denied, and I won't be denied. I'll get what I want eventually."
-- "It'll either be in the NBA, as an associate head coach in the college game, or I'll get my own program. And ultimately, I want my own program. ... I'll fit myself into one of the three categories, and those opportunities will come. But I can't also just kind of sit around. I've got to be aggressive about going out and getting my next job within the next three weeks."

LOS ANGELES -- Well, what do you know? The first day of the Pac-10 tournament has a reason to exist after all.
That's assuming you think there's a need for the tournament at all -- which, personally I'm not, thinking there was nothing wrong with making 18 regular-season games determine a bit more than seeding in a four-day free for all.
But, since the tournament probably isn't going any place, the best we can hope is to find a reasonable format, or at least a reason for the current format.
Stanford, by beating Oregon State 62-54 in Wednesday's tournament opener, provided at least a sliver of justification.
A quick history lesson: When the tournament was resurrected back in 2002 -- after a 12-year break which no one really seemed to mind -- one of its saving graces was that it was an eight-team event, meaning that a team had to exhibit at least a minimum degree of competence to make it to Staples Center.
At the time, presidents of the conference schools wanted to minimize time away from school. The bonus was that they minimized the number of bad teams cluttering up the tournament.
In the four years of the eight-team tournament, the best record for a team among the disinvited belonged to Cal's 2005 squad, 6-12 in conference and 13-16 overall. Really, if you can only win a third of your conference games and are under .500 overall, do you deserve to have even the remotest chance of getting into the NCAA field?
But in 2006, the tournament was expanded to include all 10 teams, adding a fourth, play-in day in which the bottom four teams competed for the right to get swatted by the top two. Either collegiate attendance became less important or a four-day, 10-team tournament became more lucrative; we'll leave the answer to your imagination.
The upshot was that the last two years, the tournament's first day has been graced (or disgraced) in 2007 by an Arizona State team that was 8-22, 2-16 in the conference and last year by an Oregon State team that was 6-25, 0-18.
Not surprisingly, both those teams made one-and-done visits to Staples. In fact, in the first three years of the 10-team format, the No. 9 and No. 10 seeds were a perfect 0-6, making you wonder anew who thought their inclusion was a good idea, and why.
Well, on Wednesday, that all changed. Ninth-seeded Stanford became the first of the bottom-dwellers to advance to the second day. Of course, this "accomplishment" does come with something of an asterisk, since Stanford came in at 17-12 (6-12 in the Pac-10) while the Meager Beavers were 13-16 (7-11).
Still, for the first time, first-day form didn't hold. You can decide for yourself whether that makes the day (and format) worthwhile.

This may not have run in both editions, and I couldn't find it in a search of the Star website, so, for the record, here's a column I wrote after Thousand Oaks beat Leuzinger in Saturday's CIF-SS basketball final:
*--Cross-posted to Preps Plus.

ANAHEIM -- The biggest guy on the court for the Thousand Oaks High boy's basketball team proved to be, well, the biggest guy on the court.
At a relatively slender 6-foot-7, Alex Tiffin is unlikely to be mistaken for Shaquille O'Neal -- unless you want to look at his line in the box score from Saturday's CIF-Southern Section Division II-AA championship game.
In just over 31 minutes, the junior forward filled up the box, with 24 points, seven rebounds, three assists, and seven blocks.
That was twice as many points as any other player on the court, as many rebounds as anyone else -- and five more blocks than the combined total of the other 18 players who saw action in the Lancers' 59-55 win over Leuzinger.
As championship-game performances go, this was one big block party.
"When they penetrated," said Tiffin, "they didn't as much as other teams, to a big guy, or a relocation or something. So I could come up, and if I just put my hands straight up, occasionally, the ball just went into my hand."
That makes it sound like this was just another day, but Thousand Oaks fans -- chanting "Al-ex Tif-fin" during the championship presentation -- knew better. So did coach Rich Endres.
"Phenomenal," said Endres.
"This is a hard place to shoot -- very difficult to shoot. And he knocked down shots, he played great defense. He played a phenomenal game."
He did it from start to finish -- five points in the first quarter, five in the second, six in the third, and eight of his team's 18 in the fourth quarter, including the first basket in a 6-0 run that gave Thousand Oaks the lead for good at 57-53, and the clinching lay-up with 12.9 seconds left. Along with that, there were the blocks and rebounds, which just kept coming.
"You keep doing those things and you just want to keep doing them," said Tiffin, "because it's such a great feeling ... you just keep on going."
Tiffin finished 8 of 16 from the field, and even with five of those baskets coming in the paint, that kind of shooting night is no small feat at the Honda Center. It's the kind of big, spacious arena that often trips up high-school shooters because the acres of seating behind the basket (as opposed to the usual wall a few feet away) often play with players' depth perception.
