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It appears to have taken twelve games to get there, but WSU men's hoops (8-4, 1-1) looked the part of a very good basketball team in their win over Northern Colorado (6-7, 2-0 Big Sky) Saturday afternoon in Pullman. The Cougs tallied a win by the final score of 82-56. There was a big improvement in Wazzu's overall play. That is to say, when a player is injured or just having a bad game, someone steps up to fill that void. DJ Rodman was the man for that role against NCU. He was white-hot shooting from behind the arc going 6-11. Rodman set a career mark in scoring by totaling 21-points on the game to lead all scorers. Though he was only on the floor for 24-minutes, it seemed DJ was everywhere. Then again, that's his style of play. Constant hustle. Thanks to the inspiring play of Rodman, there was a balanced scoring contribution from his teammates. Micheal Flowers turned in another impressive effort adding 16-points on 5-7 shooting. Efe Abogidi was very efficient from the floor going 4-5 while adding 12-points to the scoreboard. The usually steady play from Noah Williams was absent once again. He was a horrible 3-13 shooting and finished below his season average with just 11-points. The Cougar defense rose to the occasion. NCU is a very talented offensive team. The WSU D stymied their opponent into shooting just 32.1% from the field. Most importantly, Wazzu seemed to have learned from their previous mistakes by taking away the strength of an opponent. NCU is a 40% shooting team from behind the 3-point line yet they could only can 28.1% of their attempts against WSU. By limiting good looks from downtown, Wazzu took away the heart and soul of Northern Colorado. Another factor was Daylen Kountz, who averages over 20-points a game, went out midway through the first half with an ankle issue of some sort. Here's your link for more details:
https://wsucougars.com/news/2021/12/18/mens-basketball-rodmans-career-highs-send-washington-st-past-n-colorado.aspx -
Wazzu women's basketball (8-2, 0-0) saw their four-game winning streak halted by No. 20 BYU by the score of 71-53. This was a pretty close game until the fourth quarter when the Cougs ran out of gas. The formula for BYU was simple. Dominate the paint to earn the win. That's just what they did. Sophomore Charlisse Leger-Walker led the way for the lady Cougs with a game-high 21-points. Senior Ula Motuga recorded her first double-double of the season filling up the stat sheet with 12-points and 10-rebounds. But it was Wazzu's failure to get any scoring inside that not only led to a low 26.7% shooting from the field, but ultimately it paved the way for a BYU win. "I thought we got beat by a really good team. I thought we were as inconsistent as we have been for a long time. They killed us in the paint. We got two points in the paint today and they got 40. I think in a nutshell, the team that was more aggressive, the team that was more physical and the team that attacked the rim better won the game," said Coach Kamie Ethridge after the game. For more details, here's your link:
https://wsucougars.com/news/2021/12/18/womens-basketball-cougs-fall-at-byu.aspx
- 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 ...
