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WSU women's hoops (10-6,2-3 Pac-12) played very solid basketball for three quarters on Sunday. The final quarter was all UCLA (7-4,2-1 Pac-12) as they pulled away for a conference victory by a final score of 71-58. Some would suggest it was the curse of Pauley Pavilion that did in the Cougs. Fact is, Wazzu is o'fer Pauley. That's right. WSU women have never won a game on Wooden Court. The way Coach Kamey Ethridge's squad played for the first thirty minutes had Cougar Nation thinking this game would go crimson and gray. WSU trailed at the half 28-24 despite missing a handful of layups. At the end of the third quarter, UCLA was up by a lone bucket 49-47. Given the fact that the Bruins only had seven players suited up on the bench, it appeared this game was the Cougs to take. The combination of missing shots and turnovers sealed their fate. Coach Ethridge offered this view of the contest:
"I love the way we started the game. I thought we had great energy. We had a quick start and then it dried up fast. We lost some steam and got into foul trouble. We had to go with a small lineup and never regained our momentum on the offensive end. Again, we have to work on that smaller lineup and make sure we are getting what we want out of that. UCLA is tough and gritty. They bounced back and the ultimate separation tonight was the fourth quarter."
Sophomore Charlisse Leger-Walker scored a team-high 24 points and played the entire 40-minutes. There were stretches during the game where it's easy to suspect her missed shots were a matter of fatigue rather than anything else.
The Cougs return to Pullman, regroup and host Oregon State this coming Friday, January 21 at 7pm PST.
https://wsucougars.com/news/2022/1/16/womens-basketball-cougs-knocked-off-by-bruins-on-sunday.aspx -
Cougar football lost another player over the weekend. Defensive tackle Dallas Hobbs will not use his final year of eligibility to play college ball. Hobbs was a key component in the DT rotation the last two seasons. What does the future hold for him? Reports have Hobbs being a part-owner of a soon-to-open craft brewery in Spokane. With his retirement, WSU still has four defensive tackles returning from last year's roster and have a highly touted transfer, Nusi Malani, coming in from Virginia.
And for those tracking Coug transfers, receiver Billy Pospisil III, who entered his name into the NCAA’s transfer portal early last week, committed to Division II Colorado School of Mines on Saturday.
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 ...
