Turns out Washington senior Quincy Pondexter has a sweet tooth similar to Los Angeles Lakers forward Lamar Odom.

When asked about the addiction to sweets, Pondexter said: "Smuckers, they get me through my life. ... I love candy. That's my problem. I know it. I admit. I eat so much."

(What's your favorite candy?) "So many. There's so many great choices. I'm a sucker for all of it. It doesn't matter. From sour candy to chocolate. Everything."

(You know Lamar Odom has the same problem?) "Yeah. He's one of my good friends. I always compare how much candy I eat to his. My sugar intake is a lot higher."

(So you like Halloween?) "I love Halloween. But everything is on sale. It always makes me sad like a month after. They just get rid of all of the Halloweeen cheap candy, (then) I have to go buy it for full price in the stores."

Caught up with coach Lorenzo Romar today and here's what he had to say about the Pac-10 possibly expanding and creating a new league TV network.

"I don't have enough information to comment on it yet. The expansion topic is really new and I knew our contract was going to be up in a year or so. I think we'll do a good job in whatever is negotiated. But I don't know a whole lot about the expansion.

(Are you for it?) "It depends on how many we're expanding. What are we doing? I'm not against it."

(What didn't you like about your time in Conference USA, which had 12 teams?) [Romar coached three years at Saint Louis, which was was a member of C-USA] "I didn't like the fact that, again I'm a traditionalist. I just like the home-and-home (element). I like that. ... They're going to rotate it (the schedule) evenly, but then that particularly year the teams you have to play on the road are the best teams. Then the next year, another team it's another team's turn to play on the road and they get to play the worst teams in the league. Sometimes that doesn't work for me.

(Did they do divisions?) "Yeah. All the teams were in the tournament as well. You were seeded 1-12."

(It sounds like you like the present format?) "Yeah. Am I opposed to expansion? No. But I do like it the way it is now. But you know at one time, it was the Pac-8. And maybe back then I would have said no, let's keep it the way it is. But the Pac-10 has worked out fine and Arizona and Arizona State have been great additions to this league for obvious reasons. They've done well."

(What do you think about the moving away from the Thursday-Saturday game format?) "Anything that's going to get us exposure actually does not complicate your life because it makes it a little easier down the stretch with recruiting and all."

It's no surprise Turkish star Enes Kanter, who committed to Washington in November, is reportedly looking at other schools.

I talked to his coach Derryck Thornton at Stoneridge Prep last week who said he hadn't spoken to anybody from Washington in over a month. Thornton hinted Kanter would re-open the recruiting process.

Scout.com caught up with Kanter who said: "I don't know what I want to do yet. I didn't know much about the NCAA so I want to look around. Now I'm finding out more."

Citing unnamed sources in a subscription report, Kanter is said to be considering Florida State, Syracuse and Kentucky, according to Scout.com. The site says Kanter still has UW on his list.

Kanter, a 6-foot-10, 240-pound center, was considered the prize of UW's recruiting class that includes Salesian High forward Desmond Simmons, who signed a letter of intent. Kanter is projected by several NBA draft sites as a first-round pick in 2011.

When asked generally about recruiting, coach Lorenzo Romar said he wants to target tall players.

***UPDATE 12:41 p.m.***

In a story Monday, Bud Withers broke the news of the Pac-10 hiring former Big 12 commissioner Kevin Weiberg to be the new deputy commissioner.

Pac-10 commissioner Larry Scott said Weiberg would help him decide if the conference will expand and begin a new league TV network.

"A Pac-10 network was something that we were going to seriously explore," Scott said on the conference call Tuesday. "The timing is such that now that we're less than a year away from our negotiating period, our analysis and evaluation has to get more serious and more rigorous. Kevin will be an absolutely key player in that with his in-depth background."

Weiberg was deputy to Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany from 1989 to 1998. He was "instrumental in the integration of Penn State into the conference," according to the Pac-10 and he worked 18 months for the Big Ten Network, a venture that will pay that conference $2.8 billion over 25 years.

"There's quite a few similarities between what I observed and worked on in the Big Ten and the possibility of this, again just a possibility for the Pac-10," Weiberg said on the conference call.

Scott said he would take the next 12 months to consider the expansion issue. Scott said he will not set up an expansion committee or task force, but plans to consult with university presidents.

"To me the logic if the Pac-10 is going to think about expanding, now is our window," Scott said. "The reason being if you're going to consider a reconstruction of the conference, there should be a value proposition associated with that and given that we're about to have negotiations regarding our media rights, it makes sense that if you're going to do it, to do it when you can monetize it and get value from it commercially, in terms of greater exposure for your conference.

"If we're going to consider this in the forseeable future, it really is in the next 12 months."

When asked the biggest hurdles to expansion, Scott said: "There are several (conflict) issues, but fundamentally the institutions would have to be a fit academically and culturally with the Pac-10.

"That's paramount importance to our presidents and chancellors. And then there are other economic and athletic considerations such as the increased cost that would be involved, increased travel that would be involved ... you look at how that's all set against the revenue could potentially be greater, exposure into more markets is possible. Recruiting opportunities. The impact on your media negotiations. So there's a whole analysis you would go through in terms of cost benefit."

Scott said the conference has has no serious discussions at this point with any schools regarding expansion.

