Wed., Feb. 23, 2011
Winter holds on at WSU
COUGARS
Gotta love a week when the weatherman is basically telling you not to let small dogs out, because you might lose them in the snow. As pleased as I am to see the snow plows getting ready for today's predicted big dump by cleaning up the apartment complex parking lot, doing it with the flashing yellow light and back-up buzzer going off doesn't seem appropriate for 4:30 in the freaking morning. Some old men can't get back to sleep, you know? So we have this. Read on.
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• Washington State: With all the snow predicted for today – the Weather Service's warning is calling for anywhere from 3 to 8 inches between Pullman and Spokane – it makes me wonder if coach Ken Bone and his assistants – out on the road recruiting – will make it back to Pullman for practice Thursday afternoon. Just kidding, sort of. ... Speaking of assistants, the Times' Bud Withers caught up with Tony Bennett's old crew, though only Matt Woodley, coaching an Iowa high school team, really talked. ... Ken Bone, sitting in the airport waiting for his plane, talked yesterday for a short time on the Pac-10 call. He answered three questions, one about the Huskies – this game will be different for a lot of reasons, but the venue is a real part of it – one about the Pac-10 tourney – no one wants to play on Wednesday – and one about Klay Thompson's lost i-Pod. Bone didn't back down on the discipline part and said he won't. But he did say if Thompson had come down to the bus and told him the problem, he would have sent him back up to find it and given him a pass. He mentioned life lessons, something I know he emphasizes throughout the season at practice, at shoot-arounds, at games. By the way, the music player was in Brock Motum's bag. ... Speaking of talking, WSU baseball coach Donnie Marbut held his weekly conference call Tuesday. As of then, the weekend's series with UC Santa Barbara was still on. As the snow piles up, and the temperature drops, my guess is Marbut really hope the games are played. I asked him if it was real home-field advantage playing the Gauchos in such weather and he said no more than playing in Tempe in 90-degree heat. He's wrong on this one. Having played at UC Irvine, the worst game I remember in four years was a March night game at Nevada. It was probably somewhere in the low 40s, but it seemed as if we were playing in Fairbanks. Everyone just wanted to get off the field and back to the hotel. We lost. ... Jim Moore is off the Cougar bandwagon this week, though he's still a Cougar fan. ... Finally, when WSU lost to Arizona State last Saturday, it snapped an 11-game conference losing streak for the Devils. And there was a lot of righteous wailing from the Cougar faithful. Wonder how the Occidental fans are handling this loss. Too bad there isn't a Tigerfan to check out. ...
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• Around the Pac-10: The Huskies had little trouble with Seattle U. in what amounted to a warm-up game for Sunday's showdown with Washington State. ... The title race isn't as important right now as the race for sixth place. Finish there and you get to rest Wednesday in Los Angeles. Finish seventh and you are playing. ... One team that more than likely will be playing Wednesday is Oregon State. Daniel Deane actually made an appearance for the Beavers last weekend. ... Arizona heads to Los Angeles this weekend with a chance to wrap up the Pac-10 title. It won't be easy. Not even the game with USC, which can help its crosstown rival Thursday night. ... An ASU freshman took a while to learn how hard you have to work in college. ... Spring football is already on at Stanford and will be getting started soon at Oregon.
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• That's it for this morning. We have some football interviews today – hey, spring football starts the week of the Pac-10 tournament – which is our main focus. No, our real main focus is not getting buried in the snow. Until later ...
