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WSU men's hoops took to the court again yesterday and emerged with a win, 73-65 over Big West opponent UC Santa Barbara. The stats can be somewhat deceiving in that Coach Kyle Smith and his staff are still working on finding ways to put their guys in positions to be successful. No question about who was the Player-Of-The-Game for the Cougs. Efe Abogidi turned in a stellar performance. He filled up the stat sheet by shooting 6 of 7 from the field, 6 of 7 from the free-throw line, blocked six shots while intimidating Santa Barbara from driving to the bucket. Here's a link to more on the win:
https://wsucougars.com/news/2021/11/15/mens-basketball-abogidi-leads-washington-state-past-uc-santa-barbara-73-65.aspx
POSTGAME NOTES
• With the victory, the Cougars:
o Improved to 2-2 against the Gauchos all-time, both wins coming at home in Pullman and the first
since 1984.
o The win was the Cougs’ 16th consecutive non-conference win and 15th consecutive home non-conference win.
• Four Cougs reached double-figures for the second-straight game led by Efe Abogidi’s 18.
o Abogidi’s 18 was his first double-digit scoring game since scoring 14 vs Stanford on Feb. 20 last season. He was one point shy of his career-high of 19 points.
o Tyrell Roberts scored 11 points, his third-straight game in double-figures to start his WSU career.
The 11 points were scored all in the first half, his second half with 10+ points in as many games.
o Noah Williams scored 13 points, his second-straight game in double-figures and 30th of his career.
o Michael Flowers scored 11 points, his first double-digit game at WSU.
Flowers added four rebounds and five assists.
• Efe Abogidi posted a career-best 6 blocks, the most in a game for a Coug since Valentine Izundu's 6 vs
Idaho State (11/20/15)
o He posted a multi-block game for the 3rd time on the year and 12th time in his career
o Abogidi added 8 rebounds, a season-high.
• Mouhamed Gueye finished with 8 points and a team-best 9 rebounds.
o Gueye led the team in rebounding for the first time in his career.
• Efe Abogidi was back in the starting lineup after seeing coming off the bench for the first time in his
career in the season opener.
o Abogidi tied a career-high with four blocks in the game, the third time he has done so in his career.
• The Cougs blocked seven shots in the game for the second-straight contest, it was the most since blocking 8
against IUPUI Dec. 16, 2017.
• The seven steals were a season-high including six in the first half, the most in a half since nabbing 6 against
Stanford Feb. 20 last season -
Here's a story that should give Coug fans a chuckle. When the UW decided to fire their head coach Jimmy Lake sooner rather than later, the official expert predictions have begun in earnest. Just about a week ago, there was a headline almost identical to this story with one small difference. The candidates mentioned were connected to the head coaching job at Washington State. What? Check it out:
https://www.cbssports.com/college-football/news/washington-coaching-search-joe-moorhead-jay-norvell-among-top-candidates-to-replace-jimmy-lake/ -
Staying with the topic of Cougar football, here's a couple of nice previews of what Friday Night's game might look like:
https://www.khq.com/sports/washington_state_university/first-look/article_9c332ed6-8ebf-58a9-b1ed-8767bbdb7c17.html
https://247sports.com/college/washington-state/Article/WSU-vs-Arizona-The-Early-Glimpse-with-Will-Derting-175131940/
Go Cougs!!!
- It seems fitting to put together a list of coaches who branch off of the Mike Leach coaching tree. Perspective on his football genius can easily be determined by a cursory glance:
Dave Aranda/Baylor head coach – Graduate assistant coach under Leach from 2000-02 at Texas Tech
Neal Brown/West Virginia head coach – Played under Leach in 1998 when Leach was offensive coordinator at Kentucky
Sonny Cumbie/Louisiana Tech head coach – Played under Leach at Texas Tech from 2000-03 and later served as a graduate assistant coach under Leach
Sonny Dykes/TCU head coach – Coached wide receivers and later was the co-offensive coordinator at Texas Tech under Leach from 2000-06
Josh Heupel/Tennessee head coach – Played under Leach at Oklahoma in 1999 when Leach was the offensive coordinator for the Sooners
Dana Holgorsen/Houston head coach – Coached alongside Leach as assistants at Valdosta State from 1993-95, then served as a wide receivers coach and offensive coordinator under Leach from ...
- The news of former WSU Coach Mike Leach passing at the young age of 61 is very, very sad. I had the pleasure of writing about the Cougs when Leach was at the helm. To say that he was a unique person doesn't begin to describe the multi-faceted dimension of the man.
In terms of coaching football, Leach led his teams in a way that had most other coaches scratching their heads. His offensive creativity gave a multitude of defensive coordinators ulcers. To say that his techniques for molding student-athletes into football players were unusual would be accurate. Making guys run sprints in a sand pit named "Leach Beach" is a prime example. Crazy as that sounds, his players had fewer ankle injuries over the course of the season than any team in football. Only Mike Leach could get players to hit the beach. And if you look at the coaching tree that branches out from Leach, you'd find a myriad of men who owe him for their start in the profession.
When you examine the way Leach represented the schools ...
- Close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades, so Wazzu's loss yesterday to UNLV by a score of 74-70 was just that, a loss. However, there were plenty of reasons to applaud both the performance and the progress the Cougs are making over the past few games. Let's get the bad observation out of the way. WSU turned the ball over a ridiculous 22 times. No one is going to beat many teams with such wreckless play, especially against a team that posted a 9-0 record going into the contest. Some of those errors might be attributed to Coach Kyle Smith going with a different lineup almost every game because of player injuries. Facts are facts and when there isn't a steady lineup, players struggle to play team ball. On the bright side, Wazzu shot a respectable 54.2% from the field, coupled with a very nice 56.5% from behind the arc. On defense, WSU held UNLV to just 30.4% from behind the arc and 50.9% overall. The Cougs outrebounded the Rebels by a margin of 33-20. Despite being down by ...
