COUGARS

Let's see. After the first weekend of Pac-10 basketball, Oregon and USC sit atop the conference standings. Everyone who saw that happening, stand up. You, ya you, wearing the Garfield pajamas. Sit down. You didn't predict this. No one did. Not even Ernie Kent or Kevin O'Neill. For more on Saturday's games, including WSU's win over Oregon State, read on.

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• Washington State: We went through much of our thoughts last night on our postgame post so we don't have much extra. Except for two more quotes from WSU coach Ken Bone that illustrate his dry sense of humor. The first came at my expense, when I asked WSU first-year head coach to describe how he felt about his first Pacific-10 Conference win. "First-time here?" Bone asked. As a head coach, I replied, figuring the WSU part of that question was implied. "As a head coach? I'm proud of our Portland State teams that beat Arizona State and Oregon a couple years ago, so they did a nice job going into those places and winning," Bone answered, neglecting the fact those wins did not count in the Pac-10 standings as Saturday's game did. Then he smiled and got serious. "First Pac-10 win here was great. It was a good win and I think Oregon State is really good. They haven't had quite the preseason that some people thought, but there a good ball club and they play an extremely unique style that's difficult to go against. So it's a great win for our team." ... Later, Bone was asked by a TV reporter about Craig Robinson being the president's brother-in-law, "just another coach in the league?" was the question. "He's who?" Bone answered. "The president's brother-in-law," was the response. "Oh," Bone answered, tongue in his cheek. "No, I don't know the president, I just know coach Robinson. He probably doesn't know my in-laws either." ... OK, on to links. Here's our game story and John Blanchette's column. A little inside baseball for you: John and I always talk before we begin to write, covering the subject of his column and the thrust of my story. If you read my gamer last night and wondered why I didn't make a bigger deal of Klay Thompson being held to seven points, this is why. John covered it in great detail in his column. ... Freelancer Howie Stalwick had his coverage in the News Tribune and other papers. ... The S-R's Greg Lee covered the game for the Oregonian and filed this story. ... WSU athletic director Jim Sterk will be inducted into the Western Washington University athletic hall of fame next month. ... One last note. You'll see Klay Thompson listed as anywhere from the nations' leading scorer to third-leading scorer in stories this morning. How can that be? Well, it's simple. The NCAA took Christmas - and beyond - off. The last official stats available are from Dec. 20, when Thompson was third. If you want to be official, I guess you should use those. Friday, ESPN had Thompson second, but those are not official, of course. At one point Saturday, ESPN had him atop the list. Now he's back to third. The NCAA should release official stats again today. But taking two weeks off, wow. Think it could get away with that during football?

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• Around the Pac-10: The biggest news might be out of Seattle, where Oregon, handed a win in Pullman on Thursday, made it two straight in Washington, snapping the Huskies' 18-game home winning streak. Steve Kelley believes the loss could be debilitating come March. We'll see. ... Or the biggest news might have come from Los Angeles, where USC, playing O'Neill's signature physical defensive game, won its eighth consecutive game and moved to the top of the Pac-10 standings. Arizona State scored a miserly 37 points. ... Arizona awoke the echoes in Pauley Pavilion, something UCLA usually does. ... Cal had little trouble with overmatched Stanford.

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• That's it for this morning. We'll be back as new warrants. Until then …

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