Washington St. (12-11, 4-7) at Oregon St. (15-8, 5-6) at Gill Coliseum at 7:00 PM PST / No TV (Again) / KEJO 1240 AM / KPAM 860 AM (Streamed - Enjoy it while you can)

Oregon St. returns home after 3 games in 7 days on the road, having won 2 of them.

The Cougars come into Corvallis after what would be a heart-breaking 63-60 loss to UCLA, except they are so used to being beaten by the Bruins. Saturday's loss was Washington St.'s 19th straight at home against the Bruins. That's a mind numbing number.

UCLA didn't score from the field in the last 5 1/2 minutes in Pullman, but the Bruins made 7 free throws to thwart the Cougars, and negate Brock Motum's 25 point, 11 rebound double double, both game highs.

The Beavers bounced back from a bad outing in Boulder to beat Utah 76-58 in Salt Lake City last Saturday. Jared Cunningham had a game high 20 points, but Joe Burton's overall effort, 11 rebounds, 8 points, 5 assists, and a game high 6 steals, drove the win over the Utes.

The 18 point win was Oregon St.'s largest margin of victory in a conference game since a 20 point win in 1990, ironically over Washington St..

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New Year's Eve in Spokane seems a lot longer ago than just over a month ago, and a lot has happened, basketball and otherwise, since we last caught up with the guys up in the Palouse. So it we got together with Jeff Nusser, the authority on all things Cougars, at least the crimson ones, up at CougCenter.com to exchange questions, and get an update before the Cougs and Beavs hook up again tonight.

Here's our answers to the Coug's questions.

Did the season go south when Faisal Aden tore his ACL? Or can the Cougs pull things back together? How will Washington St. finish the Pac-12 season?

Well, the season was already heading south with Aden -- that is, until, he went off for 57 points on 29 shots to fuel a home sweep of Stanford and Cal. That was uncharacteristically efficient of him, as Aden could previously have been characterized as a high-usage chucker. But in those games, he was aggressive to the basket, and fans wondered if he might be turning over a new leaf -- an efficient scorer from the perimeter is something this team was sorely lacking, and surely would have made a difference. But then the injury happen, and it all became moot.

I think we believe there's still enough talent on the perimeter to replace Aden -- Reggie Moore is capable of more than he shows most nights, and Mike Ladd has shown flashes of being pretty good as he returns from injury -- but it's a guessing game at this point. As for how they'll finish? Honestly, I expect something along the lines of 2-5 the rest of the way in conference.

Who can help Brock Motum with the scoring?

Can DaVonte Lacy become a reliable scorer?As I intimated in the previous response, there probably isn't a singular guy on the roster who can compliment Motum, so it's probably going to have to come from a committee. Lacy will be a part of that, but Moore would actually seem to be the best candidate to complement Motum. Unfortunately, he has chosen to become a facilitator, despite a demonstrated ability to get into the lane and to the line.

Honestly, this team's best chance of winning on any given night is Motum scoring 35.

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Let me say finally, this just flat out is not working well. Sagarins calculations had OSU as high as finishing 3rd in the conference. That has fallen apart and OSU has fallen to 7th. There are 7 games left in conference and Sagarin predicts they will win all 5 of the home games. They have lost only one game this year that they should not have lost and that was to ASU. They were predicted early on to beat CU and didn't. But leading up to that game Sagarin's number predicted a loss. OSU beat the ducks in Eugene but Sagarin predicted they would. They upset Cal but lost to Stanford in a game Sagarin thought OSU should have won. In the end they are pretty much doing what they were predicted to do. They are on pace to win 20 games. The real problem is with Oregon, CU, and Washington. Sagarin did not see them coming. This is now the home stretch, literally.

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There have been some moves made recently on media matters that will matter to Beaver fans, both by the Pac-12 Conference and Oregon St.

No More Made For ESPN Spectaculars

The Pac-12 announced this week a policy change that effectively eliminates the made for ESPN neutral site games that were "neutral" in quotes only that Oregon sports fans have experienced in recent seasons in Dallas, first with Oregon St.'s game against TCU, and then last season when Oregon visited Cowboy Stadium to take on LSU.

