Roundup: Pac-12 women's basketball teams gear up for Sweet 16
The second weekend of the NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament is here, and four Pac-12 teams are still in the running for a trip to Columbus, Ohio, for the Final Four. Graham Hays whips up this feature story on Oregon State center Marie Gülich, who will have her hands full with Baylor’s 6-foot-7 Kalani Brown in the Sweet 16 Friday (4 p.m PT, ESPN2).
Fourth-seeded Stanford will have its hands full with top-seeded Louisville Friday night in Lexington (6:30 p.m. PT, ESPN). While she figures to not get a lot of burn against the Cardinals, you should still read this story from Elliott Almond of the San Jose Mercury News on how Stanford has rallied around guard Mikaela Brewer as she deals with obsessive compulsive disorder.
Meanwhile, UCLA women’s basketball is looking for its first Elite Eight appearance since 1999 when it goes toe-to-toe with Texas Friday night at 6:30 p.m. PT (ESPN2). These teams met in the Sweet 16 two years ago, with Texas winning 72-64.
Oregon must wait 'til Saturday to play Central Michigan (3 p.m. PT, ESPN), and Andrew Greif writes that Oregon sees a lot of its 2017 tournament showing in Central Michigan’s current Sweet 16 run. Of course, the Ducks were a 10-seed last year when they went to the Elite Eight (CMU is an 11-seed).
Theo Lawson gives us five storylines to monitor for Washington State spring practice, which started Thursday. Getting former East Carolina starting quarterback Gardner Minshew in as a grad transfer could really help the Cougs under center (or more appropriately, out of the gun).
Mike Hopkins has Washington men’s basketball ahead of schedule, and this piece from The Seattle Times explains why. You should also know that Hopkins denied rumors that he was in the running for the Pitt job (also The Seattle Times).
Utah baseball coach Bill Kinneberg is back in the dugout after serving a 14-game suspension for an NCAA rules violation centered around a staff member who participated in practice and coaching activities when the person shouldn’t have been. Lynn Worthy has more in the link.
Colorado men’s basketball coach Tad Boyle is weighing his options for what to do with his open scholarship. Pat Rooney writes that getting another big man is likely, but a grad transfer is unlikely.
USC linebacker Cameron Smith discusses his decision to return for his senior year in this article written by Joey Kaufman.
Joe Jacquez of The State Press features Arizona State center fielder Gage Canning, who is hitting a whopping .494 for the Sun Devil baseball team. Dude hit .769 in a three-game sweep of Oregon last weekend.
This post from the Arizona Daily Star gives us a photo-by-photo look at the Arizona football coaching staff under Kevin Sumlin, with brief descriptions of each coach’s history.
Friday is the 150th birthday for UC Berkeley, as pointed out to us by the dutiful writers at California Golden Blogs. As they say in the sub-header, Cal doesn’t look a day older than 127.