COUGARS

FROM EUGENE — Arrived at Matthew Knight Arena a bit early so we could look around and shoot some video. We have that posted below, along with some additional thoughts.

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Vince disagrees, but I have to say that the tree-themed floor here doesn't look nearly as bad as it does on television. Don't get me wrong. It's still bad. But not distractingly so, as it is when you're trying to watch on TV. … Can the UO student section still call itself the Pit Crew if the team doesn't play at Mac Court anymore? … We'll link our game advance once more, along with our notes from yesterday on the blog, which pretty much covered all of the particulars about the Ducks. … The key for Washington State today, I think, is a quick start. We saw what happened when the Ducks achieved that in Spokane. And we saw what happened when they did the same thing two nights ago against Washington. This is a team that can really fill it up once they get going, and if the Cougars allow Oregon to carry over any of its Thursday momentum into this game, they could find themselves down in a hurry. But if WSU comes out and plays as efficiently on both ends of the floor as it did in the first half at Oregon State? Different story. … The Register-Guard noted that the challenge for Oregon will be avoiding a letdown after beating UW so thoroughly. Something else to keep an eye on, though letdowns are easier to avoid at home.

All for now. As usual, we'll be back after the game.

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