John Blanchette: Bill Walton’s ‘Conference of Champions’ takes March Madness by storm despite back-of-the-pack projections

INDIANAPOLIS – Welcome to the neener-neener-neener portion of March Madness.

Gentlemen of the Pac-12, it’s your turn at the podium. Here are your paddles, and we’ll assume the position.

Oregon coach Dana Altman: “The Pac-12 has shown exactly how strong it was.” WHACK!

USC’s Andy Enfield: “We’ve been trying to tell you guys in the media for the last couple years the Pac-12 is really good.” WHACK!

Oregon State’s Wayne Tinkle: “Maybe now we’ll get some damn respect.” WHACK!

Thank you, sirs. May we have another?

UCLA’s Mick Cronin: “You’re finding out that the Pac-12 not being ranked all year was an absolute joke. And some people ought to be ashamed of themselves.” WHACK!

Ashamed? Oh, we are.

At least until we have the chance to dismiss, disparage and demean your conference again.

Hey, it’s just what we do.

But for now, we have to give it to you. You’ve taken our favorite three-week floating craps game and made it your own. You’re not just Bill Walton’s “Conference of Champions,” as he proclaims 35 times during any game he announces.

You’re America’s Conference.

Four Pac-12 men’s basketball teams – affiliated with the coaches above – have reached the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament, a likelihood akin to finding Spanish doubloons mixed in with the nickels, dimes and popcorn kernels between your sofa cushions. The last time it happened was 2001, but never mind that.

Mind this: The Big Ten and Big 12 – the purported mafia that ran college basketball this season – have just two. Between them.

And this: The state of Oregon has two teams still in the field. North Carolina, holy land of the game? Zero.

It’s not just that they’ve reached this checkpoint, it’s how they’ve reached it. Pac-12 teams – including Colorado, which bowed out in the round of 32 Monday – are 9-1 in the tournament, the wins coming by an average of 16 points. All this without Arizona, sitting in a self-imposed timeout while it waits for the NCAA to administer noogies.

For the upcoming weekend’s game, the Pac-12 should spring for warmup shirts that read, “How do you like us now?”

If it could afford shirts.

This is all part of the problem with Pac-12 basketball: It’s in the Pac-12. In a football-driven nation, the conference is barely on the radar, a sorry situation that just spills over to hoops whether those teams are doing well or not. The schools finally shed a commissioner who had become an industry punch line for his Thurston Howell persona. The in-house networks he championed are bleeding subscribers, and the money he promised members hasn’t materialized. Late starts and lack of carriers means few seeing the product.

“Maybe people can’t stay up for our games,” Cronin allowed. “But I’ve been doing this a long time. Back in 2011, I coached in a league (the Big East) where 11 teams made the NCAA Tournament. And the national champion (UConn) finished in a tie for ninth. So I know good teams. So Oregon State, Oregon, Colorado, ’SC – those teams winning is just not a surprise to me at all.”

Well, it can still be a surprise to the rest of us.

For all this indignation among the lodge brothers, respect must be earned. And since Oregon’s 2017 Final Four appearance, the Pac-12 has been short on merit. The very next year, the conference had just three representatives in the bracket – all eliminated by lunch on the first Thursday.

“I’m sure there’s years in the past where it was just,” Tinkle said of the disdain. “But you look at what’s been built. Last year it was looking like we could have as many as seven or possibly eight (NCAA teams).”

Hmm. Probably more like six. Even so, the Pac was 13-19 against the other power conferences last year and only 4-8 in this year of abbreviated schedules.

Naturally, Cronin has a theory about that, too.

“West Coast teams (had) a huge disadvantage,” he insisted. “When teams in the south and back east had summer workouts, we did not see our players for six months.”

It’s true. California, Oregon and Washington had some of the most stringent COVID-19 restrictions in the nation. That doesn’t really account for Pac-12 stumbles against teams like Montana, UC Riverside and, ugh, Portland.

But that was then. This is now.

So dominant has the Pac-12 been in this tourney that even Washington State has reaped the rewards. Those Ken Pomeroy rankings that have become part of the regular basketball conversation? The Cougs – their season over two weeks ago – have managed to climb from 106th to 84th in five days, just by association. They’ve also collected roughly $2.4 million over the next six years in tournament booty the conference divvies up.

The only downside? USC and Oregon must meet in the Sweet 16, pre-empting the possibility of an all-Pac Final Four.

Or the Ultimate Neener, as it would be called.