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Cougarlew @Cougarlew
March 24, 2022
Wazzu News and Notes - March 24, 2022
- WSU men's hoops (22-14,11-9 Pac-12) is headed to the NIT semi-finals at Madison Square Garden after a dominating win over BYU (24-11,9-6 WCC) in Provo, UT. The final score was 77-58 in front of over 11,000 screaming BYU fans. Actually, the arena was pretty quiet most of the second half because of the smothering Wazzu defense.
The Cougs got off to a slow start due to a number of phantom fouls called against them. Also, the open shots they were getting on offense weren't going through the net. Heck, the score was 18-14 with nine minutes left in the first half in favor of the home team BYU Cougars. Surprisingly, Dishon Jackson put up eight of those first fourteen points for the team in dark gray uniforms. From that point forward, this game was all Washington State.
Finally finding their footing, Wazzu got the first of four three-pointers from Michael Flowers and another bucket in the paint from Jackson and never looked back. They closed out the first half with a 16-2 run to lead 35-26.
As Wazzu went into the locker room at halftime, it was clear this game was theirs to win. It was also clear that WSU was at a disadvantage having to defeat eight men with their regulation five. The officials appeared to have traded their traditional stripes for the home team whites, whistling Wazzu for six fouls, none of which would have drawn a whistle in the first half of play. Even with this ridiculous turn of events, the Cougs played on using a defense that tallied eleven steals on the night and held their opponents to shooting a paltry 41% from the field and just 15% from behind the arc.
Because of being tagged with three fouls midway through the first half, defensive specialist TJ Bamba was limited to just eight minutes of playing time for the entire game. However, Tyrell Roberts picked up the slack created by the officials forcing Coach Kyle Smith to sit Bamba on the bench. Roberts seemed to be everywhere disrupting passing lanes and pouring in eleven points.
Once again, it was obvious that WSU had the deeper bench outscoring BYU 25-8, basically the difference on the scoreboard when the final buzzer sounded.
This WSU squad seems to have finally come together over the past couple of weeks winning seven of their last nine games. They are peaking at the right time for a run at an NIT championship in New York, NY.
https://www.cougcenter.com/wsu-cougars-basketball/2022/3/23/22994035/washington-state-cougars-vs-byu-cougars-recap
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 ...
