Morning links: Cougars take on USC tonight

Tonight at 7 p.m. the Cougars will take on USC in Los Angeles. The game will be televised on the Pac-12 Network.

The Trojans may seem like an easy opponent with only two conference wins to their name. But six of their 13 losses to Pac-12 teams have come by just five points or less and USC has played well lately, losing a pair of competitive games in Arizona last week and beating Oregon State the week before.

This week’s press conference had a different feel as Ernie Kent spoke about a few of college basketball’s current issues of the day. For one, he doesn’t expect proposals to make freshmen ineligible to play to go anywhere.

Elsewhere in the Pac-12 …

— Washington will get to work replacing its best linebackers .

— Arizona’s coach favors fines for court storming.

— Cal’s Christian Behrens is already back from knee surgery.

— Colorado will get its voice back .

The Ducks will try to maintain their momentum after last week’s big win.

— Oregon State’s Dan Gomis will play with a broken nose .

— Stanford will try to turn the corner from a disappointing football season this spring.

— UCLA needs Tony Parker to reward the trust the Bruins are placing in him.

— Looking at USC’s linebackers heading into spring.