Pac-12 shrugs off recent failures, completes stunning first-round NCAA sweep

Somewhere in San Diego, maybe listening to Grateful Dead tunes in his backyard teepee, Bill Walton must be smiling.

For once, his beloved Pac-12 is living up to its Conference of Champions moniker.

All five Pac-12 teams that received NCAA men's basketball tournament bids advanced to the round of 32, the first time since 2009 that the conference still has that many teams alive after the first round. Four of the Pac-12’s victories have come by double figures. Three were as point-spread underdogs. Three came at the expense of power-conference teams from the Big Ten, SEC and Big East

Spearheading the Pac-12’s resurgence is UCLA, so far the only team in this year’s NCAA tournament to win two games.…