Pac Ten Alley

We only have eight days till Spring practice opens at Washington and nothing has been announced to the media as far as fan, and media access goes. There had been word that interim Scott Woodward wants to open things up this spring, but Willingham obviously isn't in favor of doing that. There will likely be a couple of days open to fans in addition to the Spring game.

Most spring practices across the country are open because it really doesn't matter, and in the case of a 4-9 football team it doesn't matter at all. Opening spring practice is a great promotion tool, but we probably won't see it till we get a new coach. Once again i was hoping we would see a new Ty this Spring, but if it is going to happen it has not emerged yet.

Pac Ten Alley

It is time to walk down the coast to see what the neighbors are up to.

Oregon was bounced out of the tournament early, and Ernie Kent could be gone if Mark Few has interest in Oregon.

Malik Hairston scored 22 points followed by Tajuan Porter with 18 and Maarty Leunen's 13. But it wasn't enough to stop Charles Rhode's career high 34 points and the Bulldogs went on to end the Ducks season. As happened so often this year, Oregon controlled the first half but failed to seal the deal in the second. Early in the 2nd half Oregon led by 13 points but couldn't buy a basket for the last 15 minutes of the game. The question now is, can Ernie keep his job? There is a lot of talk about his future with Oregon. Time will tell. Five months until football.

Trent Johnson is taking the Cardinal deep this year, but the Bay Area media aren't exactly in love with him.

Much as he wants it to be a non-story — and he really, really really wants it to be a non-story — Trent Johnson’s ejection from the Marquette game has not faded into the background.
A coach getting tossed from an NCAA tournament game happens so rarely, and it feels so un-Stanford, that it’s a story. (It would be a much bigger story if the Cardinal had lost.)

Spring football starts earlier in Arizona than in most places.

The University of Arizona football team came back from spring break a little tired and some maybe with a little sun burn, but that didn’t matter as they were in pads working out on Monday. There was no breaking in point as the Wildcats went through their fifth official practice of spring (out of the allotted 15).“We had a good long practice. We were a little rusty offensively with the break,” UA coach Mike Stoops said. “We will get our timing back offensively.”

James Montgomery isn't coming to Washington, and he just might find out that a lot of big time programs won't be interested in him the second time around.

The Bay Area might be a nice place for some people, but it wasn't for James Montgomery. That was why Montgomery, one of the Sacramento area's most recruited athletes while at Cordova High School, decided to leave the Cal football program even though he was projected to be a starter this fall. "Berkeley is not the most normal place in the world," he said in a phone interview Thursday. "Coming from Sacramento, I just didn't like the surroundings. I pretty much didn't like the Bay Area." Since his official release from Cal on Monday, rumors circulated that he left because of a dispute with Bears' coach Jeff Tedford over playing time. Montgomery said that was not true.

Baseball season in Corvallis.

Following a three game series with Pepperdine, the Beavers headed to Provo, Utah for a mid-week series to tune up for Pac-10 play, which starts this Friday. The Beaver offense was alive for practically the whole game, as Oregon State used fifteen hits to beat BYU by the score of 15-7.

All three quarterbacks got reps with the first team today in practice and offensive coordinator Steve Sarkisian said he wants to name a starter by the end of spring while Pete Carroll said he does not have a timetable.``Right now, I’m not worried about figuring it out,’’ Carroll said. ``Right now, we have a lot of information on Mark (Sanchez) and a little on the other guys. The kids are physically able. It’s who knows the system and can execute.’’

ASU was snubbed by the NCAA but they have made the most of it in the NIT, until losing to Florida on Tuesday by 13,

Walter Hodge scored 18 points and Chandler Parsons added 15, and Florida defeated Arizona State 70-57 on Tuesday night in the NIT quarterfinals.

Expect UCLA to roll towards the Final Four.

I don’t know about you but the Wednesday before Sweet-16 is always the toughest hump day of the year. The Pac-10 season with its slate of Thursday/Fri-Sat games gets us in rhythm for the tournament season. However, around this time of the season when Wednesday rolls around, I feel like I have had enough of my share of stories, articles, analysis etc, and just want to get started with the game. And with that note let’s start with today’s roundup. The most important item on our plate is LRMAM’s health. According to Coach Howland an MRI on Luc’s left ankle this week showed ‘no damage’:

I am picking WSU over North Carolina because despite the talent advantage the Heel's are not used to playing against the WSU's deliberate style.

With our biggest hoops game since the 1941 NCAA title game coming up Thursday, the experts are coming out of the woodwork to pick North Carolina. Dickie V, Digger, you know the usual suspects. I haven't seen any projections yet that say we will be blown out of the basketball universe, and everyone expects it to be a bit of a grind for the Heels, but in the end they'll be 8-10 points better. What, did you expect that anyone would actually pick WSU this week??