When the UA men’s basketball team promptly heard its name called on the NCAA Tournament selection show, one can only imagine the collective swear words said in Tempe.

Yes, the Wildcats saw their streak of consecutive tourney appearances reach 25.

While many Sun Devil fans were upset, those rooting for the Pac-10 Conference as a whole were pleasantly surprised.

Most expected the Pac-10 to feature only five tournament teams, giving them the impression that USC had snatched up the conference’s ultimate bid by clinching an automatic berth on Saturday.

But the committee had other ideas, naming UA a No. 12 seed in the 65-team field.

The committee’s decision to include UA also vindicated what ASU coach Herb Sendek has been saying for weeks. Ever since conference play started, Sendek has been a proponent of the Pac-10’s ultra-competitiveness and balance.

“We’ve talked about that for weeks now, for months, how deep and how talented the Pac-10 really is and what a great basketball conference [it is],” Sendek said Sunday. “I think the selection committee recognized that today with their choices and their seedings.”

But those sentiments aren’t limited to Sendek alone. Other coaches around the league, like USC’s Tim Floyd, Cal’s Mike Montgomery and UA’s Russ Pennell all voiced their opinions on the quality of Pac-10 play during the conference tourney.

Just moments after winning the Pac-10 tournament title, Floyd had something very poignant to say.

“We’re not any better than Washington State who finished seventh,” Floyd said. “That’s how good this league is, but people nationally haven’t talked about it.”

As Floyd alluded, WSU is no pushover. The Cougars finished the season as with the nation’s best scoring defense, but they couldn’t make it through the Pac-10 gauntlet. That’s how good this conference is.

Sure, folks on the East Coast may be asleep by the time the Pac-10 slate of games gets underway, but the conference is worthy of much more dap than it is receiving.

ESPN’s coverage of championship week was heavily skewed toward the Big East and Atlantic Coast Conference. Make no mistake, those two conferences proved to be nation’s best this year. But that doesn’t mean others like the Pac-10 should be pushed out of the picture.

And sure, the Pac-10 lost five lottery picks and 12 players to the NBA draft, but it still added impact freshmen and saw the elevation of several other players.

Freshmen like UW’s Isaiah Thomas, WSU’s Klay Thompson, UCLA’s Jrue Holiday and USC’s DeMar DeRozan — while not up to par with last year’s freakish first-year class — are certainly no slouches. Then you have players like UA forward Jordan Hill, ASU’s Jeff Pendergraph and UW’s Justin Dentmon, who improved greatly since last season to fill the void left by some of yesteryear’s stars.

The conference simply reloaded and didn’t have the down year that most expected it to. Just ask Floyd and Sendek, who said the very same thing last weekend.

It will be interesting to see how the conference’s best stack up against quality non-conference competition.

You can be sure of one thing, though, the Pac-10 will show the nation what it’s been missing all along. Washington features one of the nation’s best backcourt duos in Thomas and Dentmon. Not to mention senior forward Jon Brockman.

Cal is one of the nation’s best shooting teams.

UCLA, while still not as good as its last three seasons, is always dangerous with coach Ben Howland.

Then there’s USC, who showed just how good it can be by going through three tournament teams in three days last week.

Aside from Saturday’s second half against USC, ASU has been playing its best ball of the season recently.

And finally, there’s UA, whose potential has still yet to be reached.

Don’t be surprised if a few Pac-10 teams reach the second weekend of the tournament. The week-in-week-out competition they’ve faced will most certainly pay dividends.

Reach the reporter at alex.espinoza@asu.edu.