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The Pac-10's transformation from Lamborghini to tank did not happen overnight.

But no time has it been more obvious than this season. The conference's best teams — save maybe Oregon — are winning with defense and efficiency, not the run-and-gun offensive style the conference has been labeled with for most of its modern existence.

Were the season to end today, Washington State's conference-leading 52.5 points allowed per game would be 15.1 points fewer than Stanford, the Pac-10's 2002-03 leader.

This year, four teams are giving up fewer points per game than WSU did last year, when it led with 59.5 points allowed.

This season, three teams have forced foes to shoot worse than 39 percent, USC's league-leading mark from last year.

"Maybe the style of play had gotten up-tempo in the conference," said Oregon coach Ernie Kent, whose team allows a conference-worst 73.1 points per game but leads the league with 82.3 scored. "Now, when you look at the teams that are having success, you have to be able to defend in this conference.

"People talk about the West and us being up and down and wide-open and all that, but it's really become a defensive conference, quite frankly."

Kent theorized Tuesday that the shift came when UCLA coach Ben Howland was hired from the rough-and-tumble Big East in 2003. He preached an aggressive man-to-man defense and a half-court offensive attack, a change from previous coach Steve Lavin's more open approach.

Washington State's Dick Bennett was hired the same week, and was eventually replaced by son Tony last year. The Cougars have allowed the fewest points in the conference since Dick Bennett arrived, in part because of their slow-down offense.

Washington State and UCLA are now among the best defensive teams in the nation.

Washington coach Lorenzo Romar ticked off the list of hirings over the past few years.

In every case, the incoming coach preached defense and played more conservatively on offensive — whether it was USC's Tim Floyd, Arizona State's Herb Sendek, Oregon State's Jay John, the Bennetts or Howland. Even UA interim coach Kevin O'Neill leans more toward defense than Lute Olson does.

"The influx of coaches with a defensive mind-set and more of a half-court mind-set have shifted the way conference games are played," Romar said.

Romar added it was simply coincidental that every hire shifted a Pac-10 team to a slower pace.

"It just happened that these were great coaches that people felt would take their teams to the next level," he said. "They brought them in, and it just so happened this is the style of basketball they play.

"How could you not hire a Tim Floyd if you have the opportunity? … How could you not hire Dick Bennett? He's a hall of fame coach," Romar continued. "How can you not hire Ben Howland, and on and on and on, Herb Sendek.

"I don't think these were experiments where, 'We needed to bring a defensive-minded coach in.' "

Pac-10 offenses can still flurry, however. Washington State made seven three-pointers in the last 1 1/2 minutes of an 81-74 loss to UCLA on Saturday. Arizona scored 85 points at Houston.

But those have been the exception so far, not the rule.

The Pac-10 is becoming football on hardwood.

"Typically, when you're talking about football, basketball, whatever sport it is, everything starts with your defense," Howland said. "If you look right now at the Patriots, Giants, Packers, Chargers — the best teams always play consistent defense, night in and night out."