Roundup: Home hoops teams hold serve

Feb 7, 2014

Arizona began life without Brandon Ashley last night by narrowly defeating Oregon 67-65 at home. While the 'Cats certainly look a lot more beatable without him, the silver lining for Arizona fans is that Ashley is likely to return to Arizona next year, reports Jeff Goodman of ESPN.

In the other game in the state, Arizona State fought off Oregon State in overtime, 86-82, in a wildly entertaining contest. Kudos to Jordan Bachynski for becoming the new Pac-12 record holder for career blocks. In other news pertaining to the game, Herb Sendek wasn’t a fan of the student section’s silent start, as the students remained silent until ASU hit 13 points (to honor James Harden, who wore No. 13 at ASU). He wasn’t mad about it or anything – just his preference, especially since it took more than 11 minutes for ASU to reach 13.

The Utes got back on track with a 78-69 win over Washington in Salt Lake City, and the Utah defense delivered again in the victory over Washington, writes Tony Jones. After the game, Delon Wright talked about toughness with our Matt Muehlebach.

After blowing a late lead to the Wildcats, Oregon can’t wait to forget Arizona in order to salvage its road trip. Arizona State won’t be any easier, though.

On Feb. 7, 2004, Nick Robinson hit the greatest shot in the history of Stanford men’s basketball: a 35-foot runner to beat the buzzer and the Wildcats to keep Stanford undefeated. Mark Soltau of Stanford Athletics details how 10 years later, “The Shot” is still memorable. Robinson is now the head coach of the Southern Utah Thunderbirds.

Colorado athletic director Rick George announced that Colorado is more than halfway to its $50 million fundraising goal needed to start a $143 million facilities project. In former Colorado AD news, Cincinnati hired Mike Bohn to be its athletic director.

Washington State women’s basketball hosts No. 3 Stanford tonight at 6 p.m. on the Pac-12 Networks. The Cougs are still looking for their first-ever win against the Card and a top-5 team.

Here’s a leftover National Signing Day link courtesy of the #BellWell, as Washington’s director of writing gets unleashed on how smooth Chris Petersen’s first UW signing day was.

And another recruiting link, this one coming from Dennis Dodd of CBS Sports, who writes that Steve Sarkisian is set to bring back good times to USC with the sanctions cloud lifting.

And another one. Two years in a row, UCLA has been able to flip defensive end recruits from Notre Dame to Westwood (Eddie Vanderdoes and Matt Dickerson), so the Bruins may need a confession for their recruiting coups, jests Chris Foster of the Los Angeles Times.