The Saturday morning WSU buffet
COUGARS
It looks as if UCLA has finally found a coach, as if Andrew Luck will not win the Heisman and as if we will have some fun this weekend. Read on.
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• Washington State: Not a lot to pass on from Cougar country – speaking of Cougar Country, with a capital C, I've been making sure to get my fill of super baskets recently as I'm not positive when I'll be back; also stopped by Sella's the other day for that fix – other than this piece from the Lubbock paper that sums up the rumors about the coaching staff. With Leach seemingly not keeping any current Cougar coaches around, there will be a different vibe in Bohler next year, that's for sure. Maybe even a big different accent. ... The basketball team gets back to Beasley tomorrow for a doubleheader with the women's team, the men facing Santa Clara, the women UC Riverside.
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• Around the Pac-12: What is going on with basketball? It was another awful day for the conference, with Oregon State losing to Idaho at home – we just saw Idaho on Wednesday and the Vandals are solid, plus OSU was probably distracted by the week's events, but the Beavers were supposed to be one of the conference's better teams this season – and Colorado doing the same with Wyoming. Add in UCLA dismissing Reeves Nelson from the team and it can't get much worse for the Pac-12. ... Wait, I forgot to add Scott Suggs will have to redshirt at Washington this season due to his foot injury. The Huskies play Duke today, which the glass-half-full type of guy would see as an opportunity for a big upset. ... And there is this argument that Utah has the nation's worst college basketball team. ... UCLA seems to have settled on Jim Mora, Jr., as its coach. The school's "first and only choice" I'm sure. ... The Oregon Ducks get back on the field to prepare for the Rose Bowl. The Huskies and Utah are doing the same with their bowls. ... Andrew Luck is in New York for the Heisman presentation though it doesn't look good for the Stanford quarterback. If he finishes second, it would give the Cardinal three consecutive second-place finishes, following his runner-up total last year and Toby Gerhart the year before that.
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• That's what we have for you for this morning. We'll be back soon with a link to our Sunday piece on Mike Leach. We talked with Leach this week about his coaching background, which followed a different path than most. Until then ...
