Dime will be in the building all week for the 2012 Pac-12 basketball tournament to drop some knowledge on you about multiple, epic fails of NCAA Tournament hopes and Ernie Kent’s drink of choice.

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As a recent college graduate, I’m not down with dropping the cash to stay at the media hotel across from Staples Center. The first night of the tourney, I made the mistake of shelling out $40 bucks to stay at a downtown hotel that Hotels.com didn’t mention as being, essentially, a hostel. Read More »

Dime will be in the building all week for the 2012 Pac-12 basketball tournament to bring you updates on how the league is screwing with the NCAA selection committee’s collective head and the awesome Staples Center buffets.

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Day 2 of the Pac-12 Tournament just had to be better than Day 1 as far as quality was concerned. I knew this from the onset, but I didn’t know how crazy of a day it’d become. Look, this is a conference where some silly people think the regular season winner could potentially miss the Big Dance. Read More »

Dime will be in the building all week for the 2012 Pac-12 basketball tournament to bring you updates on the epic media margarita glasses, the best crowd chants and of course, all of the hoops action.

I admit that I do silly things when I travel. To reach the Pac-12 Tournament, I woke up at 4 a.m., chugged a Red Bull and drove from Phoenix to Los Angeles with only a single pit stop to fill my gas tank. The final two hours of the seven-hour journey were spent in mind-numbing, stop-and-go L.A. traffic. I almost crashed like 10 times. Read More »

This will be the last year of the Pac-10 as you know it. The tradition-rich (albeit often overlooked) West Coast staple is expanding, adding Colorado and Utah to the mix. The Utes will join in the 2011-12 academic year, while the Buffaloes will complete the “Pac-12″ the following year.

In the meantime, the Pac-10 is looking to rebound from what was at best a down year in basketball, and at worst an all-out disaster. Read More »

It’s true: what a difference a year can make. It was only two seasons ago that the Oregon State Beavers were the laughing stock of the Pac-10 – literally, going 0-18 in conference play. That was until new coach Craig Robinson, by way of Brown University, was chosen last spring to lead OSU out of its funk. Under Robinson, who is also President Obama’s brother-in-law, the Beavers went 18-18 while also winning the CBI title over UTEP in his first year.

One of the major reasons for Oregon State’s massive turnaround: current senior, Seth Tarver. Read More »