Per the Pac-12's release:

No member institution shall enter into an agreement to play a neutral-site football game (except in circumstances where such neutral-site game is the away leg of a home-and-home series) unless such agreement provides the Conference with the exclusive broadcast rights and digital rights in all media, and copyright to such neutral-site game.

The conference's retaining control of the television rights doesn't strictly mean no such games will happen, but they would have to be conference produced events, as the benefits won't exist for third party promoters such as Jerry Jones without television rights to resell. Instead, it will be the conference, and by implication of the conference's equal sharing of television revenue, all of the universities, that get the full benefit of their television rights.

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The name floating around as the person to become the new Defensive Backs coach for Oregon St. is former Indianapolis Colts assistant Rod Perry. The official word from Oregon St. is that there will be no official word until late in the week, doubtless because negotiations and paperwork take time, and more so at OSU.

However, even though things could change, or collapse altogether, the statement that there will be some official word means something is in process, and its worth taking a look at who Perry is, especially since the initial reaction to his somewhat unfamiliar name is "Who?"

Perry, 58, is a former assistant under head coach Mike Riley at San Diego in the NFL, which is doubtless the initial and primary reason Riley, who is big on connections, is looking at him as the replacement for Keith Heyward, who left for the University of Washington last month.

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The Pac-12 Conference today extended Commissioner Larry Scott's contract through the year 2016, and added options for further years.

"My fellow board members and I are delighted to have reached a long term agreement with the commissioner to continue his excellent work on behalf of the Pac-12," said Ed Ray, President of Oregon State University, and the Chairman of the Pac-12 Board.

"We are on the brink of a period of extraordinary accomplishment and excellence throughout the Pac-12 and Larry's continued leadership and vision for the conference are critical elements in realizing that potential."

Since Scott, 47, took over as Commissioner in July, 2009, he has guided the conference through their first expansion since 1978, which added Colorado and Utah, which facilitated the lucrative addition of a football conference championship game.

Scott has also orchestrated the rebranding of the Conference with messages of innovation, excellence, and the advantages of West Coast location at its core. He got equal revenue sharing of television revenue implemented, a first in Conference history, and secured the landmark media rights agreement with FOX and ESPN.

Scott also created the Pac-12 Network and Pac-12 Digital Network, and is developing a globalization strategy that will allow the Conference to pursue new frontiers for athletic, academic and cultural exchanges in China, and eventually elsewhere in the Pacific Rim.

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The Oregon St. women's basketball team has now won 4 games in a row, after sweeping the weekend series with Colorado and Utah. The Beavers went wire to wire in both wins, defeating Colorado 65-45 Thursday night, and backed it up by beating Utah 62-49 Saturday afternoon. It's the first time in 11 years Oregon St. has won 4 consecutive conference games.

Earlysia Marchbanks had a huge hand in the wins, posting a game high 13 points to lead a balanced Oregon St. effort against Colorado, and then had her career best effort, posting a career high 22 points as part of a game leading double double, where her 10 rebounds led the Beavers, and co-led the game.

"Before the (Utah) game, Coach Rueck came up to me and said ‘let the game come to you,'" Marchbanks said. "The first basket went in, and then I was able to get some steals. The baskets just came easy after that. All week long coach said that if I get the rebound I can go, and that's what I did. Easy buckets came, and I got my teammates involved."

Marchbanks had 5 boards, 3 assists, and 3 steals against the Buffs, and upped those numbers to 4 assists and 5 steals against the Utes.

The Beavers got off to solid defensive starts in both games, holding Colorado in single digits scoring for 14 1/2 minutes, which staked them to a double digit lead that would never shrink back to single digits, and limiting Utah to 11 points for almost 13 minutes.

The Buffs never recovered, trailing by as many as 27 points before Beavers' coach Scott Rueck began to experiment in the final 5 minutes. Which is the time to try things, up by more than 20 points with only a few minutes left.

The Utes were more persistent, rallying within 4 points by halftime, and again early in the second half. The Beavers responded with a 13-1 run, only to see Utah scratch back to within 5 points, down only 50-45 with nearly 4 minutes still to go. Oregon St. slammed the door on Utah with a 12-4 run to the finish.

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