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FROM PULLMAN — Washington State beat Oregon State for a third time this season on Wednesday, and this one was their most dominating win over the Beavers yet. It also allowed the Cougars to advance to next week's best-of-three championship series against Pittsburgh. We watched the game with about 50 others at Beasley Coliseum, and have our postgame wrap after the jump.

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With everyone focused on the Super Bowl yesterday, and I can think fondly of one life-long Packer fan (and that means almost 60 years) who I sincerely hope had a great day yesterday, there is little to pass along concerning Washington State in particular and the Pac-10 in general. But there is some. Actually, some fun Cougar news, so read on.

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No sleeping in this morning. We're on our way to Portland to catch the flight back to Spokane, but before we go, we have some Washington State links you may want to check out. Read on.

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It may not have been the prettiest game of the season, but it was exactly what Ken Bone wanted. It was a victory. And those, on the road, have been hard to come by for Washington State since Pac-10 play started. Though, at times, it didn't seem like a road game. For more on that and other things, including our game story, read on.

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It was 11-10 Oregon State with 13 minutes, 40 seconds to play in the first half. But when Abe Lodwick nailed a 3-pointer from the corner 7:35 later, it was 28-12 Washington State. An 18-1 run would usually be a reason to celebrate for the team with the 18, but the roots of the run were rotten. In the time frame, WSU was whistled for five fouls, laying the groundwork for a 12-1 Oregon State run to end the half. Not only that, but the Beavers missed three front ends during the WSU streak, accounting for almost a third of their 10 empty possessions. … Two Cougars who were having a big impact on the first half, Lodwick (six points off the bench) and Marcus Capers (three rebounds and a handful of exceptional block outs), missed the end of the half thanks to three fouls. Klay Thompson missed some time as well with two, as did Brock Motum. … That did open the door for Patrick Simon, who chipped in four points, and Will DiIrio, the walk-on who flew in for an uncredited offensive rebound that Simon finished along with a defensive rebound. … Reggie Moore had a decent offensive half despite hitting just 1 of 6 shots. He had an assist and four free throws. … The Cougars shot 39.3 for the half, though they missed their last seven shots. They were over 50 percent with 5:11 remaining and led 31-15. Oregon State shot 40 percent, hitting 6 of its last 9. … We'll be back a couple hours after the game with our story. Until then … 

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Is there a little less consternation out there now that Oregon has also handled Washington today? Or does that create more worries in that Oregon State defeated the Huskies here Thursday night? More thoughts on that, and the extra “g” I had this morning on the link, so read on.

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There's nothing better than sleeping late on a Saturday morning. Yes, 7:30 a.m. is the new 11. At least it is for me. Read on for our morning report.

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We're back this evening with a few thoughts about Matt Court, a quick look at some of the doings around the Pac-10 and a link to our story for tomorrow. Enough for a Friday night? If it isn't, you have my pity. Read on.

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We – meaning most readers and myself – have a difference of opinion when it comes to Washington State's home games not being televised, as was the case with last night's 84-70 win over Oregon State. You folks hate it. We like it. If you want to know why, read on.

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It happened against Baylor in Hawaii, but WSU was able to hold on. It happened against Butler and the Cougars couldn't. It happened against UCLA in the Pac-10 opener for another defeat. But Thursday, when it looked as Washington State might cough up a big early lead in the second half, coach Ken Bone found an answer. And WSU had it's first Pac-10 win of the year, 84-70 over Oregon State. Read on.

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The Cougars are wearing their gray uniforms tonight, a color usually reserved for the road team – in baseball at least. And WSU is shooting as if it's on the road, and for the Cougars this year, that's a good thing. As we documented in our story this morning, for some weird reason WSU has shot markedly better from long range on the road. Well, tonight the Cougars have hit half of their 14 3-point attempts. Klay Thompson (3 of 6 from 3) leads with 13 points, but Faisal Aden (2 of 3) is right behind with 12 – and three fouls. Reggie Moore has nine points and five assists. WSU's biggest problem is turnovers (eight) and a lack of aggressiveness at times. The Beavers seemed to be figuring out WSU's defense – after starting in a 2-3 zone, the Cougars switched to man with about 13 minutes left and stayed with it – late in the half and scored the half's final six points. That helped cut WSU's once 19-point lead (41-22) to the 12-point halftime edge. More afterward.

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We have some news in our pregame post – I know, a shock, huh? – so we won't waste any time. We already have wasted enough catching up with some old sports writing friends. Read on.

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There's a reason we rarely tweet about upcoming radio interviews and the like. You just never know if it's going to work out. Take today for instance. We were supposed to be on a Seattle station at 7:30 a.m. If we had tweeted that information last night, at least two of you would have tried to listen. But we weren't on. They ran out of time (priorities, right?). So those two poor guys would have been disappointed. And we don't like to disappoint our readers (more than we already do with our writing). By the way, does anyone think we'll ever say yes again? Have we mentioned we're Sicilian? But, oh well, it is no big deal. We'll just move on to all the basketball news from Washington State and the football information from around the conference. Read on.

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OK, we have more on the Reggie Moore situation – bottom line, he hasn't been suspended for tomorrow's game with Oregon State – and a preview of the upcoming weekend. Both are on the link, so read on.

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We will have a story for tomorrow's S-R on the importance of this weekend, but we have one piece of news for you right now, so read on.

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It is less than a month until football's letter-of-intent day, so it's no wonder there were a couple recruiting questions on the blog yesterday. We don't have all the answers but we can add a few things, so read on.

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There is a lot to get to this morning, odd considering it is a Tuesday, which is usually the quiet day of the week. But there rarely is a Monday night in which a Pac-10 team looked as good as Stanford did last night. Read on.

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As we begin a week with no school in Pullman and the first Pac-10 home games of the new year, we stop a while and look around. All we see is snow. A pile here, a mountain of it there. Snowboarding is great, but driving? That's a little dicey. Anyhow, we have Washington State news and links, so read on.

Some big news coming out of the bye week in Pullman. The Cougars will not be playing UNLV at Qwest Field next year as previously announced. Nope, instead Washington State will face Oregon State at the Seahawks’ home on Oct. 22. A pretty big upgrade for the Seattle-area fans. We have more on the link, so read on.

You take a half-day off and all heck breaks loose. Literally. With the way the wind was blowing yesterday, everything broke loose. At least all the leaves are finally off the trees – and in the neighbor’s yard. The wind was coming out of the south, so it may have been in response to Saturday, I don’t know. Anyhow, we try to catch up, so read on.

UPDATE: The Pac-10 released its academic all-conference selections and Washington State had seven first-team members, more than any school. They are: Jared Karstetter, Micah Hannam (for the third time), Chris Prummer (second), Kevin Kooyman (second), Casey Hamlett, Kyle McCartney and Chima Nwachukwu (third). Andrei Lintz was on the second team. Daniel Blackledge, Justin Clayton, Darren Markle and Skylar Stormo were honorable mention.