COUGARS

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.
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• 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. ...

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• 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.

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

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