Lavon Alston WR is tripping to WSU this weekend. As i see it ,he is one of the premier WR s in the West. He had an in home visit on Jan 15 from OSU coaches, where he had previously committed. He also had a late offer from Nebraska.If the cougs can land him it would be a major recruiting victory for Leach and company.

Chances increase or about the same by hiring Manning? He recruited him to Michigan or is it a little too late?

HAWKS. HAWKS. HAWKS.

Gimme your prediction. If you guess right, I'll give you a prize. Last week, 79Coug won a free two month subscription. Crimson Desciple never emailed me. So remember to email me when you steal me money.

My prediction: Hawks 30, Cheese 21.

LETS GOOOOOOOOOOO

will root for? Patriots or the Hawks?

but pull out a 79-76 win over Oregon.

the fact that she is not, well how can I put it delicately, a can win with less coach? Am I the only one who puts on the game only to turn my head away after a few minutes? We all know that if the big two can hit their shots the Cougs can beat just about anybody, but can we run something other than an a Lia/Tia iso, or screen at the top of the key. Against the big kids, they need help. They are struggling because every Pac-12 now knows what is coming and are ready. With a little imagination we could be 4-1 instead of 1-4. Case in point, against OSU, Tia/Lia were 14-40/3-12, the rest of the team was 14-32 and 2-4. With a hand full of plays to take advantage of Tia/Lia defensive overplay, we win. Stanford was the same thing, Tia/Lia were 13-35/3-9, the rest of the team was 13-24/5-7. The problem I see, is that imagination just isn't there. Look how Ermie played two different offenses in back to back games one to neuralize size and one to tire a short bench team. Have you seen anything remotely like that out of June? This was supposed to be "the team" seven years in the making, and it is 1-4 in Pac-12 play.

According to Thayer Evans of Sports Illustrated, Washington State has hired former Michigan cornerbacks and outside linebackers coach Roy Manning as outside linebackers coach. I'll have more later, but this is a massive hire.

Update: I can confirm this. HUGE hire.


This post was edited on 1/18 1:30 AM by Britton Ransford

nm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=brbeRyzNeqM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qG0O8FhBjQI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GGF3bXTCNA






This post was edited on 1/18 8:29 AM by Whitworth-Coug

This will definitely sound like sour grapes as we once again watched bowl season from our couches, but I make no apologies for that as this is all pretty amazing no matter who you root for. It just hit me as I was reading Kiper's 1st round projections.

I think we all agree that draft projections are pretty useless, but the first round is usually pretty accurate--at least in terms of who goes, if not where--and Kiper says Washington will have 3 first-rounders go, all in the Top 20: Danny Shelton (12), Shaq Thompson (14), and Marcus Peters (20). This is more than any other team in the draft.

Additionally, UW had THE nation's sack leader in veteran Hau'oli Kikaha, who is not slated as a first rounder but was very much a part of the defense.

If you tally their "blue chip" (4-5 star) talent in the last 5 years to evaluate their current roster, Rivals says they have netted 26 such difference-makers. They averaged a Top 25 class during that time.

So what did they do with 3 first rounders, the nation's sack leader on defense, a full 1-deep roster of blue-chippers, and a man said to be one of America's most dangerous and inventive coaches?

They went 4-5 in conference, and 8-6 overall, losing to every ranked team they played, barely cracking 0.500 at home, and capping off the season with an embarrassing bowl loss to a 0.500 Oklahoma State team. All this with a schedule #78 (our historically bad defense was #97).

8-6 with a bowl game sounds better than it is considering they didn't beat a single Power 5 team with a winning record, and got an extra OOC gimme in Hawaii. Give them a Top 10 schedule and they're lucky to get to 4 wins. I mean seriously, how do you screw that up--and screw it up that badly? You have a once-in-a-generation team on one side of the ball, a truckload of blue chips on offense, a fairly easy schedule, an extra OOC game to pad your Ws (Hawaii), and a supposed wiz toting the playbook--and you can't crack 0.500 in conference? Or produce a Top 50 defense? Not even a Top 75 defense?

If I'm a Husky fan I'm chalking this all up to envy (it is, partially), but seriously, stop down for a moment and consider how well the planets aligned to open the year, only to have a year that is even worse than the marginal record suggests.

CML takes a lot of heat--and I am among those dishing it out--for his ongoing woes. But the roster he inherited was a s---show compared to the vintage Don James roster Petersen inherited. Can you imagine what CML does with a 2-deep of 4-star wideouts, and what Breske could have done with what would have been one of the most talented WSU defenses of all time? If he gets that roster in Year 1, I think we're gunning for conference titles instead of still letting the "600 club" hang around...

Roy Manning from Michigan was hired as OLB coach, considered to be one of the best recruiters in the country. This defensive staff might be the best recruiting staff in the conference now with Big Joe, Wilson, Manning and Grinch.

