Very early morning links as Wednesday turns to Thursday
COUGARS
FROM PULLMAN – There's a bit of WSU news and lots of links to get to, and I’m all hopped up on Mountain Dew and feeling a little antsy. So we’re not going to wait until the morning to pass along our coverage and our conference links. Read on for a late-night (early morning) snack.
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In advance of Sunday's game at Washington, our story for Thursday’s paper focuses on the recruiting efforts of Ken Bone and his staff in the Seattle area, something that had been lacking at WSU in the past. … We also have our WSU fact box and a note about Reggie Moore needing to score more. He said after the Colorado game that his goal was to become more assertive, a role that has been unfamiliar to him the last two years while playing alongside Klay Thompson. Behind Thompson and DeAngelo Casto, Moore was the team’s third scoring option and wasn’t used to forcing the issue. Now, he’s going to have to do that if the Cougars are going to get this thing turned around. And Washington, WSU’s next opponent, has struggled all season against point guards who like to spark their team’s offense with dribble penetration. Keep that in mind come Sunday. … Former WSU receivers coach Mike Levenseller appears headed to Idaho to join Robb Akey’s staff, though Josh Wright notes that the Vandals won’t confirm the hire publicly. … The lead lawyer for Mike Leach in his lawsuit against Texas Tech has filed a motion withdrawing from the case, according to the Austin American-Statesman. The paper also notes that Leach has requested a settlement from Tech’s Board of Directors. Keep in mind that Leach still has a pending libel and slander suit against ESPN and Spaeth Communications, the PR firm hired by Craig James to allegedly launch a smear campaign against Leach. … Freelancer Howie Stalwick has this feature on Brock Motum in the Kitsap Sun. ... USA Today takes a neat look at Trey Griffey, the son of Ken Griffey Jr., who still lists a scholarship offer from Washington State. One of the highlights of covering the 2009 Mariners as an MLB.com intern was listening to the elder Griffey proudly boast in the team's clubhouse about his son's football achievements. Didn't seem to bother him one bit that Trey didn't want to play baseball.
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Around the Pac-12: Percy Allen ranks the Cougars ninth in his Pac-12 power rankings. … The Ducks are looking for some consistency – sound familiar? – as they hit the road to face Arizona and Arizona State. In any case, former Ducks coach Ernie Kent will be there for the first time since his firing. … They're still waiting for the other shoe to drop in Corvallis. Missed this yesterday morning, but the Beavers are starting to feel a sense of urgency. ... It’s always interesting to examine the toll exacted by a multiple-overtime game on its participants. The Arizona Daily Star does just that in this story. … The Arizona football team found itself a defensive coordinator. … USC needs to recover from some injuries if it’s going to have a chance against UCLA this week. On the football side, USC took a step toward taking operational control of the Coliseum yesterday. … Harper Kamp is still valuable to California despite a dip in his numbers. … An old Ute is now leading the team from the background. … Heard somewhere that Colorado has to win on the road to prove its contender status in the conference. Here’s another story about that from the Daily Camera. A Denver Post columnist quotes an NBA scout as saying the Pac-12 is like “the JV league.” Well, that’s not very nice. I kept the scorebook for the JV team at Mark Morris High School in 2005, and they went 19-1.
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All for now. We’ll be back at some point on Thursday.
Christian Caple can be reached at christianc@spokesman.com. Twitter: @ChristianCaple