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March 14, 2022
Wazzu News and Notes - March 14, 2022
- Let's begin with Wazzu baseball (8-7, 1-2 Pac-12) salvaging the final game of a three-game series with No. 4 Oregon State (11-2, 2-1 Pac-12). Trailing 8-7 going into the bottom of the ninth, WSU first baseman Bryce Matthews pulled a 2-1 count RBI-single through the right side for a walk-off 9-8 win over the Beavers in front of 1,056 fans at Bailey-Brayton Field Sunday afternoon. In so doing, the Cougs recorded their first win over a Top-5 ranked team since beating No. 5 Washington in 2014.
The Cougars amassed a season-high 17 hits with six players recording multiple-hit games led by Bryce Matthews who came off the bench to go 3-for-3. Kyle Stancato drove in a career-high five runs from the nine hole.
Kodie Kolden singled in the seventh to extend his on-base streak to 23 games. Kyle Russell singled in the first to extend his on-base streak to nine games.
WSU heads to the west side of the state for a four-game road trip, facing Seattle University Tuesday at 4 p.m. before opening a three-game series at Washington Friday at 6 p.m. - The Washington State women's basketball team will be putting on its dancing shoes for the second-straight season, as the Cougars earned an at-large bid into the 2022 NCAA Women's Basketball Tournament. WSU will be the No. 8 seed in the Bridgeport Region and takes on No. 9-seeded Kansas State in the first round in Raleigh, North Carolina.
Washington State will battle the Wildcats Saturday, March 19 at the PNC Arena in Raleigh, North Carolina. Tip-off is set for 8:30 a.m. PT and will air live on ESPN 2.
WSU earned its second-straight at-large bit into March Madness after going 19-10 overall this season and finishing tied for second in the Pac-12 Conference with an 11-6 mark. The 19 wins are the most collected by the Cougars in a single season in the NCAA era in program history, while the 11 Pac-12 victories are a program record for most conference wins in a season.
The Cougars returned all five starters from last season's NCAA Tournament game, which includes sophomore Charlisse Leger-Walker and junior Johanna Teder, who scored 18 and 16 points respectively in last season's NCAA Tournament contest. Leger-Walker earned All-Pac-12 honors for the second-consecutive season after leading the Pac-12 in points scored with 463. Leger-Walker's 16.0 points per game average pace a trio of double-digit scorers for the Cougars this season. Both Teder and 2021-22 Pac-12 Co-Most Improved Player of the Year Bella Murekatete each averaged 10.6 points per game this season.
https://wsucougars.com/news/2022/3/13/womens-basketball-earns-second-straight-bid-into-the-ncaa-tournament.aspx - The Cougs men's basketball team will head to the NIT for just the sixth time in program history and the first time since 2011. All-time at the NIT the Cougs are 7-5 including going 3-1 in 2011 as the WSU, led by Klay Thompson, played its way to the semifinals, defeating Long Beach State, Oklahoma State, and Northwestern before falling to Wichita State. The Cougs have played in the NIT five times in their program history winning their opening round game in all but one season. That one loss in 2009 happened to come at the hands of Saint Mary's with coach Kyle Smith on the sidelines as an assistant coach for the Gaels. The loss also came on the road in the only first-round game WSU has played away from Pullman in its five tournament appearances. Of the seven tournament victories, six have come inside Beasley Coliseum including three in the team's run to the semifinals in 2011.
The Cougs will host Santa Clara in Beasley Coliseum this Tuesday at 8pm. ESPNU will broadcast the game with Chuckie Kempf and Adrian Branch calling the game.
Go Cougs!!!
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Wazzu News and Notes - December 14, 2022
- 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 ...
Wazzu News and Notes - December 13, 2022
- 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 ...
Wazzu News and Notes - December 11, 2022
- 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 ...
