After a week on the job, new NCAA president Mark Emmert spoke with Times reporter Bud Withers in a wide-ranging interview that addressed issues such as paying football players, the possibility of a playoff system in college football and expanding the NCAA men's basketball tournament.

--- Washington's Media Day is 3:30 p.m. Wednesday. UWTV will broadcast the press conference at 7 p.m. on channel 27. The show will re-air the Oct. 18 at 10 p.m.

--- Pac-10 Commissioner Larry Scott said the conference is close to "hashing out many of the details surrounding revenue sharing, divisional alignment and a championship game in football," according to a ESPN story. Scott said the final decisions will be announced after the presidents and chancellors meet in San Francisco on Oct. 21.

--- Luke Winn at SI.com breaks down the 50-player Naismith Award Watch List and puts UW's Isaiah Thomas and WSU's Klay Thompson in a 12-player, second-tier group with that "have some star power and are capable of putting up numbers at a similar level their peers in Pool 1."

--- Not sure what to make of this list of the top 16 backcourts compiled by SI.com. The site has UW at No. 8, however, in the photo Abdul Gaddy is misidentified and mistaken for Matthew Bryan-Amaning. Ouch.

--- Stanford received a visit this weekend from point guard Chasson Randle, a four-star recruit from Illinois. The other schools on his list are Illinois and Purdue.

--- There's rumors circulating that Quinn Cook, one of the top point guards in the 2011 class, is close to making a decision between UCLA, Villanova, Duke, North Carolina and Kansas. It looks like it's down to Duke and NC, but the Bruins have an outside chance.

--- No link, but interesting to note ESPN college basketball analysts Doug Gottlieb compiled a list of 30 sleeper teams not included in most preseason polls who have a chance to surprise folks this season. He revealed the first 15 last week and included Washington State and Colorado.

In summary, Gottlieb likes the Cougars because they return their top three scores, play a soft opening schedule and has Kansas State and Gonzaga at home, which gives them a chance to get off to a good start. Gottlieb will reveal the next 15 tomorrow.

--- Bleacher Report includes Colorado in a list of four teams looking to bounce back this season.

--- Tickets to the First Four, the four first-round games of the NCAA Division I men's basketball championship, went on sale Oct. 1.

--- And finally, looks like Arizona State received a verbal commitment from a dynamic, athletic point guard in Jahii Carson judging by this highlight video below created by Ballislife.com.

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