Roundup: Bobby Hurley, ASU agree to five-year extension

Arizona State men’s basketball coach Bobby Hurley has agreed to a five-year extension that will keep him in Tempe through 2023, Jeff Goodman of ESPN reports. The Sun Devils have a big one Thursday night at Washington.

Former Stanford pitcher Mark Appel is taking an “indefinite break” from baseball, he told Joon Lee of Bleacher Report. Appel, 26, was the No. 1 pick of the 2013 MLB Draft but has yet to appear in the majors. This is a very interesting article from Lee; Appel is an insightful dude.

Cal men’s basketball has reinstated Don Coleman ahead of its home set against the Oregon schools, reports Rusty Simmons. Good news for the Bears, because Coleman is the team’s leading scorer at 16.9 points per game.

Speaking of U-Dub, the Associated Press gives us an inside look at Mike Hopkins’ turnaround job at Washington. Practices typically run 75 to 120 minutes? No shootaround? My kinda coach right here. As a former college basketball manager, I’ve been through some long practices… I’ll leave it at that.

Joey Kaufman of the Orange County Register warns that USC men’s basketball is not off the bubble despite winning six in a row. He notes that ESPN bracketologist Joe Lunardi has the Trojans as one of the last eight teams in, while CBS Sports’ Jerry Palm has them as a No. 10 seed. Interesting breakdown of how the NCAA tournament selection committee qualifies victories.

Here are your highlights from Arizona men’s basketball’s 100-72 thumping of Washington State. Solid start to the Evergreen State road swing for the ‘Cats.

Pat Rooney notes that Colorado men’s basketball has been able to limit its turnovers in recent games in large part due to the play of freshman point guard McKinley Wright. The Buffs have averaged just 11 turnovers per game over their last five contests heading into Friday night’s battle with Utah in Boulder.

Here’s an Oregon women’s basketball Pac-12 midseason report, courtesy of Andrew Greif. Boy I tell ya, that Sunday game against Stanford is going to be a doozy; <shameless plug>you should probably listen to it on gostanford.com </shameless plug>.

Czech out this feature story on UCLA women’s basketball guard Jordin Canada, brought to you by Thuc Nhi Nguyen. She’s a baller supreme and has a helluva singing voice.

Frank Schwab of Yahoo Sports pens this piece on former Washington State quarterback Mark Rypien’s ups and downs professionally and personally. Rypien led the Washington Redskins to a Super Bowl title the last time the Super Bowl was held in Minneapolis (1991 season) and has raised tons of money through his Rypien Foundation (it helps children with cancer and their families), but his on-field success in the NFL was short-lived and his 3-year-old son died of cancer in 1998.

Kerry Eggers of the Portland Tribune gives us his take on Oregon State baseball needing to respond to its No. 2 preseason ranking in this 2018 season primer.

Acknowledging a disappointing 2017 season, Utah football coach Kyle Whittingham is optimistic about 2018, writes Dirk Facer of the Deseret News.