West Coast Bias segment: Going big

There is a new trend developing on the west coast and more specifically in the Pac 10. It's a big trend: teams are going big. Big but not necessarily not mobile.

Look at some of the height coming in the Pac 10 this year and next year, in addition to the ones already in school:

* Spencer Hawes
* the Lopez twins
* Euro imports: Roeland Schaftenaaar, Marco Spica (had he qualified)
* (Deon Thompson had he not be "stolen" by Roy Williams)

And in 2007:
* Kevin Love
* Alex Jacobson
* Eric Boetang (transfer; former McDonalds AA)
* Harper Kemp
* Emeka Iweka (not as tall but space-eater)

The signing of the Lopez twins at Stanford and Spencer Hawes at Washington essentially re-started the arms race for talented big men, which continued with the 2007 commitments. UCLA upped the ante in 2007 by getting Kevin Love, which should put more pressure on the other Pac10 teams to get more bigs...

Granted some of the players are so talented they may be one and done, but usually coaches hope for at least two (and dream of four). Typically players need more than one year to prepare for the NBA, with a few lottery exceptions...

As you can see from the list above, Washington, Stanford and UCLA have a premium big man, with Cal, Arizona, ASU and OSU getting talented four-year big men to counter. The 2007 recruiting is far from over, so expect more size in the Pac 10!