Roundup: Oregon boosts NCAA tournament résumé

Oregon strengthened its NCAA tournament résumé with a win at Cal Wednesday night. The Ducks beat the Bears 80-69 thanks to 25 points from Joseph Young.

UCLA hoops manhandled Washington 88-66 Wednesday night, and David Wharton of the Los Angeles Times writes that Tony Parker made his presence felt with his 20 points.

The Cougs got a road W in Troy Wednesday night with a 70-66 triumph over USC, and Dexter Kernich-Drew talked with the Pac-12 Networks’ Paul Sunderland after pouring in 19 points against the Trojans.

Sean Miller and the Cats find themselves in Boulder for a 6 p.m. PT/7 p.m. MT battle on Thursday night (ESPN), and despite the Buffs’ struggles on the hardwood this season, Arizona insists it is only focused on Colorado and not looking ahead to a major showdown with the Runnin’ Utes.

Meanwhile, Utah is focused on improving against Arizona State (7:30 p.m. PT/8:30 p.m. MT, FOX Sports 1) as it tries to stay within striking distance of Arizona.

Doug Haller details the history between Arizona State’s Gerry Blakes and Utah’s Delon Wright. The two played with each other in high school in SoCal and took the JuCo route to a Pac-12 placement.

The Beavers hit the road this weekend and play Thursday night at Stanford (8 p.m. PT, Pac-12 Networks), and Oregon State is hoping to break its “road rut,” as Connor Letourneau puts it.

The Cardinal is fighting for an NCAA berth, so Stanford needs to beat a better-than-expected Oregon State team, pens Tom FitzGerald.

Nice feature from Jayda Evans of the Seattle Times on Washington women’s basketball guard Jazmine Davis, the all-time leading scorer at UW who will be playing her final home games this weekend. San Jose stand up.

Seattle Seahawks coach Pete Carroll will receive an honorary degree from USC on May 15 during the school’s commencement ceremony, the school announced Wednesday.

Well the men’s hoops team might have lost, but Cal women’s swimming broke an American record at the Pac-12 Women’s Swimming and Men’s and Women’s Diving Championships on Wednesday, the first day of competition. The Golden Bears broke the American record in the 800 freestyle relay.

So many heartbreakers for the Buffs on the gridiron last season, but Colorado quarterback Sefo Liufau expects those close losses to turn into wins in 2015, writes Ted Miller.