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SPOKANE, Wash. -- Slow starts have bedeviled No. 25 Washington State this season, and the Cougars are seeking to avoid that Saturday against downtrodden Arizona.Washington State fell behind 24-6 at halftime at Oregon State last weekend before rallying for a 35-31 win that lifted them into the Top 25 for the first time since last year.Slow starts were a big factor during the Cougars two losses this year, to FCS Eastern Washington and at No. 24 Boise State.Weve got to get off to a fast start, quarterback Luke Falk insisted this week.We definitely dont want to come out tight, receiver Robert Lewis said. Weve just got to come out on fire.Washington State (6-2, 5-0 Pac-12) has won six in a row and along with No. 4 Washington remained the only team with an undefeated Pac-12 record.The Cougars are more than two-touchdown favorites over Arizona (2-6, 0-5) which has lost five games in a row.Linebacker Isaac Dotson said the slow start at Oregon State was the result of a couple of missed assignments, which he called little things.It looked a lot worse than it was, Dotson said. We got those fixed.Meanwhile, struggling Arizona has played both Brandon Dawkins and Anu Solomon at quarterback, and coach Rich Rodriguez has declined to say who will start on Saturday.Were evaluating them throughout practice, Rodriguez said. I may make a decision five minutes before kickoff, or maybe two days before.A loss would virtually eliminate the Wildcats from playing in a bowl game this season.If we want to go to a bowl, we have to win out, Rodriguez said. But I dont want to increase pressure.One athlete who is playing well for Arizona is sophomore safety Demetrius Flannigan-Fowles, who leads the team with 51 tackles and has two interceptions. He played last year as a freshman.We knew hed have a good year, Rodriguez said. Hes bigger and stronger. His future is even better.Rodriguez said Washington State is playing with a lot of confidence, and he was asked how to instill that in the Wildcats.It comes from winning, Rodriguez said.Here are some things to watch:FALKS FUTURE: Published reports earlier this week indicated Falk had decided to forego his senior year and declare for the NFL after this season. Falk denied that was the case and said speculation about his future is noise that must be blocked out. Im really focused on preparing for Arizona right now, Falk said. I dont want to answer any more questions about that.STOPPING THE RUN: Washington State has the Pac-12s No. 1 rushing defense, holding opponents to an average of 113.9 yards per game.BOWL ELIGIBLE: Leach was asked about the Cougars becoming bowl eligible for the second consecutive season with the win over Oregon State. Were mostly interested in winning this next game, he said.MARKS MAN: Washington State receiver Gabe Marks needs 12 catches to become the leading receiver in Pac-12 history with 295 career receptions. Nelson Spruce of Colorado currently holds the record of 294. He always wants the ball, Leach said of Marks. We need him to catch a bunch more.PASSING FANCY: Arizonas quarterbacks combined to complete just 5 of 18 passes in last weekends loss to Stanford. Rodriguez came to their defense this week. Thats the hardest position to play in sports, period, he said. 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SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. -- New York Mets general manager Sandy Alderson described team officials as extremely disappointed and shocked by last weeks arrest of closer Jeurys Familia on a domestic-violence charge.Alderson added that while he preferred not to dwell on the on-field ramifications at this point, setup man Addison Reed likely would serve as the closer if Familia were required to serve an MLB-imposed suspension.Familia was arrested by Fort Lee, New Jersey, police last Monday after allegedly causing a scratch to the chest and a bruise to the right cheek of an unnamed person, whose name was redacted from the official complaint. The complaint further stated that officer Tony Pickens found probable cause to believe that domestic violence had occurred. Familia was charged with simple assault.Obviously we were extremely disappointed and frankly shocked at the allegations, Alderson said Monday, shortly after arriving at the GM meetings that kick off the hot-stove season. Of course, he hasnt had a hearing yet. So the facts are to be determined. Its not just an unfortunate situation, but a sad one for him and his family.Now, secondarily, well have to think about what impact it will have. I dont think its fully sunk in yet as to whats the impact -- simply because its not clear what exactly happened and how that will impact his availability. Not that we havent thought about it, but its not the thing that was top of mind when we heard about it. We still dont know a lot about what transpired.Alderson said the Mets do not have any information beyond the official police report. While Familia has communicated with the organization, he has not directly spoken with Alderson, according to the GM.We dont have a handle on it, Alderson said.With right-hander Fernando Salas and left-hander Jerry Blevins now free agents, Alderson noted the Mets were in the market for relieef help even before Familias arrest.dddddddddddd After being acquired from the Angels on Aug. 31, Salas served in a seventh-inning role, leading into Reed. Blevins served as the primary lefty specialist.Alderson said the potential loss of Familias services for a portion of the 2017 season does not materially change the Mets pursuit of late-inning relief help. Nor does it increase the likelihood of acquiring high-end arms.It would have been a lower-tier player, Alderson said. Would it be something higher than that at this point? Probably not. Alderson added that Robert Gsellman and Seth Lugos emergences as dependable rookies in 2016 provide a safety net for the bullpen, especially if Matt Harvey, Jacob deGrom, Noah Syndergaard, Steven Matz and Zack Wheeler are all healthy and the rotation is full -- admittedly a big if.I think we were inclined to look at some additional late-inning help before this incident occurred, Alderson said. The last two years weve gone out and got somebody in late August and its been helpful [Reed in 2015 from the Diamondbacks, Salas in 2016]. Youd like to be able to do that early on. The difficulty with going out and finding someone, unless theyre absolute blue chip, is youre not always sure year to year how theyre going to perform. So its in some ways a little easier to predict that when youre picking them up in late July or late August. You have a little bit of a track record. Even if that track record isnt uniformly positive, theres some trend lines and things you can look at.But, yes, we intended to look at our bullpen even before this incident. I might add, this is where a Gsellman or a Lugo might prove to be very valuable to us going into next season even if theyre not in the starting rotation. ' ' '