To improve, the Pac-12 needs UCLA and Arizona to be its flagship programs again (US Presswire)

Yahoo! Sports is breaking down each league for the upcoming college basketball season working backward from No. 31 to No. 1. Here's a look at our No. 6 league, the Pac-12.

At the end of a train wreck of a season rife with damaging injuries, underachieving teams and horrendous nonconference losses, the Pac-12 finally hit rock bottom on Selection Sunday last March.

That was the day Washington became the first major-conference regular-season champ not to earn an invite to the NCAA tournament.

The bad news is the conference has performed so poorly the past three seasons that it has produced only eight NCAA tournament bids during that stretch and twice flirted with receiving only one bid. The good news is an influx of talented newcomers has raised hopes that better days could be ahead as soon as this season.

If the Pac-12 is ever going to regain its former stature, it will probably be tradition-rich UCLA and Arizona leading the charge. The Bruins and Wildcats have both missed the NCAA tournament two of the past three seasons, yet there's optimism on both campuses that this season may be the start of a revival.

Arizona can win the Pac-12 and contend nationally if its newcomers meet expectations, something last year's recruiting class did not do. The Wildcats need their trio of decorated freshmen big men to make an immediate impact and high-scoring Xavier transfer Mark Lyons to make a smooth transition from playing off ball to point guard.

Arizona and Florida will meet in Tucson in one of next season's marquee non-league games (US Presswire)

The Dagger's two-day Pac-12 preview continues with a look at the conference's 15 most intriguing non-conference matchups next season.

1. UCLA at Legends Classic, Nov. 19-20

Comment: It's going to be difficult for UCLA to get through this two-day event unscathed unless Shabazz Muhammad and Kyle Anderson are both eligible. Even if the Bruins were to beat Georgetown in the semifinals, looming in the title game would be a potential showdown with preseason No. 1 Indiana.

2. Florida at Arizona, Dec. 15

Comment: Unlike last year when a narrow loss in Gainesville was viewed as progress for an Arizona program in transition, the Wildcats will not be satisfied with anything short of a victory. It will not be easy even at home, however, because Florida returns guard Kenny Boynton, forward Erik Murphy and center Patric Young from a team that fell a bucket or two shy of the Final Four last March.

3. UCLA vs. San Diego State (Anaheim), Dec. 1

Comment: The Aztecs already beat UCLA for key recruit Dakarai Allen in September. Now they'll have a chance to also secure a win over the Bruins on the court. San Diego State has a good track record against Pac-12 schools the past two years, defeating Cal twice and Arizona and USC once apiece.

4. Stanford at Battle 4 Atlantis, Nov. 22-24

Comment: Is Stanford the mediocre team that faded last season in a weak Pac-12 or the promising group that beat NC State and Colorado State out of conference, challenged Syracuse in Madison Square Garden and stormed to the NIT title? This tournament should provide answers. Stanford, which lost only big man Josh Owens from last year, opens with Missouri and then faces either Louisville or Northern Iowa. Duke and Memphis are on the other side of the bracket.

Mike Bruesewitz (Getty Images)Two weeks after a collision with the basket stanchion during a team workout opened up a seven-inch gash in his right shin deep enough that bones were visible, Wisconsin forward Mike Bruesewitz used a scale of 1 to 10 to assess the amount of pain he had felt.

"It was about a 3," he told Wisconsin's official site. "I didn't think that it hurt that bad."

If Bruesewitz's goal was to make everyone reading this feel like a wimp, then he certainly succeeded. A 3 out of 10 is the equivalent of a gnarly paper cut, a bee sting or a stubbed toe. It's definitely not a gash so deep it required surgery and more than 40 stitches to close and could have very easily have caused nerve or tendon damage had it been an inch or two in any direction.

Bruesewitz told reporters he sustained the injury when he made a steal in the open floor, made a beeline for the rim and got caught from behind by teammate Josh Gasser. They got tangled, sending Bruesewitz careening into the stanchion, his leg sliced open by an exposed piece of metal that was a part of the base.

"I didn't want him to look at his leg,'' Wisconsin coach Bo Ryan told ESPN.com. "I was worried he would go into shock.

"I'll be 65 in December and other than a car accident and seeing on the football field a guy breaking his leg with the bone sticking out, I haven't seen quite a cut like this, a wound like this. I hadn't seen it."

Geno Auriemma (Getty Images)

Eager to find a way to make women's basketball more appealing to TV viewers who insist they don't enjoy watching the sport played below the rim, UConn coach Geno Auriemma proposed a simple solution.

He wants the rims lowered.

Auriemma told the Hartford Courant on Monday that he plans to propose to the NCAA rules committee this spring the idea of lowering baskets about seven inches in women's basketball. The seven-time national championship-winning coach realizes his idea is unlikely to be popular, but he notes it's no different than women's volleyball being played with a lower net or women's softball having shorter base paths than baseball.

"What makes fans not want to watch women's basketball is that some of the players can't shoot and they miss layups and that forces the game to slow down," he told the Hartford Courant on Monday.

"How do help improve that? Lower the rim [from 10 feet]. Do you think the average fan knows that the net is lower in women's volleyball than men's volleyball? It's about seven inches shorter so the women have the chance for the same kind of success at the net [as the men]."

If Auriemma's goal is simply to increase the shooting percentage in women's basketball, then his plan would definitely have merit. Not only could a higher percentage of women dunk instead of laying the ball in on drives to the rim, jump shots and free throws would become marginally easier on a lower hoop. 

San Diego State players mob Jamaal Frankin after his game-winning shot against UNLV (US Presswire)

When early-arriving fans walked into the Thomas & Mack Center for last February's UNLV-San Diego State showdown, the first thing they probably noticed was a huge "THIS IS ARE HOUSE" banner hanging where the visiting team's student section usually sits.

