Now that he's in Boulder – Mel Tucker has been named the next head coach of Colorado football, becoming the 26^th person to have the gig. Tucker spent the last three years as the defensive coordinator and secondary coach at Georgia and will get a five-year deal worth $14.75 million, pending approval from the CU Board of Regents.

Heading into a Sweet 16 matchup with Washington State, you should know that Stanford women’s volleyball middle blocker Tami Alade was named Pac-12 Scholar-Athlete of the Year. The senior from Canada has a 3.56 GPA in her human biology major, all the while leading the NATION with 1.79 blocks per set and owning the ninth-best hitting percentage in the country at .404.

This was written before the hiring was official, but the headline still rings true, as J. Brady McCullough of the Los Angeles Times believes that Kliff Kingsbury and USC appear to be the perfect fit. Kingsbury was officially named the new offensive coordinator on Wednesday.

Jack Harris of Sun Devil Source (a 247Sports site) tells us that Arizona State running back Eno Benjamin is close to breaking the school’s single-season rushing record. At 1,524 rushing yards on the season, Benjamin needs 42 yards against Fresno State in the Las Vegas Bowl to sit atop the list.

The University of Oregon responded to the findings of the NCAA Committee on Infractions Wednesday, stating “the UO disagrees with its conclusions.” The biggest penalty levied against the Ducks is the two-game suspension for women’s basketball head coach Kelly Graves.

Percy Allen gives us his three takeaways from Washington men’s basketball’s 81-79 loss to No. 1 Gonzaga following Rui Hachimura’s game-winning jumper with 0.6 seconds left. The Pac-12 has come close to getting a couple of huge marquee victories with Stanford’s OT loss at No. 2 Kansas and this game.

Cal men’s basketball was routed by USF Wednesday night at Haas Pavilion, losing to the Dons 79-60 (San Francisco Chronicle). The Dons are no slouch at 8-1 on the season, but yikes. Not a good start to the season for the 2-5 Golden Bears.

Check out the Pac-12 Networks recap of Washington State men’s basketball’s 90-70 win over Idaho Wednesday in Pullman.

With Arizona men’s basketball getting ready to play Utah Valley, Bruce Pascoe gives us this feature on Utah Valley men’s basketball head coach Mark Pope, who ditched med school after a decade-long career of pro ball in the NBA, CBA and Europe to get into coaching.

Steve Gress of the Corvallis Gazette-Times features Oregon State women’s basketball center Janessa Thropay, who has gotten a significant bump up in PT as a junior. The Beavers host the part-time-Kevin-Danna-broadcast Santa Clara Broncos Sunday afternoon.

Not good news for a former Ute great – Washington Redskins quarterback Alex Smith reportedly has an infection after surgery for his gruesome leg injury suffered against the Houston Texans (broken fibula and tibia), reports Frank Schwab of Yahoo Sports.

He might be known as an ornery dude and is often cited as the reason Kevin Durant left the Oklahoma City Thunder, but Chris Mannix of Sports Illustrated is here to tell us about all the things that make Russell Westbrook a good teammate. For a somewhat personal anecdote, a friend of mine is on the Thunder staff and he swears by Westbrook.