Live from the Rose Garden

Published 12:10 pm Thursday, March 19, 2009

Washington doesn’t play for another couple of hours, but I’m here checking out the Huskies’ potential second-round opponent should they beat Mississippi State this afternoon.

And it looks like Purdue is going to be that team, as the Boilermakers are up 10 on Northern Iowa midway through the first half. Northern Iowa led 6-4 early on, but Purdue is on a 12-0 run and the Panthers haven’t scored in over six minutes. Wait, now it’s a 14-0 run.

For those looking for a little reading before today’s game, we had a couple of stories from yesterday’s press conference. Here’s a story on Mississippi State coach Rick Stansbury pleading for Oregon fans to cheer for his team. We also had this notebook on a few items, including Jon Brockman’s broken nose from last week. The injury happened last week in the Pac-10 tournament, but news of it didn’t get out until earlier this week.

For those of you (like me) that have Memphis going far in their backets, the Tigers gave you a scare but held on for a win. And if anyone cares—and I’m doubting they do—I’ve got Louisville winning the tournament.

Oh, and one final note, for fans in town this week, or just anyone going to Portland in the future, if you’re interested in a little bit different of a dining experience, do yourself a favor and try Pok Pok in Southeast Portland. And if you go, I insist you get the wings.