The West won't be lost for long.(College Basketball)

So now we know the NCAA Tournament can be conducted without a West Region--and pretty much without the West. The Pac-10 Conference packed up all its sneakers when things got serious. Gonzaga went home after two games. Five years into its existence, the mountain West Conference still hasn't discovered there's a second weekend to this tournament. It's as if John Wooden never had crossed the Rocky Mountains.

The good news is that Nevada of the Western Athletic Conference claimed some dignity for the region by nailing down 6.25 percent of the Sweet 16. The even better news is the West's downturn is temporary. Gonzaga will be back, and the Pac-10 is in position to recover a position of prominence quickly.

"If we were a stock, we'd be a pretty good stock," says California coach Ben Braun. "Things go in cycles. We'll be back. We'll be as strong as ever."

That is not empty rhetoric. Stanford, Arizona and Washington are blessed with an abundance of young players. Among the teams that didn't make the NCAAs, California started three freshmen and a sophomore, and those two classes contributed 81.5 percent of the Bears' scoring.

In the past decade, the Pac-10 on average placed two teams in the Sweet 16, and the West overall was good for nearly three. It will be that way again, if the offseason goes better than this past season.

Arizona

Key additions: center Mohamed Tangara, power forward Isaiah Fox, wing Jawann McClellan.