Scott said the conference basketball tournament will remain with Fox Sports at least until its contract expires after the 2012 tournament. He was not sure if the the tournament will remain with FSN, but has no plans of eliminating the conference, calling it "highly success and very valuable."

Scott is considering changing the Thursday-Saturday game format in the future to give the conference more national television exposure.

Bob Condotta also monitored the conference call and posted an entry on the UW football blog.

Photo credit: AP PHOTO - Joe Nicholson

Washington senior captain Quincy Pondexter (above) won his fourth Pac-10 Player of the Week award today, joining a select group of players who won the award four times in a season.

Pondexter averaged 23.5 points and 9.5 rebounds last week in wins over Arizona and Arizona State.

For the season, he's among the Pac-10 leaders in many statistical categories including third in scoring (20.6 ppg) and rebounding (8.3 rpg), fifth in free throw percentage (82 percent) and field goal percentage (55 percent) and eighth in steals (1.43 spg).

Since the conference began the weekly award in the 1983-84 season, only four other players have won four POWs in a single season including: Gary Payton (1989-90), Chris Mills ('92-93), Ed O'Bannon ('94-95) and Eddie House ('99-2000).

No one has won five in a season and with four weeks remaining, Pondexter has a chance to make history.

More good news for Pondexer, every player who won four Player of the Week awards in a single season went on to win the Pac-10 Player of the Year award.

ESPN bracket guru Joe Lunardi had been a staunch supporter of the Pac-10 most of the season predicting the conference would send four teams to the NCAA tourney at the start of the season.

Several weeks ago, he amended his prediction to three teams then two.

In his latest bracket released today, Lunardi has just one Pac-10 team in the tourney: California.

Essentially, Lunardi believes the Pac-10 regular-season champion will not receive an invitation. The conference tourney champ is given an automatic berth into the NCAA tourney.

Lunardi has seven teams from the Big 12 and six from the Atlantic 10, ACC and Big East in the tourney.

IN OTHER NEWS:

--- The Pac-10 was shut out of the top 25 rankings again today. That's five straight weeks.

AROUND THE PAC-10:

--- Let's start with our game story from Washington's 79-56 victory over Arizona and a photo gallery that includes 12 pics.

--- ASU coach Herb Sendek was somewhat evasive when asked why sharpshooter Rihard Kuksiks didn't start. Kuksiks torched UW for a career-high tying 27 points in their first meeting.

--- Next up for Washington is California, which moved atop the Pac-10 after a 72-58 win at UCLA. The Golden Bears are 14-0 when they shoot over 46 percent.

--- Judging by the final score, it's difficult to believe the Bruins had a 14-point lead against Cal.

--- USC's Nikola Vucevic scored a tip-in with 20.6 seconds in the Trojans' 54-49 victory over Stanford.

--- Washington State salvaged a split during its two home games this week to keep its slim conference championship hopes alive. The Cougars bounced back from Thursday's loss and clamped down on Arizona for a 78-60 victory that snapped a three-game losing streak.

--- Arizona's Derrick Williams rebounded from an off night Thursday at UW, however, the reserves who played so good against the Huskies didn't show up in Pullman. The Wildcats bench scored nine points.

--- Oregon State drops Oregon 62-42 for the first Civil War hoops sweep in 17 years.

--- With two minutes left, the OSU crowd began chanting, "Goodbye, Er-nie!''

Washington junior Justin Holiday (left) is quickly making a name for himself as a defensive stalwart. He shut down Stanford's Landry Fields and Arizona's Jamelle Horne. Add Arizona State's Ty Abbott and Rihard Kuksiks to the list.

It's not as if Holiday covered both Sun Devils at the same time all by himself, but he spent significant time defending them and when he was in their face, they didn't score. Or at least, they didn't score a lot. Abbott finished with 10 points and Kuksiks had eight, however, in the pivotal first half when the game was decided they combined for 10.

Credit Holiday, who finished with a game-high 10 rebounds (four on the offensive glass), seven points, three assists, two steals and a block in 27 minutes. He's been a stat stuffer lately, but his best work doesn't appear in the box score.

Recently coach Lorenzo Romar began calling Holiday the captain of the defense and Holiday has shown why in the past few games.

Said Romar: "His arms just extend, there's always a threat that his arm is there. He doesn't let you get away. He's quick, he anticipates, he's smart, he's physically tougher than you think and it's just hard to get away from him."

Said Holiday: "I do what I do every game. Just come out and stop the person that's in front of me. It don't matter who it is. I take pride in that. My teammates take pride in that. And that's what helps us win games."

When asked if he's starting to develop a reputation as one of the Pac-10 leading defenders, Holiday said: "Maybe. I don't know. If I am that's good. If not that's still good. As long as we get these wins, that's all that matters."

With Holiday and Venoy Overton running the defense, UW held ASU to 9 for 24 shooting and forced 10 turnovers in the decisive first half.

If not for freshman Demetrius Walker, who scored a career-high 14 points, the game would have turned into a laugher at halftime when Washington led 42-25.

As it were, Walker drained a few unexpected three-pointers in the first half that kept the suspense in the game until midway in the second half when it was obvious ASU didn't have enough offense to contend with Washington.

Photo credit: AP PHOTO - Ted S. Warren

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