Allow me to take up a little bit of space on the front page for a little shameless plug. I've started a Pac-10 basketball podcast called 18 and Life, and I thought some of you might be interested. My co-host is Seth Kolloen, a freelance writer in the Seattle area who also is the west coast editor at Storming The Floor, an excellent national college basketball blog. We're both just college basketball junkies who wanted yet another outlet for talking hoops.

Seth's a Husky fan, but don't let that stop you from listening. We decided to collaborate on this because we bring different perspectives to the table, and the contrast in styles -- I'm a bit more statistically oriented than he is, he's a lot funnier than me, etc. -- should make for a lot of good episodes going forward. We think it's pretty good for our first time, and our chemistry will grow as we spend more time talking together (as our CougCenter podcast has).

In this first episode, we talk about why this should be the most exciting Pac-10 race in years, whether Ernie Kent should be on the hot seat, who the favorites are for player of the year, and more. There's a little something in there for every Pac-10 fan.

If you want to listen to the first episode, you can do so via the player below. This is the only time I'll put it on our front page; after this, I'll probably just drop a note in the FanShots. If you're interested in subscribing, or just want to set a bookmark, you can find our home page here. You can also follow us via Twitter @18andLIFEhoops. We're not in the iTunes directory yet, but hope to be soon. If you want to manually add the feed, it's http://eighteenandlife.podbean.com/feed.

And if you like it, do us a favor and spread the word.