While the Super Bowl was kicking off, the Washington women’s basketball team was busy returning home from its latest conquest, beating Arizona State 74-61 in Tempe for their sixth straight victory. McGuff’s squad is now 8-2 in conference play and still just a game behind Pac-12 leaders Cal and Stanford. On the men’s side, the hot-shooting Huskies snapped their four-game losing streak by beating Arizona State 96-92.
So finally the Surgin’ Sendeks lost a game, as Jahii Carson’s 32 points was not enough. But they really proved that they are much more contender than they are pretender with a gritty win in Pullman and a hard-fought loss in Seattle. On a more somber note, Arizona State football remembers Tyrice Thompson, a former Sun Devil who died of multiple stab wounds while working as a bouncer at a Scottsdale bar.
Cal men’s basketball concluded a huge weekend by surprising No. 10 Oregon Saturday, 58-54. Justin Cobbs was key down the stretch, hitting the go-ahead jumper with 1:35 to play and two free throws to ice the game in the final seconds. It was such a big victory that Cal fans stormed the court.
‘Twas a big weekend for Stanford men’s hoops as well, beating both Oregon and Oregon State, but it was a bigger weekend for Tara VanDerveer, who picked up her 400th conference victory. In other Farm news, No. 2 Stanford topped No. 1 USC in women’s swimming and diving, and pitcher Mark Appel stood by his decision to stay in school.
Alright, so the Oregon schools had a rough go against the Bay schools this past weekend, going a combined 0-8 in men’s and women’s hoops against Stanford and Cal. But hey, at least Joe Burton knows how to pass and women’s hooper Deven Hunter has found her way onto the floor with one message hammered home to her by the coaching staff: rebound the basketball.
In Eugene, the Oregon women’s tennis team improved to 4-0 with wins over Gonzaga and Portland State, getting a little redemption for Dana Altman and Paul Westhead.
Perhaps that 31-point loss to Stanford was the kick in the pants Krystkowiak’s team needed, as the new lineup for Utah paid off in the win over Colorado. Point guard Brandon Taylor got his first career start and controlled the offense well. It was a team performance that would have made Rick Majerus proud, and at the game Utah raised a replica of Rick Majerus’ sweater.
While missed free throws plagued Colorado men’s basketball in the Utah game, the women’s Buffs team got back on track with a 65-49 win at USC to snap a three-game losing streak and even their conference record at 5-5.
The last team Linda Lappe’s squad lost to was No. 18 UCLA, which completed a weekend sweep of the Mountain schools by knocking off Utah. It was a game in which defense led the way for UCLA as the Bruins won 70-42.
Back on the men’s side, Solomon Hill and the Wildcats finished off a sweep in Washington by beating the Cougars 79-65. Hill scored 18 points – all from downtown, all in the first half, including this 70-footer to beat the first-half buzzer. Unfortunately, things got a little testy between Kevin Parrom and DaVonte Lacy, and Sean Miller afterwards was very disappointed with Kevin Parrom.
Here’s a nice statistical approach by CougCenter to the question “to foul or not to foul?” at the end of games. It was prompted by the end of the Washington State men’s game against Arizona State, and this article suggests that there isn’t much difference between fouling and not fouling.
The OC Register has a good feature on former USC baseball player Keith Castillo, who is hoping to make the major leagues the hard way.