WSU set to play in Arena tonight

Good morning from the fine city of Spokane. A light snow fell last night, giving the neighborhood a Christmas look, which is probably darn appropriate for Dec. 10. Washington State has a basketball game here tonight, which is also darn appropriate for Dec. 10. We have some more on that and the going-ons in the Pac-10 on the link, which is also darn appropriate for our morning post, so read on.

••••••••••

• Washington State: Today’s post includes a question to you Pac-10 basketball fans out there. Power rankings are all the rage (you can check out Percy Allen’s in the Times here) so I was wondering how you would rank Pac-10 basketball midway through the non-conference section of the schedule. A wise man – no, it wasn’t me – once wrote you have to examine two things about a team this time of year, who they played and where they played them, before you can get a good idea of their competitive level. With that in mind, tell me your top four or five Pac-10 teams. I would go with Washington, Arizona, WSU, Cal and UCLA. The more I look at the conference though, the worse it looks, especially the bottom six or seven teams. … On to links. … We have our advance of tonight’s game with Texas-Pan American, former home of one of my favorite college coaches, Abe Lemon. I heard him speak one time at a coaches’ clinic and he told the funniest story that I cannot, sadly, repeat here. … Lewiston’s Ryan Collingwood has a preview. He also found this feature on the Broncs’ leading scorer. …

•••

• Around the Pac-10: Not much conference-wide today. … Washington: A bowl appearance may help the Huskies in recruiting. … Oregon State: Nothing here. … Oregon: LaMicheal James won the Doak Walker Award as the nation’s best running back yesterday, though I still don’t believe he’s the best running back in the Pac-10. Switch teams between he and Jaquizz Rodgers and James doesn’t come within 300 yards of Rodgers total with Oregon State while Rodgers’ numbers in Oregon’s offense would probably match James’. … Dueling columnists about James, with John Canzano and George Schroeder looking at a different aspects of his life. … California: Nothing here. … Stanford: Andrew Luck will not win the Heisman. He will, however, have a long and prosperous professional career. … USC: Nothing here. … UCLA: Or here. … Arizona State: Or here … Arizona: Mike Stoops lost two assistant coaches to Colorado this week. Which means he’ll have extra duties for the Alamo Bowl.

•••

• That’s it for this morning. We’ll be back before tonight’s game in the Spokane Arena. Until then …