Madness begins Tuesday, in some form

COUGARS

FROM PULLMAN — The NCAA tournament begins with two games tonight. But a whole bunch of Pac-12 teams will be in action elsewhere, including Washington State, which landed in San Francisco last night for its first-round CBI game. We have more on that after the jump.

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The Cougars begin the postseason tonight at 7 p.m. against San Francisco. You can watch the game on HDNet, which is channel 707 for Comcast customers, channel 306 on DirecTV and channel 362 on Dish Network. We put together this advance , focusing on WSU appreciating the opportunity to continue playing basketball, as well as a quick look at San Francisco. In short: the Dons are a solid offensive team who try to “create havoc” defensively, as Ken Bone said. That means a lot of trapping, especially in the halfcourt. The last team that really tried to do that against WSU with much frequency was Oregon State (in Corvallis, not so much in Los Angeles), and the Cougars were very efficient against it. If they value the basketball and attack the middle, they can take advantage. But if they’re lazy with the ball and make the same kind of passes they did against the Beavers at Staples Center, it could be a long night. … Bone spoke with reporters yesterday, and we posted some of his comments on the blog last night. … We also have a short story about the Pac-12 women’s basketball tournament moving to Seattle next season. Larry Scott is expected to announce at an 11 a.m. press conference at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas that the men’s tournament will move to Sin City next season. … Here’s a super-duper short item from the San Francisco Chronicle. … The football team reportedly picked up a commitment from a JC linebacker. … Jim Moore isn’t particularly pleased that WSU chose to play in the CBI. … Bill Moos had some interesting things to say in his weekly radio show (you can download the podcasts of those here ), which Howie Stalwick summarized in the Kitsap Sun. Most notable, perhaps, is the mention of a potential Pac-12/Big-10 scheduling agreement in basketball. Moos also said WSU decided not to bid to host a first-round game in the CBI, preferring to save its bid until students returned from spring break.

As for other Pac-12 teams beginning postseason play tonight …

Washington State vs. San Francisco , 7 p.m. (HDNet)

NIT — LSU vs. Oregon , 6:30 p.m. (ESPN): For the Ducks, the NIT is all about attitude .

NIT — Texas-Arlington (fixed) vs. Washington , 7 p.m. (ESPNU): The disappointed Huskies are trying to get excited about playing in the NIT. Tony Wroten is trying to put the OSU loss behind him .

NIT — Cleveland State vs. Stanford , 8 p.m. (ESPN2): A bit about the game from the Chronicle, and a little more from the Mercury News.

Cal is going to have to adjust to South Florida’s slow-down style. … Cal’s young football team is the most recent Pac-12 team to get its spring practices going. … Colorado is putting the celebration behind them and focusing on its first-round game. … Buffs guard Jeremy Adams doesn’t let diabetes stop him. … Sean Miller is trying to replace Josiah Turner, who remains suspended for Arizona’s first-round NIT game Wednesday. … Legendary Ducks coach Dick Harter died on Monday . … An Arizona cornerback is on the comeback trail . BYU’s coach is pleased with his team’s effort early in spring ball, though they’re looking for more depth at receiver. … If you haven’t already exhausted your monthly limit of stories on the LA Times’ new pay site, here’s a spring football story from USC. … This has nothing to do with basketball, football or the Pac-12, but I really enjoyed this piece by Joe Posnanski about the viral Olive Garden review. Perfectly stated, I think.

That’s all for now. We didn’t make the trip to San Francisco, but we’ll be watching the game from a television somewhere, and I’ll be chatting about the game on Twitter, as usual. Come join.

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