Pac-10 play starts for WSU this week

COUGARS • UPDATED: 11:20 A.M.

As we start a new week, the first week of Pac-10 basketball play, we take a little time to look around the conference and see what’s what. For more, read on.

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• Washington State: If you remember, the Cougars received three points in the Associated Press poll and two in the coaches’ last week. Let’s see how they do this week. … Don Ruiz, who covers Washington for the News Tribune, looks at how the Cougars early season play may affect their perception around the league and the league race. … Catching up with the Butler defeat (we took yesterday off, went to breakfast and “True Grit” with Kim before spending the evening eating leftovers and playing video games) a day late, there is this story from the Honolulu Star. … CougCenter had this report . … That’s it for today. We’ll be on our way to Los Angeles soon, but before we head out, we’ll have a preview of the Pac-10 race – I’m sticking with my preseason prediction of WSU finishing third – and a couple other items. … UPDATE: The rankings are out and WSU got a couple more votes but not a lot.

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• Around the Pac-10: A few links from around the conference mixing a little football in with the basketball. … Percy Allen has his Pac-10 power poll , with USC on top. … Oregon has found someone to imitate Can Newton and no, it’s not JaMarcus Russell. … A quick roundtable before Pac-10 hoops play opens. … Arizona still has one more football game to play. … And, finally, this link from the LA Times. My dad used to tell me about this every time we went to a UCLA game and the Bruin rooting section started its flip-card stunts.

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• That’s all for now. We’ll be back as news warrants. Until then …