Long weekend, so this’ll be a long post. I’m going to dispense with the links, if you don’t mind — I think it would break my overworked typing fingers to include them all.

The big news, of course — Oregon’s obliteration of Oregon State to win the Civil War and, barring an epic UCLA upset of USC, knock the Beavers from the Rose to the Sun Bowl. Not only that, but James “Fly Sweep” Rodgers joined brother Jacquizz on the bench. James has a broken collarbone and is probably out for the bowl game. One bright moment for OSU: This sign.

Almost as big — Gonzaga served early season notice that they are genuine Final Four contenders, decisively dispatching Oklahoma State, Maryland and Tennessee to win the Old Spice Classic. My thoughts on the Maryland win are here.

The Blazers had maybe their best sustained stretch of basketball in a decade, thumping Miami 106-68 on Wednesday night, soundly beating New Orleans Friday, and winning at Detroit Sunday afternoon. Almost through a hellacious stretch of 24 games that most people thought the Blazers would be lucky to get through at .500, the team is 12-6 and leading the Northwest Division. According to stat guru John Hollinger’s power rankings, the Blazers are among the four best teams in the league. Amazing. Meanwhile, there’s a rumored trade that would send Travis Outlaw and some folks to Memphis for Mike Conley and some folks, reuniting Conley and Oden. Not coincidentally, Martell Webster is due back from foot surgery this week or next.

And a milestone that I hope we’ll look back on as the start of something big — Seattle U’s men’s hoops team got their first win as DI program against a DI opponent in 28 years. The Redhawks upset Louisiana Tech 61-46. Austen Powers (yup, and I’m sure he’s heard every awful joke you can imagine) led Seattle U with 16 points.

In other hoops:

The Huskies got a nice win against Pacific.

The Cougs beat their first legit opponent of the season, Mississippi State, in the Legends Classic semis, but then got dominated by undefeated, #4-ranked Pitt in the finals. Still — it’s pretty clear that the Cougs will be much better than expected. Looking for a dark cloud? Howie Stalwick writes that Taylor Rochestie is more turnover-prone since the loss of Weaver and Low.

Oregon finished the Maui Invitational 1-2, beating Alabama but losing big to UNC and Texas. No shame in that.

Hooray for Oregon State — they got their first win of the season, breaking a 25-game losing streak, when they beat Fresno St. 62-54. The Beavers got 12 bench points in 22 minutes from soph. guard Lathen Wallace. Perhaps of note to Seattle prep ball fans — Beach product Mychal Ladd started for Fresno St., he’s averaging double figures for the Bulldogs as a freshman.

Football:

The Seahawks let the whole nation down by failing to compete with Dallas on Thanksgiving. No, we weren’t as bad as the Lions, but we weren’t that much better. Walter Jones had his worst game in recent memory, allowing two sacks by DeMarcus Ware.

The Wazzu football team ended their season with a 24-10 loss to Hawaii. The Cougs finish 2-11, and check this out from the AP game story: “Washington State’s entire season was summed in one play in the fourth quarter. After blocking a 47-yard field-goal attempt, Devin Giles picked up the ball, danced around, broke the grasp of a tackler, backpeddled, danced around some more before pitching it to Chima Nwachukwu, who fumbled in front of the Cougars coach Paul Wulff.” Eep.

Fresno State’s Pat Hill interviewed for the Husky head football spot, news that appears to be underwhelming Husky fans. Here’s what Hill told Fresno reporters about the experience, via Bob Condotta of the Seattle Times: “They talked about their goals, their expectations, the facilities they’re going to build and the things they’re going to do to put Washington back on the map amongst the best teams in America. That’s what they want to do. They asked me about what my blueprint for success was, what my expectations and goals were. And in the end, I’ll say this — whoever accepts that job is going to have a great challenge but a great opportunity to be successful.”

Cincinnati coach Brian Kelly is also a candidate — his agent has spoken to UW, but he won’t visit this week, writes Molly Yanity.

The 4A state championship football game will be a rematch between Skyline and Issaquah. The 3A battle will be between Union (Vancouver), just two years old as a school, and whoever wins a game tonight between Bellevue and Capital in Lakewood. That game was postponed after Bellevue High’s bus overturned on I-5 on the way to the game.

The University of Washington women volleyballers are seeded #5 among the 16 seeded teams in the 64-team NCAA tourney. The Dawgs will host the first- and second-round games this Friday and Saturday, and the regionals after that (whether they advance or not). They play Portland St. in the first round, and would face the Santa Clara/Kansas St. winner if they win. In the regional, they could face #4-seeded Nebraska, whom they beat in ‘05 to win the national title.

Oregon is a #11-seed in the same tournament, they’ll play Delaware in the first round in Washington D.C.