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After completing a stellar season in the Crimson and Gray, fifth-year senior Michael Flowers has earned an invite to play in the Portsmouth Invitational Tournament (PIT) which is set to take place in Virginia from April 13-16. Flowers will play as part of the Sales Systems, Ltd. team as one of 64 standout college seniors from across the nation.
The invitational tournament is the oldest amateur basketball tournament in the country and is open to only college seniors. The tournament gives players the chance to face off against some of the best senior talents in the country in front of professional scouts from each NBA team as well as overseas clubs.
In his one and only year at Washington State, Flowers proved himself among the best the Pac-12 had to offer to earn second-team all-conference honors for his play on the court. The captain of the team, Flowers led the Cougs to 22 wins and a run to the NIT semifinals. Showing off his scoring prowess, Flowers etched his name among the all-time greats at WSU as he became the program's all-time single-season three-point king as the only Coug in program history to ever record 100 three-pointers in a single season. As the only Coug to both play in and start all 37 games on the year, he finished the season with a team-best 14.2 points per game average while also leading the way with 3.4 assists per contest.
In all, Flowers finished his illustrious career, which spanned Western Michigan, South Alabama, and finally, WSU, with a remarkable 2,234 points scored in 152 games played averaging nearly 30 minutes per game. Overall he made 333 career three-pointers hitting 36.8% of his shots from deep.
The PIT will be played at Churchland High School in Portsmouth, Vir. with eight teams vying for the tournament crown.
https://wsucougars.com/news/2022/4/12/mens-basketball-flowers-invited-to-the-portsmouth-invitational-tournament.aspx -
In other men's hoops news, Efe Abogidi has declared himself eligible for the upcoming NBA draft. This move should come as no surprise given the potential Abogidi has yet to achieve. It's also a very common move for college players of his caliber. By doing this, Efe will get a significant evaluation by NBA coaches. You may remember CJ Elleby made the same move after his freshman campaign in Pullman. Elleby took the NBA coaching advice to heart and returned for a brilliant sophomore year and then was drafted in the second round by the Portland Trailblazers.
Abogidi will have until June 1 to retract his name from the draft pool of players and be able to return for at least one more year of developing his game at Wazzu under the fine coaching of Kyle Smith and staff.
"There were moments this season in which Abogidi looked like one of the most talented players in the Pac-12, soaring through the air for chase-down blocks and bouncing above defenders for poster dunks. His one-handed jam in WSU’s second-round NIT win over SMU came in at No. 1 on SportsCenter Top 10 on March 20." - Colton Clark, S/R
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 ...
