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There's a mixed bag of athletic results for Wazzu fans this past Sunday. Let's begin with frustration and move on from there...
WSU men's hoops (14-12,7-8 Pac-12) completed their LA trip with a contest against No. 17 USC (23-4,12-4 Pac-12) early Sunday evening. Rebounding from a lackluster performance against UCLA, the Cougs played up to their potential this time out. Boogie Ellis hit a 16-foot jumper for the Trojans from the foul line with 0.2 seconds left to give USC a 62-60 comeback victory. Wazzu led the contest for at least 35-minutes of regulation play.
Washington State scored eight straight points to take a 46-38 lead with 12:33 remaining. The Cougars were still up 57-51 with five minutes remaining before the Trojans ran off six straight to tie it. From there the lead bounced back and forth.
Oddly, the Cougs lost this one due to their inability to score 2-point buckets. WSU was nearly 50% from behind the arc, going 15 for 31. The lax perimeter defense by the Trojans left many Cougs as open as if they were taking warmups before the game.
For the first time in about six weeks, Dishon Jackson saw playing time after being sidelined with an eye injury. Donning protective goggles, Jackson looked incredibly sharp working inside the paint. He definitely made a difference for the Cougar defense.
Ten of the Cougars' losses this season have been by five points or less. They have dropped 12 straight against the Trojans with the last win coming in 2015 at USC Galen Center.
Next up for the Cougs is a matchup against cross-state rival Washington this coming Wednesday at 8pm. The game will be broadcast on ESPNU. -
The highlight of the weekend for Wazzu Nation was the outstanding performance by women's hoops on Senior Night in Beasley Coliseum. The Cougs clearly could care less about all the hype surrounding Arizona and their national ranking at No. 7. The Cougs (18-8,10-5 Pac-12) played four quarters of solid basketball to earn a conference win over the 'Cats (19-5,9-5 Pac-12), by a final of 72-67.
WSU trailed the Wildcats at the half, 33-31, but Cougars quickly reclaimed a lead, as they opened the third with back-to-back baskets from Bella Murekatete to take a 35-33 lead. Arizona pulled even at 41-41 with 3:37 left to play in the third before Washington State would go on a 9-4 run to close out the frame and take a five-point lead into the fourth quarter. Washington State never trailed in the final stanza, as the Cougars picked up their fourth win over a Top-10 program under head coach Kamie Ethridge.
The last point bears repeating for the biased folks at Pac-12 Network. It's WSU that has four wins over Top 10 opponents, not the Wildcats. It's also the Cougs who have earned ten conference wins this season, not the Wildcats. Only foolish blowhards deny that Washington State is a very good basketball club.
Coach Kamie Ethridge had this to say after the win:
"Big, big win for us. This is a resume-building kind of win. I thought our team responded. They started the game great. We handled their pressure well and got them out of their system. I loved our second-half performance and how we came out and got a lead and kept it. It shows that our team is continuing to morph into whatever we need them to be to succeed. I'm thrilled for this team. Thrilled for these seniors. This was a huge day for them and I'm proud of what they have accomplished here."
Next up for women's hoops is a trip to Stanford on Thursday for a 8pm tipoff. Sadly, the game will be broadcast on the Pac-12 Network.
https://wsucougars.com/news/2022/2/20/womens-basketball-cougs-stun-no-8-7-arizona-on-senior-day-in-beasley.aspx -
The Pac-12 Conference named Washington State women's basketball junior Johanna Teder the Pac-12 Player of the Week Monday, Feb. 21, for the week ending on Feb. 20. It is the first time in her career that she has been named Pac-12 Player of the Week.
The 5'8" guard from Tartu, Estonia averaged 20.5 points, 3 assists and 2 steals per game last week to help Washington State pick up wins over
Arizona State and No. 8/7 Arizona. Teder shot a blistering 58.3 percent from the field last weekend, as she connected on 14 of her 24 attempts from the field. The guard was even better from behind the arc, as she hit a scorching-hot 64.3 percent on 3-point field goals. Teder hit a total of nine 3-point field goals in the pair of wins over the Sun Devils and Wildcats. -
Turning to baseball, Washington State dropped a 6-3 decision to Hawaii at Les Murakami Stadium Sunday afternoon.
The Cougars (2-1) were led by Bryce Matthews' career-high three hits including a pair of doubles but WSU left nine runners on base throughout the afternoon. Just three games into this season, stranding runners could be a problem for this team.
Hawaii (1-2) tallied nine hits and used a four-run first inning to hand the Cougars their first loss. Wazzu had their opportunities to climb back into the game, but they didn't execute timely hitting.
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 ...
