COUGARS

Ben Howland and his Bruins are 31-1 in the past four years in the first game of a Pac-10 weekend. They are Thursday warriors. Their Saturday record, however, is not as good. Not even close. So is it a big surprise the Bruins dominate WSU in the first round of the Pac-10 Tournament, then turn around and lose to a USC team they should beat? If USC can defeat Arizona State today, the Trojans are headed to the NCAA Tournament, and help the Cougars in their NIT bid. Read on.
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• We'll have a story about WSU's postseason chances – the quick summary: The Cougars will be playing next week, count on it – later today. We've put on hold our look at WSU's changes throughout this season until closer to the Cougars postseason game. Until we post our story, though, we do have links. The Times' Bob Condotta has this piece on UW's loss to ASU in the semifinals yesterday, a game the Huskies never really seemed to be interested in playing, at least in the first half. Fighting, now that's another story. Jerry Brewer has this column on the game. ... USC's upset of the Bruins, and its NCAA chances, was covered in this LA Times' story. ... I'm sure you've heard by now Mike Bellotti is out as football coach at Oregon – and in as AD – so instead of looking back at Bellotti, let's look forward at Chip Kelly.

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• That's it for this morning. We'll be back with our look at the postseason and Selection Sunday. Until then …

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