COUGARS

FROM PULLMAN -- The WSU basketball team departs in a few hours, and will make the relatively brief trek from here to the Willamatte Valley for Wednesday's game against Oregon. Before that, coach Ken Bone will meet with the media, as usual. Right now, we don't have much. But there is a bit of recruiting news to pass along. Read on.

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WSU picked up another verbal commitment yesterday, as Samoan nose tackle Daniel Etuale told Scout.com he plans to sign with the Cougars. Here's Etuale's bio. That brings the total of known verbal commitments to 26, in addition to two members of last year's signing class who grayshirted and have already enrolled (OL B.J. Salmonson and WR Robert Lewis), along with another trio of players who also signed in January and are already in school (LB Ivan McLennan, DE Lyman Faoliu and OT Jacob Seydel). ... The Pac-12 ranks a solid third in this week's conference rankings from ESPN.

Around the Pac-12 ... Finally, a member of those poor Arizona Wildcats won a Pac-12 Player of the Week award. ... Utah's coach did his team a favor against Washington by simplifying things. ... UW picked up another basketball commitment for the class of 2013. ... In football news ... California picked up a pair of verbal commitments. ... USC's athletic director stands by the Trojan's coach, difficult as it might be. ... Arizona's quarterback had a solid showing at the Shrine Game. ... With Chip Kelly gone, now both Oregon schools are feeling warm and fuzzy. ... Oregon's backup quarterback is reportedly transferring.

That's all for now. We'll be back with notes from Bone's press conference.

Christian Caple can be reached at christianc@spokesman.com. Twitter: @ChristianCaple

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