It was basketball on Red Bull. A track meet in high tops. A jailbreak with ponytails.

Say what you will about women’s basketball – and a great many sports fans will never have much good to say about it, unfortunately – but the Washington State-Oregon score-a-thon Thursday night ranks among the most entertaining events to grace KeyArena since a carpetbagger stole the Sonics and moved them to a patch of dirt in the middle of nowhere.

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Most Washington State basketball fans know Cougars guard Tia Presley only as an athlete. Fearless, hard-nosed, relentless. It would be safe to say that most fans would be surprised to learn about the “other” Tia Presley.

“I’m pretty girly,” Presley says, a huge grin pasted beneath mischievous brown eyes. “I like to do my hair.

“I like to sit at home and watch Netflix. I’ll get hooked on shows and find myself staying up until 4 in the morning with practice at 7. I’m a big online shopper, too.”

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Ken Bone, a Seattle native, returns to his hometown on Friday. Perhaps that will make it easier for him to catch a breath after being left hanging all season.

Washington State athletic director Bill Moos, a man of a million words, has said nothing that would indicate Bone’s coaching stint in Pullman is anything but going, going, gone at season’s end. Moos’ deafening silence has been accompanied by the ever-increasing roar of WSU fans demanding a new basketball coach.

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PULLMAN – The Washington Huskies came to the Palouse to bury the Bone. Instead, they granted Ken Bone a stay of execution.

The Washington State Cougars quieted – however temporarily -- the increasing clamor of fans calling for Bone’s head by giving Cougars fans what they cherish most: A win over the Huskies.

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PULLMAN – The young men on the Washington State basketball team seem like an unusually mature lot.

Opponents praise the Cougars for playing hard, even in lopsided defeats. Players meet with the media after losses – never a pleasant task – and answer questions directly and politely. Coach Ken Bone frequently praises their effort and camaraderie.

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In Las Vegas, it has been said, one can place a bet on anything. The fact that a man once cashed in on a $100,000 bet by wearing 38C breast implants for a year would seem to support that statement. That bet rates a tad stranger than any of the Super Bowl wagers we’ve heard about this year. But Las Vegas bookmaker Bovada.com is doing its best to keep things interesting.

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The Washington State University athletic department reduced its annual operating deficit by more than $2 million during the past fiscal year, but athletic director Bill Moos said Thursday he anticipates a record deficit that may exceed $10 million for the fiscal year that ends June 30.

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PULLMAN – Last time Washington State defeated Washington in women’s basketball, most of the current Cougars were wearing diapers. Eighteen years later, the Cougars were wearing broad smiles after their remarkable 36-game losing streak to the Huskies came to a nail-biting end Tuesday evening at Beasley Coliseum.

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ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – The Washington State Cougars waited 10 years to play in a bowl game. The Cougars finally cracked the secret bowl code Saturday afternoon at the Gildan New Mexico Bowl, but WSU players, coaches and fans might need another 10 years to recover from the disaster.

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ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – Joe Theismann is 64 years old and long removed from his football glory days, but the former Notre Dame and Washington Redskins star sounded like he was ready to put on pads when he delivered a stirring speech Friday afternoon at the New Mexico Bowl luncheon.

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ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – Oh, what a demanding lot we are, the sports lovers of America.

We want our sultans of sweat to excel not only on the field, but off it as well. We prefer that our heroes be colorful, but not go overboard. We expect our teams to succeed not just consistently, but constantly.

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SPOKANE – The Gonzaga Bulldogs rank among the top offensive teams in the country in a number of basketball statistics. The wealth is spread throughout the roster. Kevin Pangos leads the Bulldogs in scoring. Gary Bell Jr. leads in 3-point shooting percentage. David Stockton leads in assists. Przemek Karnowski leads in offensive rebounds. Sam Dower Jr. leads in field-goal shooting percentage.

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PULLMAN -- The Washington State Cougars, who operate with one of the smallest athletics budgets in the Pac-12 Conference, continue to reap the benefits of Pac-12 membership.

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PULLMAN -- The Apple Cup makes its biennial pit stop at Husky Stadium Friday afternoon, a cause for celebration by college football fans from Palm Springs to Napa Valley and points beyond in California.

Welcome to the California High School Alumni All-Star Game. When the Cougars and Huskies work off poundage gained via Thanksgiving grubfests, the vast majority of starters and others on the two-deep will be California natives.

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Former Washington State football player Steve Gleason will be the subject of an hour-long documentary Tuesday on “A Football Life,” a weekly program on the NFL Network. The show airs at 6 p.m. At 7, a half-hour program, “A Football Life: Backstory,” provides more information about Gleason’s inspiring life.

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PULLMAN – Mike Leach was so disgusted last season by the lame performance of Washington State’s offensive linemen at Utah that he ordered all five starters to talk to the media.

One year later, those linemen have yet to disclose what was more humiliating: Losing 49-6 to Utah, or being forced to talk to low-life sports writers.

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SPOKANE – DaVonte Lacy can’t say enough good things about Gary Bell Jr. Usually, that is.

This is not your usual week. Lacy and Bell could be guarding one another much of the way when Lacy’s Washington State Cougars square off against Bell and the 13^th-ranked Gonzaga Bulldogs Thursday night at GU’s McCarthey Athletic Center.

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TUCSON, AZ. – Three years ago, Darryl Monroe took a gamble on a struggling football program and moved from sunny Florida to oft-frigid Pullman to play for the Washington State Cougars.

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PULLMAN – Washington State football fans were presented with crimson flags upon arriving at Martin Stadium Thursday night. WSU’s players skipped the crimson flags. They were too busy waving white ones.

Playing in 30ish temperatures that were supposed to cool off the visitors from Arizona State, the Cougars lost 55-21 and looked mighty feeble doing it.

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One day after his Washington State football team staged an aerial assault on the Oregon Ducks, Cougars coach Mike Leach politely rejected the opportunity to stage a verbal assault on Oregon defensive coordinator Nick Aliotti. Aliotti, who called it “low class” for Leach to let the Cougars continue to throw the ball late in Saturday night’s lopsided loss to Oregon, did not draw much of a reaction from Leach.

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