We were out at the baseball game against top-ranked Arizona State tonight, and we have this story for you to read if you so desire. There is also a short basketball note on the end, so read on.

Funny thing about spring in the Palouse. It was a beautiful day yesterday, warm, sunny, clear. Then the sun went down. The cold was biting. Just a warning if you are planning on coming down for spring football practice. The last few drills can be awfully cold. We have some spring thoughts – and will have a story and notes early this afternoon – along with links and other stuff, so read on.

I had written an entirely different lead-in for this blog post, one that I felt was just the right blend of humor and newsworthy notes. Then I re-read it. The humor wasn’t humorous enough, the news wasn’t newsy enough. So we deleted it. Instead we can offer you links and a couple thoughts, so read on.

The nonconference portion of Washington State’s basketball season is now officially behind us. The Cougars’ record after a dozen games? 10-2, with the losses at Gonzaga (ranked) and Kansas State (ranked even higher). After last night’s win over LSU, only the second BCS school they played (Kansas State was the other), they can take a few days off for Christmas – “I’m excited to go home,” Klay Thompson said – and then get ready for Pac-10 play. For more on last night’s 72-70 overtime win in Seattle, and some links from around the Pac-10, read on.

Not much in the way of links for you today, but we do have news about the next month. Read on.

The baseball season is over for Washington State, but the lessons learned during the run to the NCAA Tournament will last a long time, according to coach Donnie Marbut. After the Cougars lost to Oklahoma on Sunday, Marbut insisted they will be back – and soon. For more, read on.

Washington State had one bad inning against Oklahoma on Sunday, but the seventh inning was bad enough to end the Cougars’ 32-25 season, the school’s best since 1990. Here’s the Daily Oklahoman’s quick, end-of-game story about the 7-2 defeat to the Sooners in Norman. We’ll be back tomorrow with links to all the game stories. Until then …

It’s a do-or-be-out day for Washington State, facing Oklahoma this morning at 11 then, if the Cougars win, turning around and dealing with Arkansas at 5 this afternoon. WSU has already faced the Sooners this year, splitting an early season four-game set in Pullman. For more on Saturday’s win over Wichita State, read on.

WSU just eliminated Wichita State, 3-2, behind the 10-strikeout pitching of Chad Arnold (a career high), a two-run home run from Derek Jones (his 12th) and a solo shot from Jared Prince (his seventh). The two home runs were on back-to-back pitches in the sixth. The Cougar bullpen, which struggled mightily in the loss to Arkansas, came through this time with Jeremy Johnson getting the save, his 10th. Now WSU will wait to see which team they’ll play. It will be the loser of today’s Arkansas vs. Oklahoma game. To win the regional, WSU has to win four consecutive games. With today’s win, the Cougars need three more.

Washington State will be back on the diamond in a couple hours, so let’s catch up with what happened yesterday. Even if you don’t want to, read on.

The day started so promising for WSU. But a 3-1 lead heading into the bottom of the eighth collapsed quickly, with Arkansas exploding for nine runs in a 10-3 NCAA-opening-round win. You can read the wire story here. When our story appears we’ll link to it for you.

With the baseball team doing something today it hasn’t done since 1990, that is, playing in the NCAA Tournament, we have stories that will get you ready to listen. Read on.

Want an interesting way to start your Wednesday? Sit down, make sure no one will disturb you for an hour or so and then just read on for Washington State links.

As you may know, Washington State University is headed to Norman, Okla., for the first round of the NCAA baseball tournament. The Cougars will open with Arkansas, a team that swept them in a three-game series early in the year. But they feel pretty good about the chances. UPDATE: Read on for the unedited version of our story for tomorrow’s paper.

Just a quick post to let you know WSU’s baseball team defeated UW again today, this time by an 10-5 score. The win gave the Cougars a sweep of their cross-state rivals in a three-game series for the first time since 1984 and the first time in Pullman since 1979. You can read more from the WSU sports information site here. The NCAA selections will be made at 9:30 a.m. tomorrow on ESPN. The sites have been picked - along with 16 teams that are in - and the West Coast ones are at Arizona State, Cal State Fullerton and UC Irvine. We’ll be back tomorrow when we find out where the Cougars are headed.

Two games, two wins. Washington State’s baseball team is on a roll, thanks in a large part to a pitching staff that has punched out more opposition hitters than any in Cougar history. They reached that mark Saturday midway through a 7-1 win over UW. Read on for my unedited game story – and continuing reading for a couple links worth checking out.

The Pac-10 is one tough college baseball conference. Year in, year out. Though this might be one of those out years, the Pac-10 is still darn good. But, because other than Arizona State at the top and Oregon at the bottom, it’s a conference in which any team can win on any given day, it’s not going to have a bunch of teams in the NCAA Tournament. One of those few, however, is going to be Washington State. No matter what happens today and tomorrow against Washington, the Cougars will finish second in the nation’s most successful conference. And the second place team will always get an NCAA berth. Read on for more.

Just when it looked like WSU would breeze to their seventh Pac-10 series-opening victory, the Huskies rallied to take the lead. And then the Cougars rallied back. UW tied it again. And in the bottom of the 10th, WSU won it 6-5 on Michael Weber’s bases-loaded walk. Read on for the unedited version of my game story.

There is plenty of Washington State news to pass on this morning, thought not all of, heck most of it, would never be considered positive. Of course, very little Ryan Leaf news has been, since he left the Palouse. Read on.

Not a lot of WSU football and basketball news, but there are a few things to pass on to you on this fine Tuesday morning. All you have to do is read on.

As another workweek starts off with a near-perfect day, we have a couple of links for you. They run the gamut of sports, though we’re focusing on the state of Oregon for some reason. Read on.

Welcome to our Monday morning post, NFL edition. As the draft ended yesterday, we were given another clue just how bad Washington State and Washington were last year. The number of draft picks from the Evergreen State? One, WSU’s Brandon Gibson, and yes we have links for you. Want to know how many players were drafted from the state of Oregon? Well. Maybe you don’t, but we’ll tell you anyway. There were 13 between OSU and UO. Yes, 13. Is it any surprise the combined scores of those two schools’ four games against the Washington schools last fall was 207-50? Read on.

What a beautiful morning. As I look out from the dining room I can see buds on the plants, a little yellow bird flitting around the new growth and sunshine everywhere. Another perfect day in the Northwest. As I look around the Net I see a few links here and there about WSU. We have them on the link. Read on.