Roundup: Washington State becomes Pac-12's best shot at College Football Playoff
Laken Litman of Sports Illustrated writes that Washington State is atop the Pac-12’s “revolving door” of College Football Playoff contenders after its 34-20 win over Oregon. The Cougars are the only one-loss team in the conference and are the highest-ranked Pac-12 team at No. 14 in the AP poll. What a magical weekend on the Palouse though; I'm not sure any team in the country could have hung with the Cougars in the first half of that game.
While Utah is playing at UCLA this weekend, Kurt Kragthorpe notes that this might not be the only trip to the Rose Bowl this season for Utah after the Utes blasted past USC Saturday night. Utah is now tied for first in the Pac-12 South and has the tiebreaker over USC, so if the Utes win out, they’ll have a chance to play for a second trip to Pasadena.
Sam Cooper of Yahoo Sports notes that USC may have their starting quarterback return for its matchup against Arizona State this weekend. JT Daniels was injured in the third quarter of the Trojans' 41-28 loss to Utah.
Jeff Metcalfe gives us this story on the Arizona State power couple of N’Keal Harry and Kianna Ibis. Harry and Ibis, both All-Pac-12 performers for football and women’s basketball, respectively, have been together for two years.
From 0-5 to a half-game back in the Pac-12 South, welcome to the 2018 UCLA football season. The Bruins are right back in the thick of a topsy-turvy divisional race thanks to backup quarterback Wilton Speight leading UCLA to a 31-30 win over Arizona (Los Angeles Times).
Adam Jude lets us know what we learned from Washington football’s 27-13 win over Colorado. Just as important as the Dawgs’ win over the Buffs is that rival Washington State beat Oregon to give the Dawgs control of their own destiny in the Pac-12 North again.
Nick Daschel of The Oregonian/OregonLive believes that the Oregon State football season has hit a low point after the Beavers’ 49-7 loss to Cal at home on Saturday afternoon. The loss dropped the Beavs to 1-6 overall and 0-4 in the Pac-12 North.
University of Colorado senior Kennedy Leonard is one of 20 Division I point guards announced to the 2019 Nancy Lieberman Award Watch List by the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame and Women's Basketball Coaches Association on Monday. This prestigious award recognizes the top point guard in women's NCAA DI college basketball, and this marks the second straight season Leonard has been selected to the watch list.
Heading into the 2018-19 season, Kyle Boone of CBS Sports ranks Oregon men’s basketball’s Payton Pritchard 13th in his list of the 15 best point guards in college basketball. Colorado’s McKinley Wright IV is 14th.
In a matchup of unbeaten teams, No. 1 Stanford women’s soccer blasted No. 15 Colorado 7-0 on the Cardinal’s Senior Day (Pac-12 Networks recap). If there was any question going into this match who was the better side (there really wasn’t), there isn’t anymore.
Check out this video feature on Cal women’s volleyball’s Savannah Rennie overcoming two rare health issues to return to the team. It will also air on the next episode of “Our Stories” on Dec. 9 on Pac-12 Network and Pac-12 Now.
Wanna forget about the tough loss to UCLA? Well then this link is for you, Wildcat fan, as Adam Zagoria lets us know that former Arizona hooper Allonzo Trier is “playing with a chip on his shoulder” for the New York Knicks (Arizona Daily Star). Currently on a two-way contract, Trier is averaging 12.7 points and 2.7 rebounds through the first three games of the season.