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FROM PULLMAN -- Should be on an airplane in Spokane by the time this posts. Call it the early-bird special, except I'm not a bird (or all that special). Anyway, we'll be in Portland and then Eugene before too long, but we have some links to pass along first. Read on.

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In today's newspaper, we have an advance of WSU's game against Oregon tonight, and we had some more basketball notes on the blog last night. ... Here's Howie Stalwick's preview box in the Kitsap Sun. ... One story that got people talking yesterday was this blog post from the Dallas Morning News, which reports that a Texas high school coach says Mike Leach and Washington State are no longer welcome to recruit his players after Myron Turner, a safety who committed to WSU a while back, had his scholarship offer pulled after taking his official visit. A couple things on this: if De Soto has an athlete in the future who Leach and his staff want to recruit, you can bet they're going to recruit him regardless of what the coach thinks of them. Secondly, well, this is how the game is played. It's unfortunate for the young man who thought he had a scholarship in hand. Did he deserve this? Probably not, but we only know one side of the story. In any event, this is what big-time college athletics entails. Whether it's good or bad, that's up to you to decide. ... Speaking of Leach, he did an interview with CYInterview.com that's worth reading. ... Bud Withers chimes in on the difficulties of the conference's new Wednesday-Saturday basketball schedule for some. ... WSU's opponent tonight, Oregon, certainly has benefited from the league's unbalanced schedule. The Ducks have also benefited from a balanced, unselfish attack.

Around the Pac-12 ... The other conference game tonight features Washington playing at Oregon State (8:30 p.m., Pac-12 Networks). The Huskies need others to step up and help C.J. Wilcox. ... One of Arizona's heralded freshmen is chipping in defensively. ... California hopes to have guard Brandon Smith back for its trip to Utah and Colorado this week. ... Utah could go with a very small backcourt in the very near future. The Utes need to slow Cal's high-scoring guard this week. ... Colorado hopes to finally get a win against Stanford this week. ... In football news ... Interesting story here about a legislator questioning Oregon's hiring practices. ... Utah's recruiting class is mostly wrapped up. ... Arizona State's recruiting class could get a boost if a young man by a familiar name decides to sign there.

All for right now. We'll be back before the game.

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

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