WSU waits for UW as Pac-10 sorts out
COUGARS
Basketball regained its proper place in the sports universe last night, though it took a showdown in Tucson and a 25-years-in-the-making upset at Stanford to get it done. Read on.
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• Washington State: As the Cougars prepared for Washington by getting back to the basics, the Huskies took the day off. Thus, not a lot of stories to pass along. Though Jeff Nusser at CougCenter took another look at the WSU offense. ... As we said last night. The WSU Board of Regents is scheduled to vote today on the Martin Stadium expansion plan. When that happens, we'll pass it along. ... There is a good story on Cougfan from Nick Daschel on new football assistant Chris Tormey, but it is pay only, so I can't link it. ... And that it from Pullman.
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• Around the Pac-10: The Huskies' Isaiah Thomas and Matthew Bryan-Amaning have a long-time relationship. ... The last time Oregon won in Maples Pavilion? It was 1986. Now the Ducks have done it in 2011, 67-59 over the Cardinal. After beating Washington at home a couple weeks ago, Stanford has slipped to ninth in the conference. ... Oregon State's funk continued as well, with the Beavers looking lost at times against a California zone that was surprisingly effective. The Bears' inside game dominated in their 85-57 rout of OSU in Berkeley. ... USC rallied from an early deficit, saw Arizona State's Ty Abbott line up a desperate 3-pointer with a chance to win, but survived, 63-61 in Tempe, a rare road win for the Trojans in conference play. ... Arizona won the battle for second place behind UW as we near the halfway point, defeating UCLA 85-74 in Tucson. The Bruins' second-half defense harkened back to last year when UA won just 16 games. The Wildcats have 17 now and six in conference play. ... We'll leave you with this nice feature on former Oregon coach Ernie Kent. He'll be in Pullman with FSN on Sunday.
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• That's all we have for this morning. We'll be working on a couple of Sunday stories today, safely inside while the wind whips over the Palouse. OK, it is just a slight breeze, but it did wake me up this morning. Until later ...