"I don't think it was too big of an issue," said Tiffin. "Last Thursday and Friday we practiced at one of the local college courts" -- that would be Cal Lutheran, which while spacious, is certainly no Honda Center -- "just so we could get used to the size of the court. So I think that definitely helped us."
Tiffin proved to be the ideal player to exploit a flaw Leuzinger coach Reggie Morris Jr. said had existed all season, even if it had rarely mattered for a team that is now 26-5.
"They scored inside," said Morris, "which is one of the things we've probably gotten away with all year. We don't have a big physical presence, so that was something that really bothered us." Thirteen of Thousand Oaks' 21 baskets were in the paint.
"Whenever you have a guy that you can throw the ball inside to," said Morris, "being a post-up presence -- he's a skilled guy and he took advantage of his opportunities. ...
"I don't know how many jump shots he made. That was the concern coming in, that he could step outside and score. We hadn't been beaten by a post-up guy all year. ... We'd kind of gotten away with not having a post player."
That wasn't the case Saturday, mostly because Thousand Oaks did have a post player, and knew how to use him.
"I just had a good game," Tiffin said. "They got me the ball inside, and things went well."
Well enough to give Thousand Oaks its first championship in three attempts, to make it highly likely the Lancers will host a regional game on Tuesday, and to raise Kiffin's profile. Not that he was exactly a secret before this.
"He is on the map," said Endres. "There's college coaches calling all the time, talking with us about him. But he's going to continue to get better.
"He was nowhere like this last year at this time, and let's see where he is next year at this time. I'm hoping we can still be playing for him next year at this time when he's a senior.
"He's developing into a very good player, and I think he's going to be a lot better, a lot bigger, a lot stronger."
He was plenty big on Saturday.
Thousand Oaks has the championship plaque to prove it.

ANAHEIM -- Wednesday, general manager Bob Murray remade the Anaheim Ducks.
Thursday, the new-look Ducks started the process of seeing how the pieces would all fit together.
On the day of the NHL trade deadline -- the first for the team with Murray in charge -- the Ducks said goodbye to some familiar faces and lightened their burden of free-agents-to-be, all while trying to remain competitive in the battle for the one of the final berths in the Western Conference playoffs.
And so out went checking-line center Samuel Pahlsson, left wing Travis Moen and defensemen Kent Huskins and Steve Montador. Along with last week's trade of left wing Chris Kunitz to Pittsburgh, that means the team has dispatched five players who can become unrestricted free agents this summer.
"We knew going into the year that we had a larger number than normal of guys playing out their options and guys wanting to be come unrestricted free agents," said coach Randy Carlyle. "And the organization can't, and will not, let assets go without some form of return."
Defenseman Chris Pronger, who stayed put despite a flurry of rumors about possible trades, said the team was "a little shocked" by the changes.
"But having said that," he added, "I think guys understand that it's a business and understand the nature of the game. We got rid, essentially, of five unrestricted free agents. And you knew at some point, when you have 13 of them going into the season" -- actually, it was 14 -- "that some of them are going to have to be moved."
Arriving Wednesday were center Erik Christensen (acquired from Atlanta for Eric O'Dell, a second-round pick last year still playing junior hockey), center Petteri Nokelainen from Boston (for Montador) and defenseman James Wisniewski from Chicago (acquired with minor-league center Petri Kontiola for Pahlsson, minor-league defenseman Logan Stephenson and a conditional draft pick). All were at Thursday's practice at the Honda Center, and all are slated to play tonight when the Ducks host Dallas. That will also be the first home game for Ryan Whitney, the defenseman who came from Pittsburgh in exchange for Kunitz.
Moen and Huskins went to San Jose for two prospects, Boston University center Nick Bonino and junior goalie Timo Pielmeier.
Coupled with the latest in the ongoing shuffling of players between Anaheim and its Iowa farm team -- Drew Miller and Brendan Mikkelson went down; Troy Bodie and Brett Festerling came up -- it means a quarter of the roster could have changed between the Ducks' last game and tonight's contest.
"I think you have to prepare yourself in these situations for turnover," said Ducks coach Randy Carlyle. "I can't remember the last time we had that many players, specifically, added to your lineup for the next game. It's somewhat unique, but this is the life of a coach in salary-cap and trade-deadline situations."
To Pronger, too, the extent of the turnover was something new.
"I've never been a part of a team that made five or six trades like this," said Pronger, "so that's a little bit different.
"I think people can look at it any way they want, but at the end of the day, we're professionals and we have to play the game to the best of our abilities. If 15 guys get traded or nobody gets traded, we've got to come with that same mindset."
The 25-year-old Christensen had five goals and 14 assists in 47 games with Atlanta, and was averaging a little over 14 minutes on ice per game. Thursday, he was installed on the Ducks' top line, practicing with Corey Perry and Ryan Getzlaf.
"We feel that where he played today," said Carlyle, "he can give us offense, and hopefully it's a shot for him to play with Getzlaf and Perry. ... Any player that feels uncomfortable about that, I'd like you to tell me who he is. That's a nice situation to come into."
