COUGARS

Looking forward to your long weekend? It starts today for the Washington State baseball team, as the Cougars try to help their NCAA seeding with wins against No. 7 UCLA at Jackie Robinson Stadium. We also have a track link for you and some news on a former WSU basketball player. Read on.
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• Trailing second-place UCLA by two games in the Pac-10 standings, the Cougars head into Los Angeles hoping to finish second to ASU for the second consecutive season (and stay ahead of Stanford and Oregon, both two games back in the loss column). And then, if things work out, return to the LA area for the first round of the NCAAs, possibly as the two seed at Cal State Fullerton. That would seem to make sense, as the Cougars, ranked as high as 20th and winners of seven consecutive games, can't play at a Pac-10 site (Arizona State and UCLA should host regionals) but deserve to stay in the West after getting shipped to Oklahoma last year so ESPN could televise Stephen Strasburg. You can read more about today's series here and here if you want. ... WSU hurdler Jeshua Anderson, who will be going for his third consecutive NCAA 400-meter hurdles title in June, is the subject of this column in the Austin American-Statesman. ... Former Cougar star Derrick Low, whose European exploits we documented here, earns even more praise in this Star-Bulletin piece.

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• That's it for now. Just so you know, I'm over in the Puget Sound this weekend for a wedding. That's what happens when you have two boys in their 20s (and you coached all their youth teams), their friends get married and you schlep along. We'll keep up-to-date (modern technology and all that), post if need be and be back for sure Monday morning with coverage of the Cougars' selection into the baseball tourney. Until then ...

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