Thursday morning from Pullman
COUGARS
The sporting nation's attention is on State College, home of Penn State and, in a bit of coincidence, where the WSU women's basketball team is headed for a weekend season-opening tournament. Our attention is on football, basketball and Pullman, where Washington State will host Arizona State this Saturday night. Read on.
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• Washington State: Though we are in the stretch run of football season, basketball is starting to gain traction, what with yesterday being Letter of Intent signing day (in reality, the opening of the fall week-long period, but most everyone tries to sign on the first day) and the S-R publishing its basketball preview section today (sort of like Christmas, right?). We have our story on the signing class (expect Richard Peters name soon) and two pieces of our basketball coverage, a preview story and the difference maker short. There are other items as well, but we can't find them online at this time. If we can access them, we will pass them along. ... In the football arena, we have our story on Casey Locker and the flags he's been receiving for allegedly high hits. I also have my Pac-12 picks. Not going with an upset this week, though if the weather gets any colder, it might help. ... Freelancer Howie Stalwick has this feature on offensive line coach Steve Morton.
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• Around the Pac-12: ESPN.com's Ted Miller tells us what to watch this weekend and has his predictions. ... Don't know if I passed this on before, but it's Jon Wilner's ratings of the teams. ... Washington: When the Husky receivers get the ball into the end zone, they know the kicker will tack on the extra point. ... Oregon State: The Beavers run game isn't what you would call overpowering. ... Oregon: Even if the Ducks can't move the ball, they have weapons. ... California: At one time it looked as if Isi Sofele was headed to WSU. Now he's headed to 1,000 yards. ... Stanford: David Shaw wants to emulate Chip Kelly's success. ... Colorado: Nothing. ... Utah: John Hays is playing better at quarterback so the Utes are playing better. ... USC: The Trojans are missing one running back. He'll be on the field Saturday. ... UCLA: Derrick Coleman has been a scoring machine recently. ... Aaron Hester is suspended for a half against Utah. ... Arizona State: A former walk-on is making his mark with the defense. ... Arizona: The Wildcats are having a tough time recruiting. ... The basketball team had a tough time putting away Duquesne, 67-59.
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• That's if for this morning. With Paul Wulff holding a presser today, we'll be back later. Until then ...
