COUGARS

FROM PULLMAN -- After a nice pasta dinner and some fudge cake last night, it's time to put the Hallmark holiday behind us and get on to Wednesday's post, brought to you by Russell Stover and an accompanying bellyache.

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Is it wrong that I'm half-hoping my girlfriend won't be able to take the chocolates I bought her on her flight tomorrow, so she has to leave them here? Yes? ... It's Wednesday, meaning we have another installment in our series of profiles on WSU's new assistant football coaches. This one is on offensive line coach Clay McGuire. ... We also recapped Ken Bone's press conference, and you can read that here. ...  Howie Stalwick has a feature on Mike Ladd, whom we will write about for Thursday's paper. ... Arizona has a plan if WSU plays zone defense on Thursday. ... Andy Mattingly's brother received an offer to play football at WSU. ... Baseball America predicts the Cougar baseball team will make the NCAA tournament. ...

Around the Pac-12: UCLA and USC renew their rivalry tonight (7:30 p.m., Prime Ticket), a game the Bruins still take very seriously. USC, by the way, doesn't win games anymore. UCLA isn't even a top-five team in California. Anyone watching this one?... Utah is sick of moral victories, but getting better at making non-moral free throws. ... Colorado's Pac-12 title hopes will live or die in Oregon this weekend. ... Washington coach Lorenzo Romar wants to see the Sonics return to Seattle. ... Oregon State and Stanford played for quite a while the last time they faced each other on the basketball floor. Jared Cunningham's route to the basket can sometimes be a bunpy one. ... Stanford's slumping, the reason for which Johnny Dawkins just can't put his finger on. ... California's RPI is on the rise. The Bears might not be great, but maybe they're the least-not-great team in a league full of teams that aren't that great. ... Should the Pac-12 consider playing non-conference games later in the season in order to boost its national image? Bud Withers thinks so, too. ... Dave Boling does some Pac-12-bashing in this column. ... Some interesting stuff here from George Schroeder regarding a college football playoff. ... I like this. I like this a lot.

All for now.

Christian Caple can be reached at christianc@spokesman.com. Twitter: @ChristianCaple

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