Full plate for WSU’s Saturday

COUGARS

The USC game starts at 2 p.m. today. The WSU baseball season kicks off at noon. So we need to get a lot done in a short period of time. The most important item on our agenda, of course, is getting this post prepared for you. It’s one of those days when there seems to be more items from off-the-court then on, which makes for interesting reading. So go right ahead and do just that.
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• Washington State: We filled our paper today with preps (lots and lots of state tournaments going on), Olympics and this long piece on Jim Sterk. If you want the full story, you can find it here . I also had a short story about the area college baseball hitting its stride this weekend, with WSU opening at home and GU in Arizona (the Zags won their opener yesterday). … As for USC, the Cougars’ basketball opponent this afternoon, the Trojans hang their hat on their defense, a defense the Cougs shredded late in LA last month. We’ll talk a little about that before the game today. … USC also is in the midst of an NCAA hearing, with former basketball coach Tim Floyd’s appearance scheduled for today. Wonder if any of the Trojans have their thoughts on Tempe?

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• Around the Pac-10: The best read this morning? Andy Katz’s conversation with Ernie Kent about his future. … Cal’s loss at Oregon State was a killer for the conference, according to San Jose’s Jon Wilner. … What will happen the rest of the way? Who knows. It’s hard to even predict what will happen today. … Quincy Pondexter makes his final appearance in Hec Ed today. … He’ll have to face Reeves Nelson, who says he will play today despite 14 (and yes, that’s the right number, because we have a great source on that) stitches in his eyebrow. … Cal will try to bounce back, again, and hopes to keep its biggest body on the court for longer stretches against Oregon. … The Ducks probably won’t have their big guy . … The race to stay out of the first night’s action in the Pac-10 tourney is getting interesting. In the fight for eighth place are WSU, Oregon State and Stanford (and Oregon, though the Ducks seem to be showing less fight than the others in the group). The Cardinal and Beavers meet in Corvallis today with the winner taking a big step toward missing a Wednesday night game. … The single game this weekend is on Sunday again, with Arizona and ASU meeting in McKale with some bad blood brewing. … One last link, from off the field as well. Oregon football coach Chip Kelly addressed the media yesterday concerning the recent problems in the program.

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• That’s all for this morning. We’ll be back with our pregame post, unless, of course, news intervenes. Until then …