Jordan Pope’s rainbow 3-pointer seemed to hang in the air forever before finally falling through the basket as the buzzer sounded.

Oregon State 83, No. 9 Arizona 80.

Pac-12 Network commentator Bill Walton yelled out. Beavers fans flooded the Gill Coliseum court. A top-10 upset pulled by their men’s basketball team on Jan. 25 was a rare moment of reprieve and celebration after the community weathered five hard months since the near-dissolution of the Pac-12, capped by football coach and alumnus Jonathan Smith leaving for Michigan State. Oregon State athletic director Scott Barnes, who was at the Arizona game, made sure to take in the moment.

“In times like this, it helps you understand what you’re trying to achieve,” Barnes told The Athletic the next day.

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— Oregon State Hoops (@BeaverMBB) January 26, 2024

Barnes and Washington State athletic director Pat Chun have said many times that there’s no manual for the path they’ve taken since Colorado, Arizona, Arizona State and Utah decided to jump to the Big 12 and Oregon and Washington chose to follow USC and UCLA to the Big Ten, leaving Oregon State and Washington State as the only remaining Pac-12 representatives beyond this summer. Barnes joked that…

At any given moment over the past month, Gloria Nevarez was probably on the move.

After officially taking over as the Mountain West’s second commissioner on Jan. 1, she held meetings at the College Football Playoff national championship game in Los Angeles, then at the NCAA convention in San Antonio. She has visited Wyoming, New Mexico and Air Force and spent time at the conference offices in Colorado Springs. Next up is a trip to Boise State. She has tried to take in a men’s and women’s basketball game at each stop as she learns about her league.

“I have to get to campuses,” she said.

The only other commissioner in Mountain West history, Craig Thompson, was a million-miler on two airlines, lauded by conference members for always making himself available. Nevarez plans to continue that. People who have worked with Nevarez in the past praise her communication skills.

Not only is Nevarez adjusting to a new commissioner role after holding the same position with the West Coast Conference, but she just wrapped up her time on the Division I Transformation Committee, one of six college sports boards or committees with which she is involved. Few people are as interested in the nitty-gritty details of college sports as Nevarez, the second female and first Latina commissioner of…

NaLyssa Smith sighed, stared down at the court and shook her head as she headed to the bench after Baylor called a timeout as a means to correct itself following a South Dakota 3-pointer that shockingly put the Bears at an 11-0 disadvantage.

It was hard for anyone to fathom No. 2 seed Baylor sputtering instead of steamrolling in a second-round NCAA Tournament game.
In its previous 12 tournament appearances, the Bears advanced to the Sweet 16 or beyond — the fourth longest streak in tournament history. In those endeavors, they moved on by throttling their second-round opponents by an average margin of victory of 26 points — including five second-round wins in that span that came by more than 30 points.

So yes, to see Baylor stumbling at all was disconcerting but to see them out of the bracket in the first weekend? Unimaginable most years.
Yet the Bears never found their footing against No. 10 seed South Dakota and marched off the court in a daze on March 20, 2022, with a 61-47 loss that snapped their Sweet 16 streak.

To be fair, South Dakota was no typical No. 10 seed. The Coyotes’ top three players — Chloe Lamb, Hannah Sjerven and Liv Korngable — were fifth-year seniors with loads of playing experience. They had just knocked off a talented No. 7 seed in Ole Miss.

The loss…