No. 21 Oregon State at Arizona. Beavers have won three straight at Arizona Stadium. OSU, 34-31.

Stanford at California. Bowl bid at stake for the Cardinal in extra-big Big Game. Cal, 31-27.

Washington at Washington State. I've covered every UW game this season, so I understand how punchless this team is. Yet, I look at those WSU scores and statistics, and I'm not sure I've ever seen anything like it. If the Huskies are still up to giving full effort, they seem the clearly better team. UW, 21-10.

Last week: 5-0.
Season: 55-11.
UW games: 9-1.

UW moves to 2-1 on the season.

Once the Huskies shots started dropping the Panthers were toast. And did those shots drop: 21 for 32 in the second half.

Jon Brockman had eight points and eight rebounds -- both season lows. And it was the first time in 40 games that Brockman scored in single digits.

Coach Lorenzo Romar said the FIU defense concentrated not only on Brockman with what have become the usual double-teams, but they really worked to stop the Huskies from running. It worked in the first half, Romar and several Huskies said, because they rushed their shots. The shots started falling in the second half because they gave more possessions the time and effort needed for better shots.

“We were trying to make home run plays too early,” Romar said. “The result, 11 turnovers in the first half. In the second half we came down after the first few minutes and we began to share the ball. Once we began to share the ball and not make the home run play early, the end result of that was only five turnovers in the second half and a higher shooting percentage.”

Justin Dentmon led the Huskies with 21 points. Isaiah Thomas had 19. And Romar continues to rave about how much Justin Holiday can impact a game despite scoring only two points.

Scott Suggs also saw his first action of the season.

UW moved to 2-1 with defending national champion Kansas dead ahead Monday.

"We are ready to play Kansas," Dentmon said. "And I think that our team will step up."

----In-game running blog:
* The Huskies hit their first six shots of the second half, and it's funny how that kind of changes everything. They seem to have taken control unless they go hyper cold again.

Halftime: The Huskies have hit 7 of 32 shots (21.9%). One of those was a nice little floater through the lane by Isaiah Thomas as the last second of the half ticket off.

Thomas leads the Huskies with 12 points. Brockman is having trouble with lots of attention from the big Panthers' front line and has only four points.

* About 12 minutes in and the Huskies are 5 of 22 from the field. And that better change, because FIU is pretty large up front, and so far the Huskies are trying -- and failing -- to shoot over them.

* Very small crowd here. I hear traffic is nasty out there tonight. But as of now, this is much smaller even than the sub-8,000 crowd that showed up Tuesday.

By the way, there also are enough unsold tickets for the Kansas City portion of this tournament where they are about to offer a two-for-one special. That's something of a surprise -- even in a big arena -- due to the presence of Kansas.

* The Huskies' starting lineup is back to what appears to be normal in this early stage of the season: Brockman, Pondexter, Gant, Dentmon and Thomas.

* We're more than an hour from tipoff. They've apparently just opened the gates, as the Dawg Pack is filing in.

The Golden Panthers -- yes, that's what they are -- are on the court.
The only Huskies on the court are the ones still trying to get healthy: Matthew Bryan-Amaning and Artem Wallace.

Usual game-day plans here. I'll post pregame news as it happens. Then give a few in-game updates. Then back with notes and quotes after filing my story.

Meanwhile, a quick scouting report:

FLORIDA INTERNATIONAL (2-0)
AT WASHINGTON (1-1)
7 p.m., Hec Edmundson Pavilion.
TV: None.
Radio: 950-AM

Series: UW leads, 2-0, including an 83-48 blowout in the last meeting, Dec. 21, 2003, in Seattle.

Statistical leaders: For FIU, G Michael Dominguez, 19.5 ppg; C/F Freddy Asprilla, 11 rpg; G Nick Taylor, 6 apg. For UW, F Jon Brockman 26.5 ppg and 13.5 rpg; G Isaiah Thomas, 3.5 apg.

Scouting report: The Golden Panthers have opened with a three-point win over Eastern Kentucky and a 19-point win over Monmouth. FIU has size and experience along its front line, which features 7-foot senior center Russell Hicks, a first-team All-Sun Belt Conference preseason selection and the league’s top shot-blocker last season. Another returning starter is 6-foot-9 junior power forward Nikola Gacesa, who had a career-high 20 points in the win over Monmouth. Dominguez, a transfer from Northeastern (Colo.) Junior College, has taken 17 of FIU’s 31 three-point attempts.

Next: 7 p.m. Monday, vs. Kansas, CBE semifinal game, Sprint Center, Kansas City, Mo.

University officials aren’t commenting on the search for a new football coach. However, all indications are that Notre Dame offensive coordinator Mike Haywood was in Seattle today to interview for the job. Although most indications also are that he isn't expected to be the guy.

Back to news people will actually comment on: Tailback Brandon Johnson was back at practice Thursday after missing two days due to a death in the family. Coach Tyrone Willingham had said Johnson might have missed too much practice to play this week. But he said Thursday that Johnson probably will travel with the team to Pullman.

Willingham said he doesn’t know whether Johnson, Terrance Dailey, Willie Griffin or even FB/TB Luke Kravitz will start. (Actually, the latter would be very cool. He's a lifelone Husky fan, and starting or getting a lot of carries in the final Apple Cup of his career would be a nice happy story in a season that hasn't had near enough of them.)

Offensive tackle Ben Ossai (concussion) practiced today, and Willingham said he might start.

The Huskies will fly to Pullman on Friday. As you may recall, they had bussed to Oregon. But the Cascade Mountains combined with the late-November date made flying the safer choice this time.