Notes from around the Pacific 10 Conference while keeping in mind that the Big East placed five teams in The Associated Press Top 25 and the Pac-10, with six teams with 10 or more wins, had just three teams in the poll - UA at No. 13, UCLA at 15th, and Cal, which snuck in at 25th:

Just one of the Fowlkes: Off to their best conference start in 32 years, the California Golden Bears (10-4 overall, 5-1 in the Pac-10) will get a late Christmas present in the form of Tremaine Fowlkes.

Fowlkes, a 6-foot-7, 210-pound forward who was last season's Pac-10 freshman of the year, sat out the first 14 games of the season while serving an NCAA-imposed suspension for improprieties involving the use of a car. He was originally suspended for the season, but the sentence was cut in half upon appeal.

Though he led the team in rebounding last season with 6.7 a game and averaged 13.4 points, Fowlkes joins a team that already has four players in double figures in scoring, including freshman forward Sharif Abdul-Rahim, who leads the conference in scoring with 23.3 points per game.

Golden Bear coach Todd Bozeman said he does not think Fowlkes' presence will disrupt the team.

"I think we can be a special team because we're getting everybody back," he said. "I feel good about getting Tre back, because there's always room for improvement."

While it's still questionable whether Fowlkes will start, his return comes just in time - the Golden Bears travel this weekend to the Washington schools, which are always tough at home.

That ol' Husky magic: Speaking of the Washington schools, UW must now be considered as a legitimate contender after its 85-71 thrashing of rival Washington State on Sunday. Husky head coach Bob Bender said before the season began that this year was crucial for Washington to establish itself as a team to be reckoned with.

Washington, which went just 9-18 and 5-13 in the conference last season, has jumped out to a 10-4 record, 3-2 in the conference. The Huskies are 7-1 at home this season, with their only loss a 78-70 defeat to UCLA.

On the other side of the state, Washington State coach Kevin Eastman is struggling to figure out how to stop the slide. His Cougars (8-5, 1-4) were picked as one of the favorites in the conference this season, but with the loss of forward Mark Hendrickson, an All-Pac-10 selection, to a broken hand seven games into the season, the team has struggled.

After the loss to the Huskies, who led by as many as 27 points in the second half, Eastman kept the team in the locker room for 55 minutes after the game, causing him to miss his postgame radio show.

"We weren't yelling or screaming," Eastman said about the team's meeting. "There were just some things we needed to talk about, some things that had to be discussed among ourselves. We have to become accountable."

Facing the Bay Area schools this week won't make it easy for the Cougars to stop the bleeding. Not only is Cal tied for first, but Stanford sits in second at 10-4, 4-2.

And the beat(ings) go on: How much worse can it get for Arizona State?

After losing to Southern Cal 80-67 last Thursday, their sixth straight loss, the Sun Devils (5-8, 0-5) find themselves in last place in the conference. Even patsy Oregon State (3-11) has managed to pick up a win in the conference, albeit against five losses.

ASU head coach Bill Frieder said he had a feeling this would be a tough season after the departure of Mario Bennett to the NBA, but even this was beyond his realm of possibilities. After all, last season the Sun Devils finished 24-9 and made it to the Sweet Sixteen.

"I didn't envision it was going to be this bad," Frieder said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.