UW football coach Tyrone Willingham confirmed Thursday at Pac-10 Media Day that four players are academically ineligible for the coming season. They are redshirt freshman tailback J.R. Hasty, receivers Chancellor Young and Charles Smith and offensive tackle Nathan Flowers.

Hasty, Young and Flowers would have been in competition for starting jobs, and all likely would have seen significant playing time.

Meanwhile, an ankle injury has ended the career of defensive tackle Dan Milsten, who will serve this season as a student assistant coach. Injuries also are expected to prevent kicker Ryan Perkins (leg), defensive lineman Jasper Henry (back)

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A couple of big-name opponents will show up soon on University of Washington sports schedules: Pittsburgh in basketball and Nebraska in football.

UW athletic director Todd Turner said the UW basketball team will visit Pittsburgh on Feb. 17, 2007, with the Panthers making a return visit to Seattle in 2007-08.

Turner also announced a home-and-road contract to play Nebraska in 2010 in Husky Stadium followed by a trip to Lincoln in 2011.

And Nebraska released the official announcement Friday. And so did the UW site.

For the fourth straight year, media covering the Pacific-10 Conference have picked the USC Trojans to win the league football title. However, unlike the past two seasons, it wasn’t unanimous. Or even close to unanimous.

This time around, four Pac-10 schools received first-place votes: USC, Cal, Oregon and Arizona State.

The writers showed low expectations for the state of Washington, picking the Cougars eighth and the Huskies dead last.

Here are the results:

1. Southern California (18) 276

2. California (7) 247

3. Oregon (3) 229

4. Arizona State (1) 204

5.

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If basketball season can’t come quickly enough for you, here is a link to a Salem Statesman Journal story on UW incoming freshman Phil Nelson, who won a slam dunk contest Saturday in Oregon.

UW senior Shelton Sampson of Lakewood has returned to tailback because redshirt freshman J.R. Hasty has been confirmed as academic ineligibility.

Shelton is returning to his original position after a controversial switch to defensive back, which caused him to briefly leave the team.

He will join senior Kenny James and junior Louis Rankin as the Huskies’ most experienced runners.

Hasty sat out last season as a redshirt; however coach Tyrone Willingham said he was tempted to use the former Bellevue star last season, and he was expected to be in the mix for a starting job

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We’ve known most of the opponents for a while now, but the Huskies have now added tentative dates for the 2006-07 men’s basketball season. Here’s how it looks for now, subject to change and with one big-time opponent expected to be added:

Fri. Nov. 3 + Saint Martin’s (exhibition) Seattle.

Sun.-Tue. Nov. 12-14 BASKETBALL TRAVELERS CLASSIC Bank of America Arena; Seattle, Wash. (Nicholls State, Northern Iowa, Pepperdine, Washington) Sun. Nov. 12 Game 1 – Nicholls State vs. Northern Iowa TBA Game 2 – Pepperdine vs. Washington TBA Mon. Nov. 13 Game 3 – Pepperdine vs. Northern Iowa TBA

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Former UW forward Bobby Jones is expected to sign a two-year contract with the Philadelphia 76ers today. Click here for a Philadelphia Inquirer story telling why the Sixers think he’s worth it.