The streak continues (plus links)
COUGARS
FROM PULLMAN -- There was nothing wrong with the quality of basketball played at Beasley Coliseum yesterday. But for fans of the WSU women's team, there was something wrong with the outcome. Hint: it's the same thing that's been wrong since 1995, as far as the Washington series is concerned. Read on.
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Yes, the Cougar women lost to the Huskies for the 36th consecutive time on Sunday afternoon. But there's reason to believe that streak might end before the Cougars' underclassmen graduate. The talent gap between the teams just isn't that wide anymore. For WSU, it's a matter of learning how to win -- against everybody, not just UW. And that's something June Daugherty is teaching them, however slow the progress. ... Here's the UW take from the Seattle Times. ... The WSU football team picked up a pair of verbal commitments yesterday, according to Scout.com. Both are from the same high school in Texas. The first was safety Montrel Meander, a 2-star rated prospect from Amarillo, Texas. The second was a versatile prospect named Charleston White, who could play either receiver or defensive back for the Cougars. That brings WSU's list of known verbal commitments to 25, though it's possible they could sign more and make the year-to-year math work later. ... Meant to link this yesterday and forgot: Jeff Tuel completed all eight of his pass attempts and threw a touchdown pass in the NFLPA Bowl on Saturday. ... Steve Kelley had an interesting column today about Manti Te'o and his own similar-but-different experience with a former WSU athlete.
Around the Pac-12 ... Arizona is back on track with UCLA awaiting this week. ... Bill Walton talks, and he talks a lot, and T.J. Simers chronicled some of the things Walton said when he talked in this column. ... Looking at Oregon State basketball by the numbers. ... Utah wants its freshman forward to clean up in the paint, and he's responded well. ... Colorado is willing to tolerate some up-and-down games from one of its sophomore guards. In football news ... Oregon introduced its new head coach, Mark Helfrich, on Sunday afternoon.
Christian Caple can be reached at christianc@spokesman.com. Twitter: @ChristianCaple