The field for the 2009 Maui Invitational, which includes Gonzaga, won't include Louisville. They've been replaced by Cincinnati.

More below.

Don Van Lierop has had his share of valleys and peaks as head basketball coach at Ferris and Mike Ganey has had his ups and down as the longest-tenured football coach at U-Hi.

On Thursday, Van Lierop was exhonerated of charges that delayed the start of his season with Saxons. Friday morning, a news release from the Central Valley School District announced the resignation of Ganey as Titans coach after 16 years.

Oklahoma State, Gonzaga's first-round opponent at the Old Spice Classic next week, took care of Tulsa on Thursday to stay unbeaten.

Click below for more and OSU and an interesting feature story on Bill Grier.

COUGARS

As we get closer to the core of the Apple Cup – see, an apple metaphor; not a good one, but a metaphor nonetheless – the stories start to thin a little, as the easy ones were done earlier in the week. But not by much. Read on.

COUGARS

Just a quick evening post with our notes out football today. Practice was in the bubble and featured some pretty intense action. Read on.

Another forgettable Idaho football season wraps up Saturday at Hawaii. About the only suspense -- if you can call it that -- is whether punting T.J. Conley will hang on to the national lead. Conley is averages 47.2 yards per kick, while the nation's No. 2 punter, Jacob Richardson of Miami-Ohio, has a 46.4-yard average.

Keep reading for my WAC notebook, which focuses on the superb special teams player.

Now, for the majority of people whose thoughts are turning to basketball - the season is underway. Teams are into their fourth day of practice. Only teams currently at a disadvantage are the ones still playing for state fall sports honors.

That means Ferris and Central Valley in the GSL, Pullman boys and girls in the GNL, Freeman and Colfax boys as well.

Everyone is pointing at Gonzaga Prep as the pre-season favorite. But the 3A competition might be the most intriguing with state veterans Shadle, Mt. Spokane and (one year removed) North Central among them.

I wrote a little bit in today's Prep Page of the newspaper about the furor over Ferris playing at Central Valley. In further conversations someone gave me another perspective. If Central Valley hadn't beaten Southridge, he said, Ferris would have been traveling to Kennewick this week. That's 145 miles versus the 10 mile trip to CV.

At any rate, here's your chance football junkies to make your thoughts known on who wins the rematch.

I had the pleasure of driving to Harrison on Tuesday to visit with the Kootenai football team's three four-year starters - Ben Shannon, Kolten Willms and Dakota Amy.

Read about them here about their dream of capturing a state football championship Friday.

Eastern Washington evened its men's basketball record at 1-1 Wednesday night by posting a 74-69 road win over UC Irvine.

You can read more about the game and learn what Eagles coach Kirk Earlywine thought about his team's effort here.

Granted, the Anteaters aren't going to ruin anybody's NCAA Tournament bracket come March, but this still seems like an impressive win, considering the offensively challenged Eags shot 53 percent from the field.

COUGARS

My afternoon yesterday was pretty well planned. Get to football practice early for a couple quick interviews – the players and coaches were off limits after practice so they can get into their Apple Cup mode – then head over to basketball practice a while before heading back to Rogers Field for some more football. Then hoops practice was cancelled. So we spent the entire afternoon outside, watching football. Read on for some thoughts from practice and the links we found.

COUGARS

The day is done – less than three days to the 101st Apple Cup – and we've got items to share with you. First on the agenda is the story we liked the most out of today's multiple Cup reads then we've got the unedited version of our feature on sixth-year senior defensive end Matt Mullennix, one that took a few twists and turns before we could even write it. After that, we have some notes out of practice this evening. Read on.

Click the tab below to see this week's media girls basketball rankings.

The name of EWU defensive end Greg Peach came up again as the odds-on favorite to win this year's Buck Buchanan Award during Wednesday's weekly Big Sky Conference coaches' conference call.

Eagles coach Beau Baldwin addressed the matter, saying it could prove to be immensely beneficial to his program, should Peach win the award.

You can read more below in the unedited version of the Big Sky notebook that will run in Thursday morning's S-R.

If anyone is wondering where I've been (and I regretfully forgot to post this before I left) - I'm on vacation in Mexico.

I'll be back this weekend, and I will have plenty of updates for the fans that are still with me here.

Thanks!

We hit most of the key points in last night's game story, but there are other topics to revisit. Click below for more.

COUGARS

Put on the coffee. Throw some cinnamon rolls in the oven. Find a soft chair. We're going on an Apple Cup reading safari.

The Internet jungle is clogged with Apple Cup – and WSU basketball – related items, with the matchup of two teams with nearly matching records gaining attention as far away as Los Angeles. So pour yourself a cup and sit. It will take some time.

COUGARS

Our final post of the night. I promise. On it you will find the unedited version of my basketball game story for tomorrow's S-R.

Idaho dropped to 1-2 after absorbing an 80-46 loss to Gonzaga on Tuesday.

Click below for an unedited game story that will run in Wednesday's S-R.

Read on below for an unedited game story from Gonzaga's 80-46 rout of visiting Idaho on Tuesday.

(And come back here tomorrow for our day-after post.)

COUGARS

The Cougars featured balanced scoring - nine players had points though only Nik Koprivica was in double figures - in their 55-33 defeat of Fairleigh Dickinson. A 19-4 run to open the second half put the game away.

Gonzaga scored the first 17 points, led 47-11 at half and coasted to an 80-46 victory over Idaho on Tuesday at the McCarthey Athletic Center.

The Zags' 36-point halftime lead was their largest since a 55-16 margin against San Francisco on Jan. 15, 2004.

GU (2-0) held the Vandals (1-2) to four field goals in the first half on 19 percent shooting. By half, GU had made seven 3-pointers and 51.4 percent (18 of 35) field-goal attempts.

Micah Downs scored 16 points in the first half and finished with 18. Austin Daye had 16 points and seven rebounds. Josh Heytvelt finished with 15 points and seven boards.

I'm heading down for interviews, so check back in about 90 minutes for the game story.

COUGARS

Just a quick halftime post with WSU leading 26-13. The Knights are an aggressive team on both ends of the court, but they've struggled to get the ball in the basket, hitting just 6 of 27 first-half shots. The Cougars have been a little better, hitting 11 of 28, but they're just 1 of 7 from beyond the arc.

We'll be back with our unedited game story when we can.

COUGARS

The basketball game is about to start, with the Cougars taking the court as the No. 1 team in the nation - in one statistical measure anyway. The starting lineup is the same with Rochestie, Baynes, Thompson, Koprivicia and Harmeling.

On the link is my raw football notes that will appear in tomorrow's paper. There is some interesting news.

COUGARS

Before we head out to football practice – and then over to the basketball game – we thought we would throw the unedited version of our Pac-10 notebook on the blog. At the bottom is our conference game of the week.