Idaho State football coach Mike Kramer has been suspended for Saturday's game against Montana. Here are the details.

There is still plenty of women’s basketball left for Eastern Washington this season, but it won’t be played at Reese Court. Jim Allen has this game story from the Eagles' loss to Idaho State on Saturday afternoon.

It was a pretty fantastic day for area women’s basketball teams.

The No. 22 Gonzaga Bulldogs avenged a rare West Coast Conference loss with a win over Saint Mary’s, Washington State pulled together for a Pac-12 victory over Arizona and the Eastern Washington women defeated Montana State to complete their first sweep of the Montana schools on the road. The Idaho women didn’t fare as well, falling to Utah State.

Three of the four area Division I women's basketball teams start conference play on Thursday. That is the topic for this week's notebook, leading off with Gonzaga's quest for an eighth-straight WCC title. I also realize I neglected to link to last week's story on Eastern Washington mighty mite Chene Cooper, who leads the Big Sky in assists and is about to set the Eagle record for steals.

Time to catch up on area women's basketball, and despite the slow holiday season, there's enough news and plenty more to come in the near future.

Eastern Washington University’s men’s basketball team is just couple of hours away from opening Big Sky Conference play on the road against defending two-time champion Portland State.

Eagles coach Kirk Earlywine has previously made it clear he is not a big fan of starting conference play in early December, and he did so again earlier this week in this Big Sky preview that ran in The Spokesman-Review.

In addition to the preview, I’ve included this link to the EWU-PSU game notes supplied by Eastern’s sports information department, and this link to what Portland State’s sports info office had to say about the upcoming game.

Think the officiating in last Saturday’s Big Sky Conference game between Eastern Washington and Montana in Missoula was bad?

So, apparently, did Big Sky officials, who issued this release, pointing out a couple of obvious mistakes — both of which went againt the Eagles.

Let us know what you think, and check back later for S-R columnist John Blanchette’s take on the revelation, in addition to a feature story on EWU’s senior quarterback Matt Nichols, who will be among the 16 seniors making their final appearance at Woodward Field on Saturday, when the Eagles take on Montana State.