COUGARS

The worst thing about overtime games, if you are on the losing side, is the sense afterward that one thing, one little thing, one block out, one shot, one pass, may have made the difference between winning and losing. Or 13 missed free throws. We have some links, so read on.
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• Washington State: The game got done so late that we weren't able to grab more than a couple quotes, which we used. We do have a few put together by the Pac-10 staff, so we'll pass those on. First, the links. ... We had our game story on the blog last night. ... By the way, we're going to cover the WSU women's game tonight and will have a post or two. ... Freelancer Howie Stalwick has his game story in the Kitsap Sun and other papers. ... The thrust of the Oregon stories can be expected: Coach Ernie Kent is still coaching the Ducks. ... Bob Clark had this game story in the Register-Guard. ... And John Hunt filed this piece for the Oregonian. ... Speaking of Oregon, and we were, here is an interesting piece from the Oregonian concerning the Ducks' football developments yesterday. ... We mentioned in the story postseason possibilities. Don't be too surprised if WSU plays in the CBI, traveling either to New Mexico State, Nevada or the University of Portland in the opening round. We whould find out for sure late Sunday night. Oh, and Colorado State might be a possibility. ... One last note. ... It's especially ironic freshman E.J. Singler was the one who tipped in the tying bucket. When Singler was a junior, playing with Michael Harthun in high school, there was a disagreement at WSU whether the Cougars should offer him early. WSU assistant Matt Woodley was adamant they should, hoping to lock up Singler before others figured out how good the undersized (6-foot-6) power forward was. It didn't happen. WSU offered later but then Oregon came through with a scholarship offer and Singler accepted. It probably have happened even if WSU had made its offer early, but who knows.

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• Here's the (limited) quote book ...

• Coach Ken Bone on Oregon: "They have a lot of talent and they're very difficult to stop on the defensive end, especially (Tajuan) Porter, who had a very good game."

• Bone on the second half: "We took care of the basketball better. We still had a few turnovers, but I think we had 11 at halftime and 17 for the game. We had 11 in 20 minutes and six in the last 25 minutes. That gave us a chance even though we got down by 10 or 12 points. It gave us a chance to get back just by taking care of the ball." ... WSU was credited with 11 turnovers in the halftime box, but that was revised and in the final statistical book, the revised halftime box listed 12 turnovers. ... WSU's largest deficit was 12 with 10:47 left in the second half.

• Bone on Marcus Capers and Brock Motum: "We really needed that. Without their contributions ... I'm not sure we would be sitting here now, but probably a half-hour ago."

• Capers on losing to Oregon three times: "Anytime you lose three times in a row to someone it hurts. It's real hard. We felt like we were cheated the first time. A matter of seconds between us winning and losing."

• Kent on Porter: "We have raised the bar so dog-garn hard that it seems like year after year there is a guy that everyone wants to beat up and pick on, but he keeps grinding through. He is a very special and gifted player. I thought he was tremendous. ... I have never seen him play tougher. I just thought he gutted us through the game and willed us to win."

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• Around the Pac-10: Winning this tournament may not be Cal's No. 1 priority right now. ... Will Washington get to dance? Other conferences will have a say in that. ... The Sun Devils know they have to win today to even have a shot at the NCAAs. ... Reeves Nelson is back for UCLA. ... And Arizona will try to break a trend.

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• That's it for now. We'll be back before the women's game tonight from the Galen Center. Until then ...

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