The presence of the logo of San Diego State's student section known as "The Show" initially made it appear to be an embarrassing grammatical error by the Aztecs. In reality, it was merely the clever handiwork of a group of UNLV students who planted it to make it look that way.

Pranks like that one, coupled with consistently entertaining, meaningful basketball, have made San Diego State-UNLV into perhaps the West's premier hoops rivalry the past few seasons, challenged by only Gonzaga-Saint Mary's. The rivalry between the Aztecs and Rebels will likely reach a crescendo this season with both teams ranked in the preseason top 20, loaded with elite talent and expected to once again battle one-another for the Mountain West crown.

"It has become a tremendous rivalry because our fan bases are very competitive and the games have been as well," UNLV coach Dave Rice said. "We played two two-point games last year with San Diego State winning at their place and us winning here at UNLV. I joked with their coaching staff this summer, we'll probably have a couple two-point games this year."

If the games are as dramatic this season as they were a year ago, the only downside will be the knowledge that it could be the rivalry's final chapter. Whereas UNLV will remain in the Mountain West for the foreseeable future, San Diego State will move all its sports but football to the Big West beginning in 2013 in order to enable its football program to join the Big East.

Rice and San Diego State coach Steve Fisher have yet to discuss the possibility of a non-conference series between the two programs because neither has begun assembling their 2013-14 schedules yet. Both insist they're open to continuing the rivalry after this season, whether it's on a sporadic basis or annually.

Ex-Wyoming center Adam Waddell (AP)

Adam Waddell, who started every game for Wyoming as a senior center last year, spoke with me this week to help preview the Mountain West. Here's his scouting report on the league next season:

1. With UNLV and San Diego State ranked in the top 25, New Mexico and Colorado State returning a lot of talent and Nevada coming aboard, could the Mountain West be even better than the last couple of years?

AW: Since first got to Wyoming, I'd say it's gotten better every year. We're consistently getting three, four teams in the NCAA tournament. That's pretty good for your conference. San Diego State, UNLV, New Mexico, they're always up there, but I think it's good to have these new teams coming in too. Nevada's always been good. So I would say this league will be one of the best in the country this year and probably one of the best in the history of the Mountain West.

2. The consensus around the league is that UNLV and San Diego State are co-favorites entering the season. If you had to choose between them, who would you take?

AW: Oh man, to me, it's almost a coin flip. To me, I think UNLV edges San Diego State a little bit in my mind. Having a guy like Mike Moser on your team who's an all-around player is huge. You have Anthony Marshall, who's a great guard, and you have all the newcomers. I'm definitely going to mark the date on the calendar when those two teams play each other because it will be interesting.

Saul Smith (via Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office)Keeping players out of off-the-court trouble has been difficult enough for Tubby Smith during his six-year tenure at Minnesota. Now the Golden Gophers coach has to worry about his own son's run-in with the law.

Saul Smith, an assistant coach on his father's staff, was placed on unpaid administrative leave Sunday after he was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence of alcohol early Saturday morning. Minnesota athletic director Norwood Teague told the Minneapolis Star-Tribune on Monday he's still evaluating whether the younger Smith will remain suspended until his Dec. 3 court date.

"We just can't have behavior like that," Teague said. "It's just not good for anyone, it's embarrassing and I won't tolerate it.

"With a coach doing this, it's disappointing. The timing is one thing. The other thing is it's just not what we want."

The timing of Smith's DUI could not be worse for Minnesota because it comes mere days after a judge's lenience breathed new life into star forward Trevor Mbakwe's basketball career. Judge Jose Fernandez opted not to give Mbakwe jail time due to a parole violation stemming from a July DUI, instead merely handing down two years of probation and requiring Mbakwe to attend AA meetings and perform community service.

It would be as embarrassing for Minnesota were these isolated incidents, but the Golden Gophers have been in the headlines for the wrong reasons all too often under Tubby Smith. Mbakwe missed a year while awaiting trial on felony assault charges, Royce White left the program following multiple legal issues and other key contributors have transferred or lost time due to off-the-court woes.

Shabazz Muhammad (AP)

Any UCLA fans desperate for a hint whether heralded freshman Shabazz Muhammad will be eligible to play at the start of this season probably cringed reading Monday morning's story in the Los Angeles Times.

Muhammad's attorney, Robert Orr, made a comment reinforcing the notion that it's less a matter of whether the 6-foot-6 wing will be suspended to start the season and more a matter of how much time he'll miss.

While Orr continued to insist Muhammad "has done absolutely nothing in violation of any NCAA bylaw," he also appears to question the NCAA's right to scrutinize past events. Said Orr to the Times, "Shabazz didn't even turn 18 until November of 2011 and until he signed with UCLA in April of this year was not under NCAA jurisdiction."

We don't know the exact context of Orr's statement or whether he intends to pursue that argument further with the NCAA, but it certainly doesn't come across as very PR-savvy.

NCAA bylaws are clear that the organization has jurisdiction over a prospective student-athlete as soon as his recruiting process begins. Bylaw 13.01.1 reads: "A student is responsible for his or her involvement in a violation of NCAA regulations during the student's recruitment, and involvement in a major violation may cause the student to become permanently ineligible for intercollegiate athletics competition."

If Orr is prepared to attack the concept of pre-enrollment amateurism and claim the NCAA doesn't have jurisdiction over Muhammad until he begins taking classes at UCLA, he would be resorting to the ultimate "Hail Mary" defense. It's tantamount to acknowledging Muhammad accepted gifts during his recruitment yet arguing he should not be punished for them because the system is flawed.