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Though we're not a fan of "The Best of All Time" lists, this one put together by Kevin Dudley of CougCenter is a fun read. It has a nice trip down memory lane flavor supported with some sound logic and reason. Here's the link:
https://www.cougcenter.com/2022/6/18/23173715/klay-thompson-nba-finals-wsu-cougars -
Often we forget that the student-athletes we enjoy watching on the field of play who represent WSU are students first and foremost. To that end, the academics of athletes are measured by the NCAA to evaluate whether or not athletes are students in the classroom. Their rating process is entitled the Academic Progress Rate or APR. The APR is an annual assessment of each team's academic and retention history. The overall APR score is based on the most recent four years of data (2017-18, 2018-19, 2019-20, and 2020-21). Every year thereafter, the most current year's data will be added and the oldest year of data will be removed, creating a four-year rolling rate.
For the 2020-21 academic year, women's cross country, women's golf, women's swimming, and women's volleyball, along with men's basketball, men's cross country, and men's golf earned perfect single-year APR scores of 1,000. Impressive work Wazzu athletes!
The WSU football team recorded a four-year average score of 959, with a single-year score of 969 matching its highest output over the past four years. Additional four-year APR scores among the men's sports include cross country (980), golf (980), basketball (970), track & field (962), and baseball (951).
On the women's side, the highest four-year APR score was earned by cross country (1000), the only program to achieve a perfect four-year APR score. Volleyball (995) was next followed by golf (991), track & field (985), soccer (982), basketball (981), swimming (977), tennis (975) and rowing (971).
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 ...
