WSU can win a title today

COUGARS

FROM PULLMAN — The basketball team arrived in Pittsburgh yesterday, and it can put an end to this season’s College Basketball Invitational by beating the Panthers tonight. We have a bit more on that, as well as a whole heck of a lot of spring football news, after the jump.

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WSU’s season will end in Pittsburgh. The question now is whether it ends tonight with a victory, or on Friday. It will be interesting to see what kind of adjustments each team makes based off the first game. I think that’s one of the coolest things about the CBI — the fact that you have to beat the same team twice to win the championship. Then again, Jamie Dixon had a whole week to prepare for Washington State without Brock Motum, and still couldn’t find a way to slow the Cougars’ offense. … We wrote a short game advance for today’s newspaper. … Our series of assistant football coach profiles concluded with this look at the story of defensive  line coach Joe Salave’a. … We also have a story on Andrei Lintz impressing the new coaching staff, as well as some notes from yesterday’s practice . … Brian Floyd has a practice recap at CougCenter. … Howie Stalwick previews tonight’s game. Here’s a preview from the Pittsburgh side. … Former WSU quarterback Mark Rypien is the lead plaintiff in a class-action lawsuit against the NFL.

There were two Pac-12 basketball games yesterday, otherwise known as the NIT semifinals …

Stanford 74, Massachusetts 64 : The Cardinal advanced to the NIT championship game thanks to a balanced offensive effort .

Minnesota 68, Washington 67 : The Huskies came back to force overtime, but didn’t have enough to save their season.

Elsewhere … Arizona has some recruits playing in the McDonald’s All-America game. An unheralded Arizona running back gets his day in the sun. … A tight end is turning heads at Arizona State. … Marqise Lee is making a big leap at USC. Matt Barkley is embracing a new role. … Sounds as if Jared Cunningham is staying in the NBA draft. … Colorado is looking for a new leader on the basketball court. … A JUCO transfer competes for playing time in Utah’s backfield . … An Oregon assistant coach is interviewing for a new job . … A BYU tight end is beefing up . Schedule issues could impact the (other) Cougars. … Washington picked up the first commitment of its 2013 recruiting class.

All for now.

Christian Caple can be reached at christianc@spokesman.com . Twitter: @ChristianCaple