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WSU women's hoops (12-6,4-3 Pac-12) needed an extra five minutes of play to take down the UW Dawgs (5-8,0-5 Pac-12) last night in Pullman. At the end of overtime, the scoreboard read WSU 60-UW 56. WSU has now won four-straight games over UW for the first time in the NCAA era. A Wazzu win over the Dawgs is always sweet, but it's just a little sweeter when they keep their rival winless in conference play.
As usual, it was sophomore Charlisse Leger-Walker leading the way in scoring for Washington State. She was held in check in the first half managing just three points. Leger-Walker poured in fifteen after intermission to help her team earn another victory. Her sister, Krystal Leger-Walker, added 14-points and played all 45-minutes of the game. Johanna Teder was the only other Coug to reach double-digits in scoring by tallying 10-points. Teder also played the entire 45-minutes.
Coach Kamie Ethridge had this to say after the game: "Washington is a very difficult team to scout in one day, with the action that they run. I think we are really fortunate to come away with a win. We found some ways to win the game late. I'm excited for our team and I'm excited just to pull this out. There is a lot of positives that we can take from it, with the knowledge that we have to be better on Sunday."
WSU will travel to Seattle today to face Washington again on their home court. Tipoff is scheduled for 12:00noon Sunday and will be telecast on the Pac-12 Network.
https://wsucougars.com/news/2022/1/28/womens-basketball-cougs-collect-comeback-win-in-ot-against-the-huskies.aspx -
Coach Jake Dickert reportedly has filled out his coaching staff with the hiring of Ray Brown. Last season Brown coached the Utah State cornerbacks and will handle the same responsibilities for WSU. This will be a return performance for Brown. He was a graduate assistant under Mike Leach and mentored NFL first-round draft pick Deone Buchannon.
Utah State finished the year ranked first in fourth-down defense, 14th in takeaways, and in the top 50 in scoring defense, red-zone defense, and first-down defense making them one of the best defensive teams among Power Five schools.
Brown replaces Jordan Malone, who will presumably take over the Cougars’ safeties/nickels. Malone had supervised WSU’s cornerbacks on an interim basis throughout the second half of last season. -
If you have a moment, read this story posted by Cougfan.com about Aron Baynes. It's a shocker. Here's the link: https://247sports.com/college/washington-state/Article/Aron-Baynes-NBA-WSU-basketball-The-mysterious-fall-and-harrowing-story-of-center-181634350/
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 ...
