Morning links: digesting WSU’s basketball season
Washington State will not be one of the 75 or so teams earnestly huddled around TVs at 3 p.m. today earnestly awaiting their NCAA tournament fate.
For the Cougars, the 2014-15 season is almost certainly in the books. So in the paper today we took a look at the WSU season that was, why the Cougars could be better next year and how they might be worse.
In a week there will only be 16 teams left with a shot at a national championship, but for now lots of teams are still living that dream. That includes a couple area teams: Gonzaga and Eastern Washington. Seattle University almost made it, falling to New Mexico State in the WAC championship game last night, meaning we were this close to seeing a scenario in which three teams from the State of Washington make it to March Madness and none of them coming from the Pac-12.
Arizona will certainly make the tournament after thumping Oregon in the Pac-12 championship last night. The Wildcats sure looked the part of a No. 1 seed, but will likely settle for No. 2 seed today. Utah is likely to be the conference's only other tournament team, probably joining the Wildcats in Portland.
In other Pac-12 news …
-- Joe Pistorese pitched a gem for WSU last night to give the Cougars a 4-2 upset at No. 6 USC.
-- One of the state's best juniors has decided to play football at Washington.
-- Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott spoke a little more about freshman ineligibility yesterday.
-- California is hoping that some junior college transfers can get the Golden Bears back to a bowl game.
-- A Colorado offensive lineman is facing assault charges after a fight.