Morning links: WSU starts its desert trip

Washington State will play its first Pac-12 road game, and only its second true road game of the season, today at Arizona State.

The game tips off at 5 p.m. and will be televised on the Pac-12 Networks, where Darron Sutton and Matt Muehlebach have the call. Here is our preview of the game in today’s Four Corners package. We also take a closer look at the Sun Devils and have a video of our interview with Ernie Kent in which he talks about the upcoming game.

Doug Haller of the Arizona Republic will be at today’s game. He’s got an item about WSU forward Josh Hawkinson leading off this college basketball notebook.

For some reason (TV), the big matchup this week between UCLA and USC was played on a Wednesday. That was weird, but not as weird as seeing the Trojans look so much better than the Bruins on the hardwood during USC’s romp. Oregon State fell at Colorado in yesterday’s other Pac-12 contest.

In Eugene, Oregon made the hiring of former WSU outside receivers coach David Yost official. … We’re months away from spring football, but the Pac-12 blog is already ranking next year’s football teams .