Does USC news affect WSU?
COUGARS
A surprisingly heavy day, considering there were no men's games yesterday. But there was big news out of Los Angeles and more. Read on.
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• Washington State: The news from LA that USC was pulling itself out of the Pac-10 Tournament, any chance for postseason play, cutting recruiting time and a scholarship, giving back money and forfeiting any wins from two years ago (see the S-R story here) as a result of the O.J. Mayo scandal, has a lot of effect on the Cougars this year, but none from the 2007-08 season. WSU defeated the Trojans twice that season, so the forfeits are moot in Pullman. And it's still unclear how having nine teams in the conference tournament will be handled, because the way the setup has been, just giving the No. 1 seed a bye would be tough. My guess is the top seed will still play the winner of the 8-9 game, and the No. 7 seed will just move into the game with the second seed, making that first game all that much tougher for the No. 2 finisher. Or maybe the seven and eight seeds will play, with the winner facing the two seed. All that is known for sure is USC is out. What is left to be seen is how pulling the postseason rug out from under the Trojans this season will affect their play. They are the hottest team in the conference but by the time USC and WSU meet later this month, the reality of the news might have thrown some cold water on the Trojans' year. We'll see. ... The WSU women played one of their better offensive games of the season, but fell short against Oregon.
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• Around the Pac-10: The USC news is a pretty big deal, with the LA Times' Bill Plaschke saying it's more about the football problems than the basketball ones. ... The 0-2 start isn't going over too well in Tempe. Next up, of course, is the Washington schools this weekend. ... Josh Fogg just might be blossoming, if the career-high 25 points the Arizona sophomore scored against UCLA is any indication.
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• That's it for this morning. We'll be back as new warrants and, because we're trying to put together a story for tomorrow, we just might be back this afternoon. Until then …
