NW Sports from the AP

AP-NW–1st SportsMinute,429
Here is the latest Washington, Oregon and Alaska sports news from
The Associated Press

SEATTLE (AP) – In Lorenzo Romar’s decade at Washington, he may
not have broken in a younger men’s basketball team than the one
that will begin practice later this week. And indoctrinating all
these youngsters will be Romar’s first task for the defending
Pac-10 tournament champion Huskies. But along with welcoming the
seven true freshman to the Huskies system is the need to find
replacements for do-everything point guard Isaiah Thomas and center
Matthew Bryan-Amaning. The Huskies reached the second round of the
NCAA tournament last season.

RENTON, Wash. (AP) – With the Seattle Seahawks offense finally
showing signs of life the last few weeks using a no-huddle offense
engineered by quarterback Tarvaris Jackson, backup Charlie
Whitehurst was left to practice the no-huddle on his own. His
experience was limited strictly to work in the preseason and in the
team’s hotel rooms on Saturday nights. It was time well spent as
Whitehurst was called upon to take the reins of the offense early
in the second half against the New York Giants on Sunday.

EUGENE, Ore. (AP) – “Touchdown, Thomas to Thomas” is becoming
a familiar refrain at Autzen Stadium, and the connection between
Darron Thomas and De’Anthony Thomas could become more even common
for No. 9 Oregon as LaMichael James nurses an elbow injury. The
Ducks don’t discuss injuries and all James would say yesterday is
that he has not been ruled out of Saturday’s game against No. 18
Arizona State. The Ducks have plenty of options in his absence, but
one of the most dynamic to emerge this season is that of the two
Thomases.

SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) – Washington State got inside the UCLA
10-yard line in the first half three times Saturday and three times
the Cougars had to settle for field goals by Andrew Furney. But
coach Paul Wulff is not prepared to label that a major problem yet.
Wulff said his team has been quite good in the red zone so far this
season, scoring touchdowns 60 percent of the time and at least a
field goal 90 percent of the time. The Cougars are preparing for
their biggest challenge of the season as No. 7 Stanford comes to
Pullman on Saturday.

ELMA, Wash. (AP) – Nine Elma High School football players –
eight of them on the varsity team – have been suspended for
violating the athletic code of conduct. Principal Kevin Acuff says
six of the students were suspended Monday from school and three
were suspended only from football. KBKW and KXRO report Elma will
play Friday at league rival Montesano.

(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press.  All Rights Reserved.)

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