The Pac-10 office asked for my preseason picks, but before I send them to the conference I wanted to post them here. We'll start with 7-10 and move up the list.

7. Washington State: The Cougars finished seventh last season and there's no reason to place them anywhere else to start the 2009-10 season. There figures to be growing pains as the Cougars adjust to new coach Ken Bone's system, which is more up-tempo than his predecessor Tony Bennett. Sophomore G Klay Thompson averaged 12.5 ppg and will be one of the top scorers in the conference. WSU lost three starters and finding a PG is essential.

8. USC: The Trojans brought in Kevin O'Neil to clean up the mess created by former coach Tim Floyd whose alleged misdeeds launched a NCAA investigation into the program. F Dwight Lewis is a conference MVP candidate, however, he's the only returning starter. Hackett needs a point guard and he may ask Lewis to run the offense, but Lewis is a much better scorer than he is a passer.

9. Arizona State: Losing G James Harden (No. 3 overall NBA pick) and Jeff Pendergraph (No. 31 overall) hurts because they were responsible for 44 percent off the points. Still picking then ninth is lower than most Pac-10 observers. I just don't see who's going to score. But considering they held opponents to just 60.5 points per game last season, maybe the Sun Devils won't need much scoring.

10. Stanford: The Cardinal may be the unanimous No. 10 pick by Pac-10 writers. In an unofficial poll, everyone I spoke with slotted them at the bottom on the conference. The reasons: Stanford lost three starters and two key reserves. Also, second-year coach Johnny Dawkins is still trying to find players to embrace his philosophies on full-court pressure and uptempo offense. Landry Fields can score, but he needs a lot of help.

MONDAY MORNING LINKS:

--- In case you missed it, Sandy Ringer caught up with Husky recruit Josh Smith after his Friday's football game at Kentwood High. Smith had two sacks and two tackles for loss. He said he's enjoying playing football and said he plans to visit Washington this week.

--- BleacherReport.com picks Washington to win the Pac-10 title.

--- SportingNews.com is slowly unveiling its preseason top 25 list and has California at No. 16.

--- A few links on UCLA and the ailing Bruins Michael Roll and J'mison Morgan.

--- On its pay site, HuskyDigest.com reports UW recruit Terrence Jones is taking a hard look at Oklahoma and not just the Huskies and Oregon.

--- Interesting story on Toronto Chris Bosh star who won a court case against a cyber-squatter who owned hundreds of domains associated with athletes. Bosh was awarded over 800 URLs, including Darnell Gant, Justin Holiday and Venoy Overton, and he's offering all the domans to the players for free. Here's the full list and contact instructions in this PDF.