• It happened again last night. WSU men's basketball (7-4, 1-1) lost a game they should have won. With the scoreboard reading NMSU 64 - WSU 61 and precious seconds left, Noah Williams hoisted a shot from behind the arc which clanked off the side of the rim. The buzzer sounded and stunned fans felt the agony of defeat one more time. Sure, the Cougs played better than their loss to SDSU, but they didn't have enough firepower to put the visitors away. One might suggest that Wazzu has had enough lessons on how to come close to winning as a team. It's time to realize their potential. Sure, Coach Kyle Smith was missed a couple of key players, Tyrell Roberts and Jefferson Koulibaly. In a team sport, it's going to happen that someone is hurt, ill, or just having an off-night. Good teams have players step up. This is another lesson Smith has to impart with his group. Once again the Cougs out-rebounded their opponent. However, that stat was fueled by a team that struggled to make buckets. WSU shot an abysmal 33.3% from the field. That wasn't good enough to beat NMSU and it probably won't earn them many victories in conference play. It certainly was the main reason Wazzu let a 13-point halftime lead slip through their fingers. Hopefully, lessons have been learned to facilitate this team playing up to their potential. Make no mistake, this WSU roster is loaded with talent. If they can mesh as a team unit, the sky is the limit. Here's a link to more details from last night's game:
  https://wsucougars.com/news/2021/12/15/mens-basketball-game-tying-three-off-the-mark-as-wsu-falls-to-new-mexico-state.aspx

• At the conclusion of the first day for student-athletes to sign a letter of intent, Wazzu has 10 new players added to their roster. Does ten sound like a little or a lot? It's less than usual, but totally expected. Coach Jake Dickert was named the head man a little over a week ago. Dickert did well to keep the verbal commits he did. In fact, he only had one flip at the last moment. That fact is balanced by Dickert flipping an Oregon commit, TE Andre Dollar, at the last moment. There might be a couple of guys signing in the next few days, but don't count on it. Since most of the coaching staff will be different faces from the current staff, parents and their kids will want to get to know who's who. In terms of comparing the signing day additions to the rest of the conference, WSU will be ranked near the bottom. No surprise there. That's long been the case. Certainly, there will be at least 14-15 more scholarships granted between now and the first week in February. Perhaps the most interesting thing to look for in recruiting will be how many players come through the transfer portal. My guess is there won't be many because of the new coaching staff. And it's a relatively young staff at that. With the departure of Woods and Rogers at linebacker, one of the guys to watch for is Taariq Al-Uqdah. How good might this kid be? We don't know yet, but USC made a late run at getting him to play for the Trojans. Reports are that he should remind Cougar fans of Woods. That's pretty high praise. And if you're looking for one very noticeable difference in this class from those of Mike Leach and Nick Rolovich, here it is. Of the ten guys who signed, five of them are from the state of Washington. That's a huge change. What isn't a change is the fact all ten players are rated 3-stars. That's long been the typical case for Wazzu recruiting. When analyzing all this recruiting stuff, it's best to wait to see who arrives in Pullman and then develops into a Pac-12 player.

Go Cougs!!!