As it happens, it's not unlike the situation he faced at the start of the season in Atlanta, when he moved over from Pittsburgh and found himself playing with Thrashers star Ilya Kovalchuk.
"I came into Atlanta and they pegged me as a No. 1 center," Christensen said. "And that's sort of the role that I wanted, and was very hard on myself when things didn't go very well -- just kind of got extremely nervous and tense before a game.
"So I ended up working with a sports psychologist throughout the year, and two months, I think I've played the best hockey I have in a year and a half. But then I could never get my job back and be in that role that I thought I could be in."
What's different this time, he says, is that he's taking that role with a much more established team.
"In Atlanta, everybody talks about getting guys in to play with Kovy and taking some pressure off him," Christensen said. "But here, there's a lot of very good hockey players, and they've had success, obviously, with a Stanley Cup banner. So the pressure is definitely lessened here. Everyone knows what they're doing. It's exciting to be a part of it."
Wisniewski, coming back from off-season knee surgery, had played in 31 games, with two goals and 11 assists.
"I probably could have come back even earlier," he said, "but being my third one, we wanted to make sure I was 100 percent, which I was, and everything's been perfect since then."
He was plus-six and averaging just over 19 minutes per game.
"We feel he can step in to play in our top four," said Carlyle, "Yes, we lost Montador, who played hard and gave us a lot, but we feel Wisniewski and the way he plays the game will complement -- now we have the option of playing Wisniewski with Pronger or (Scott) Niedermayer, or putting Whitney with either of them, or putting those two together and putting Pronger and Niedermayer on the ice at the same time. ...
"We feel comfortable with our back end."
Wisniewski is clearly excited to be part of that group.
"It's a great opportunity," he said. "You have two hall-of-fame defensemen you get to learn from, and have an opportunity to play for a great organization, great team, so I was pretty happy."
Still, he said, he was a little shocked by the deal, particularly in light of how he learned about it.
"I was waiting around 2 o'clock, 2:15, 2:20,and didn't hear anything," he said, "so I thought it was over with. And then all of a sudden I got a phone call from a radio station in Toronto asking me how I felt being traded to Anaheim. I was like, 'I don't know. I'm just finding out now.'
"But I think that's the nature of the beast. I think it was a good time for me to part ways with Chicago. They were great to me throughout my whole professional career, and now it's time to flip the page and start a new one here. ...
"I felt like I was not getting quite the quality of minutes I wanted to. Hopefully I can get that here."
Nokelainen had a tough time getting on the ice in Boston, playing less than 10 minutes a game. He played in just 33 games, having been sidelined since Feb. 10 after suffering a scratched cornea in his right eye. The eye is still dilated because of medication and his vision is slightly blurry, he said, although it's improved to the point that he'll be able to play.
The 6-foot-1, 195-pound Nokelainen doubles the Finnish contingent on the Ducks, joining his boyhood idol Teemu Selanne.
"Because Teemu's been here so long, he was the guy I was watching when I was a kid," said Nokelainen, who had a Selanne poster on the wall in his room as a 10-year-old. "So I used to always follow the Anaheim Ducks. So I've been following the team and know the guys and how they play.
He admitted it's a bit odd to now be a teammate of Selanne.
"It's kind of weird when you come in and see the guy right there," he said. "But after a couple of days, it's an old thing. ...
"At that time, when I was 10, 12, he was the biggest star in Finland hockey-wise, and still is one of the biggest stars."
Nokelainen appears ticketed to fill Pahlsson's role as the checking-line center, at least initially.
"We think he can come in and play center and provide us with some size down the middle," Carlyle said. "He's good on the defense side of the puck and is a former first-round draft choice" -- by the Islanders in 2004 -- "that has some offense skills behind him. But right now, we're going to play him in a situation where we think he can provide strength down the middle."
Said Nokelainen, "Probably right now, it's the checking line, and that's fine with me. I had such limited ice time in Boston, and all kinds of injuries. I think it's a really good opportunity for my career, to show I can do a lot better and do a lot more."
So the new faces are on hand. Now it's just a matter of finding how they fit in.
"I think you've got to let five or 10 games go by to see how the new additions do," said Pronger. "They've got to have time to settle in. We've got to have time to get chemistry between the lines and defensive pairings and within the core group itself.
"But I like the makeup of our team. I think we're going to surprise some people."
Contract status: The Ducks now have six unrestricted free agents on the roster after starting with 14. Remaining are Rob Niedermayer, Scott Niedermayer, Francois Beauchemin, Todd Marchant, Bret Hedican and Brad Larson, who has missed the entire season after sports-hernia surgery.
Of the newcomers, Nokelainen is signed through next year, and Whitney has four years remaining on his deal. Christensen and Wisniewski become restricted free agents after this year, meaning the Ducks would have the right to match any other team's contract offer or receive draft picks as