The 15-3, 5-1 Stanford Cardinal want to stay on top of the Pacific-12 Conference after this week's visit to the Northwest. The 9-8, 1-4 Washington State Cougars want to get out of the bottom four before visiting the Bay Area next week. The first half of this week's puzzle will be drawn up on Thursday in Pullman at the Wallis Beasley Performing Arts Coliseum.

WSU is 5-0 at their crib although when two members of the Big Sky Conference and 8-9, 0-4 Santa Clara are your marquee wins you have to wonder how they'll fare with someone a bit bigger and stronger. In Spokane on Dec. 29 and 31 the Cougs split with the Oregon schools. After beating 11-7, 1-5 Oregon State though Washington State has lost three in a row with the last two coming by double figures.

The Cougars looked like they'd get in the win column at Seattle, but 11-6, 4-1 Washington turned on the turbo jets to turn the tides of an 11-point deficit into a 15-point lead. WSU used a 26-6 run to dispel a 47-37 hole with 12:16 to go. The Cougs shot seven percent better from the floor, but were really hurt by 21 offensive rebounds by the Huskies. Washington State just had three being outboarded by UW 44-20.

Extra chances meant more scoring the Huskies who only hit 17-of-28 free throws. The Cougars wish they drew more fouls converting 12-of-16 when they were sent to the stripe. Leading WSU in scoring was senior guard Faisal Aden with Aden as junior forward Brock Motum motored in 17. Freshman guard DaVonte Lacy also hit double digits, but his 10 points came on 33.3 percent shooting.

More Cougs will need to step up offensively for Washington State to snap a three-game slide. With Stanford coming off an 84-64 crushing of 11-6, 3-2 Colorado, Washington State will have their work cut out for them this week. The Cardinal could do little wrong squeezing the Buffaloes during the second half to blow the doors off of Maples Pavilion. Holding your opponent to 42.1 percent is one thing, but to then shoot 52.9 percent from the floor only compounds the damage Stanford imposed on CU.

The Cardinal hit 10-of-23 three-pointers to assist the hot shooting. However 20-of-31 FT shooting needs to be corrected. Freshman guard Chasson Randle who was 4-for-8 from deep and one of six Stanford players to go 2-for-4 from the line has to disappoint Johnny Dawkins. One Cardinal went 0-for-2 to boot as sophomore guard Aaron Bright, sophomore forward Josh Huestis and senior center Josh Owens also reached double digits.

The Cougars won four of their five games with junior varsity teams by 24 plus points in Pullman. With the competition stiffer at home how will WSU look? The Cougs aren't bad, but they might be one of the worst four teams in the Pac-12. The Cardinal have been a surprise thus far and Stanford is 3-1 on the road. I absolutely love my pick to cover the spread and will post that in Sportchatplace.com Premium Edition some time before the tip-off. As for my free play I'd go light on the Over with both teams coming off games full of scoring.