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Here's some surprising news coming out of Cougar men's hoops Sunday. Seems that outstanding freshman Mouhamed Gueye is declaring himself eligible for the NBA Draft. It's likely that he's simply testing the waters and looking for insights from the pros on what elements of his game need improvement. Colton Clark of S/R had this quote from Gueye:
“I am staying in pursuit of my ultimate goal this spring while understanding that any feedback I receive through the process will make me an even better player in the future,” Gueye wrote in a social media post.
With this announcement, both of Coach Kyle Smith's starting forwards from last year's team have entered the NBA Draft pool. Though it's unlikely that Efe Abogidi will return to Pullman, chances are we'll see Gueye donning the crimson and gray once again next season.
https://www.khq.com/sports/washington_state_university/after-impressive-freshman-season-at-washington-state-big-man-mouhamed-gueye-declares-for-nba-draft/article_6ee7dd23-3c6f-5733-b3f3-4162b5a113dc.html -
Washington State junior Jacob McKeon was named the Pac-12 Conference Player of the Week, the conference office announced Monday.
McKeon helped the Cougars to a 3-1 road trip last week after beating Seattle U Wednesday and a weekend series win at No. 10 Oregon. The Phoenix, native hit .529 (9-17) with three multiple-hit games, five extra-base hits, two doubles, three home runs, four runs scored, 10 RBI, and a 1.176 slugging percentage.
McKeon drove in four runs in the win at Seattle U and homered in all three games of the series win at Oregon, WSU's first series win in Eugene 2012, and their second road series win over a Top-10 team in the last three weeks after taking two of three at No. 9 Arizona two weekends ago. It's the first time in program history with two road series wins over Top-10 teams.
In Friday's series opener against the Ducks, McKeon collected two hits including a solo homer to left field. The right-handed hitter hit a two-run homer to centerfield in the first inning of Saturday's win and finished the game with a career-high four hits. McKeon closed the weekend with a two-run homer in the eighth inning of WSU's comeback win Sunday.
McKeon wins WSU's first Pac-12 weekly accolade of the season and the first since Kyle Manzardo and Zane Mills each earned awards twice last season.
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 ...
