NCAA

Welcome to the latest installment of the Hotline’s Pac-12 men’s basketball power rankings, our weekly assessment of a conference that doesn’t exist (yet) using results, analytics and a dash of common sense. The power rankings will be published each Monday through the end of the regular season.

PULLMAN – More reinforcements are coming to Washington State’s secondary.

Our Gonzaga rewind usually focuses on the team’s most recent game, but it’s probably worth reviewing the week at large for Mark Few’s group, which navigated a couple of close calls to pocket its NCAA-leading 16th win Sunday evening at McCarthey Athletic Center.

The Associated Press took a week off between releasing its week eight and week 10 college basketball polls. Gonzaga squeezed in a short holiday break before tackling a four-game, eight-day span with a 4-0 record to open West Coast Conference play. That didn’t resonate with AP voters, who dropped the Zags (16-1) from No. 7 to No. 8 in Monday’s latest rankings.

PULLMAN – Kirby Moore’s first coaching staff at Washington State is closer to completion.

The slyest grin of all time crossed the face of Jerone Morton, the Washington State guard who knew what he had just gotten away with. As he jogged backward on defense, right after he bailed out his team with a fadeaway jumper to beat the shot clock in Sunday’s game against Oregon State, he pointed at coach David Riley, who didn’t just smile back.

Mark Few shook up his starting lineup for the eighth time this season Sunday night against Loyola Marymount, but the contributions No. 7 Gonzaga got from a deep bench unit made the biggest difference in an 82-47 runaway victory over the visiting Lions.

Seventeen games into the season, it can be difficult to distinguish between Gonzaga’s starting lineup and bench unit. The seventh-ranked Zags haven’t been so concerned about who’s in the first five, as long as they get to the right five throughout the course of the game.

SEATTLE – Washington State center Alex Covill had a dominant performance in the paint during the best game of her career, leading the Cougars to a 73-69 win over Seattle U on Sunday in a West Coast Conference college women’s basketball game at Redhawk Center.

The Gonzaga women’s basketball team struggled to find consistent offensive flow Sunday afternoon.

PULLMAN – Washington State’s makeover on defense is in full swing.

Three takeaways at the buzzer from Gonzaga’s 82-47 win over Loyola Marymount on Sunday at the McCarthey Athletic Center.

Gonzaga forward Jalen Warley was explaining the concept of “kills,” symbolic of three straight defensive stops.

PULLMAN – Two days into the transfer portal window, Washington State coaches should have a pretty good idea of the position group they need to target most; The defensive line.

Whitworth’s Stephen Behil hit the go-ahead jumper as time expired and the Pirates overcame Pacific’s late rally, prevailing 81-79 in a Northwest Conference matchup on Saturday at Whitworth Fieldhouse.

PULLMAN — Washington State has landed its first commitment via the transfer portal this offseason.

It took the Eastern Washington women’s basketball team about a half to adjust to the physicality of Idaho on Saturday at Reese Court in Cheney.

MOSCOW, Idaho – Idaho’s tribute game to its late, great coach Don Monson, who died at age 92 Oct. 1, was everything a holiday break crowd that nonetheless almost filled three-fourths of the ICCU Arena could have wanted.

Jan Vide didn’t see any floor time for UCLA when Gonzaga matched up with the Bruins in the 2023 Maui Invitational. Vide was part of Loyola Marymount’s rotation in two West Coast Conference games against the Zags last season, but totaled just 12 points in those contests.