THE CHEAP SEATS with STEVE CAMERON: High hopes at WSU; misery at U-Dub

It’s notes and quotes day, kids, but not before I share a valuable tip about international travel.

This is the sort of advice that could save you time, money, aggravation and, well …

It might just save you from a beating.

Really.
 The next time you’re in France, and maybe hanging around the world-renowned Paris-St. Germain soccer team, take a taxi back to your hotel.

I’m not kidding here.

Strange as it seems, you have to turn down that offer of a ride from Amanita Diallo, midfielder for the European power PSG women’s team.

The last person to accept a lift from Diallo was teammate Kheira Hamraoui, who was dragged out of the car by a group of masked men and had her legs hammered and thrashed with iron rods.

Diallo is now in custody, accused of going full Tonya Harding — arranging for someone to disable her rival for a spot in the PSG midfield.

Hamraoui is bruised and sore, but no bones were broken and she should eventually return to her starting position.

With all the money being poured into women’s soccer throughout Europe these days, this was a big deal.

At least, Diallo thought so.

She may have time to ponder it during a prison sentence.

ITEM: Just in case you spend a little too much time staring toward Spokane, Gonzaga might not have the only exciting Division I hoops team in the neighborhood.

Now that we’ve reached Kyle Smith’s third year running the program, Washington State has the locals as optimistic as they’ve been since there was a Bennett on the sidelines.

The Cougs, who play Seattle tonight (7 p.m., Beasley Coliseum), opened the season with an easy 85-67 victory over Alcorn State on Tuesday afternoon.

The big story, really, was that star guard Noah Williams hit just one of seven shots, and center Dishon Jackson managed just a single bucket.

But the newcomers?

Oh, boy!

Cat-quick point guard Tyrell Roberts, the transfer from Division II UC San Diego, hit four 3-balls and scored 16 points overall.

Michael Flowers, who migrated from South Alabama, couldn’t really find his shooting stroke (nine points), but the 6-1 guard grabbed 11 rebounds and dealt out six assists.

The 6-11 freshman, Mouhamed Gueye, played limited minutes, but you can see why Smith is so high on his young post player — the kid is smooth.

And finally, we got to see Jefferson Koulibaly, the Canadian recruit who missed his entire freshman year with a shoulder injury that required surgery.

Koulibaly looked right at home (13 points), and Smith was thrilled.

“It really goes back to recruiting,” Smith said. “We needed more guards. We knew we were thin last year and that’s where Jefferson was an important piece.

“And you have a little taste after today that it would have been nice to have some more quickness in the backcourt last year."

ITEM: Yup, the Washington football program is in a bit of disarray.

Coach Jimmy Lake is suspended for a game after whacking one of his own players, and last week’s 26-16 loss at home to Oregon nearly turned into an all-out brawl after the final whistle.

Oh, and don’t forget Lake’s staggering statement that the Huskies don’t have a recruiting rivalry with Oregon because they fight it out with universities (Stanford, USC, Notre Dame) that have more “academic prowess.”

Lake surely is a dead coach walking.

Meanwhile, though, U-Dub fans who thought they could forget all that messiness with a turn to basketball, um …

They’re off to miserable start, too.

Washington finished 4-16 in the Pac-12 last year, and boss Mike Hopkins promised a turnaround.

Instead, the Dogs opened the season with a 71-64 loss at home to Northern Illinois — a team that went 3-16 and finished last in the MAC a year ago.

Here’s a number you may NEVER see again…

UW’s Terrell Brown Jr., a transfer from Arizona, made nine field goals on 24 attempts.

But if Brown had missed the bus (or stayed in Tucson), the Huskies, who went 20 for 75 from the floor, would have had fewer shots go through the hoop (11) than they had blocked (14).

It’s not like they were facing Chet Holmgren, either.

Seven different NIU players had at least one block.

Washington, which visits the Kennel for a Sunday afternoon waltz with Gonzaga on Dec. 12, clearly needs a shot of something.

It probably won’t be confidence, not when one writer at the Pac-12 media day picked U-Dub to finish 13th in the 12-team conference.

“I’ve never seen that before,” Hopkins said, without so much as a chuckle.

Well, how about 14 blocked shots, Coach?

There’s a LOT happening on Montlake that we’ve never seen before.

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Steve Cameron’s “Cheap Seats” columns appear in The Press on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.

He also writes Zags Tracker, a commentary on Gonzaga basketball which is published weekly during the season.