I can't think of an NCAA president that has more just plain straight garbage happen under his watch. First you had him trying to strong arm Penn State into sanctions, then the sanctions were lifted, then the wins were restored. And you have the butchery of the Miami investigation.

How much money was wasted by the NCAA screwing things up, then trying to defend itself?

Davonte Lacy started, but has barely played so far. He looked like he was favoring his knee that he hurt in the Oregon game. The announcers seem to be oblivious to this. Not having him has hurt the Cougars, as OSU has been able to be aggressive against Boese and Hawkinson. None of the other players are much of a threat right now.

This post was edited on 1/17 6:57 PM by Coug1990

We have no answers.

in the sack and get some recruits! There's nothing funner than being in town when the basketball team is doing well. I'd gladly lose my voice if there.

According to the Orlando Sentinel, former Washington State linebacker Darryl Monroe will transfer to Akron and be eligible to play immediately.

Link: http://touch.orlandosentinel.com/#section/-1/article/p2p-82543958/

You saw glimpses at times that he could under Bone, but Ernie has found something with him. I have never seen a guard so quick with the ball before for us. Him and Hawk are gonna be fun to watch for the next 2 years.

Link: https://washingtonstate.rivals.com/wire.asp?SID=1089&CID=76623


WSU LOOKS FOR FOURTH-STRAIGHT WIN SATURDAY
Washington State University men's basketball (9-7, 3-1) looks to extend its winning streak to four games as it hosts Oregon State (11-5, 2-2), Saturday, Jan. 17 at 6 p.m. at Beasley Coliseum.

• Saturday's game will be televised on the Pac-12 Networks as Aaron Goldsmith (play-by-play) and Dan Dickau (color analyst) have the call.

• Bud Nameck, in his 22nd year with Cougar Basketball, will have the call on the Cougar IMG Radio Network...please see the list of affiliates on page one of today's notes.

• Live updates can be found on Twitter by following @WSUMensHoops, the official Twitter account of Washington State men's basketball.



ERNIE KENT IN FIRST SEASON WITH THE COUGARS:

• Veteran head coach and former Fox Sports and Pac-12 Networks basketball analyst was named the 18th head coach in WSU men's basketball history, March 31, 2014, replacing Ken Bone, who served as the Cougar head coach for five seasons.

• Kent came to Pullman with a 325-254 (.561) mark as a head coach, having spent six seasons at the helm for Saint Mary's in Moraga, Calif., and 13 at Oregon.

• In his 13 years at Oregon, Kent compiled a 235-174 (.575) record and a 109-125 (.466) conference mark.

• His 109 conference wins rank 17th most in Pac-12 history (including Pacific-8 and Pacific-10 Conferences).

• While at Oregon, Kent led the Ducks to seven postseason appearances, including five NCAA Tournament Appearances (2000, 2002, 2003, 2007, 2008) as well as a Pac-10 regular-season (2002) and two conference tournament (2003, 2007) titles.



COUGARS VERSUS BEAVERS:

• Saturday marks the 291st all-time meeting between Oregon State and Washington State, with the Beavers holding a 166-124 advantage in the series.

• WSU holds a 77-61 advantage in home games in the series, including a 2-0 lead in Spokane.

• WSU has lost the last three meetings against the Beavers but has not won a game against Oregon State at Beasley Coliseum since Jan. 6, 2011...WSU's last home win against OSU came Dec. 31, 2011, but was held at Spokane Arena.

• Last season marked the first since 2005-06 that WSU didn't win at least one game against Oregon State during the season.

• WSU head coach Ernie Kent is 19-7 all-time against Oregon State as a head coach, including his 13 years at Oregon.



OLD RIVALS:

• Washington State and Oregon State are meeting for the 106th-consecutive men's basketball season.

• It is the eighth longest continuous rivalry nationally behind Columbia/Yale (115th season), Princeton/Yale (115th season), Pennsylvania/Princeton (114th season), Columbia/Pennsylvania (113th season) and Cornell/Pennsylvania (113th season).

• The Cougars also hold the sixth oldest continuous rivalry, as they faced Idaho for the 109th straight season, Dec. 3.



ROAD WARRIORS:

• WSU opened up with a two-game road trip in the state of Texas, marking just the sixth time it has opened the season with a true road game outside the state of Washington and the first time since Nov. 19, 1999, an 80-55 loss at Nevada.

• Washington State was the only Pac-12 school to open the 2014-15 season on the road.

• In fact, in the first two weeks of the season (Friday, Nov. 14-Sun., Nov. 22), just five true road games were played by Pac-12 schools, two of those were WSU's games.

• The five road games don't include the seven neutral-site games.

• The Cougars had already played two road games before any other Pac-12 school had played on the road or at a neutral-site venue.

• Five of WSU's first six games were away from Pullman, including three games at the Great Alaska Shootout, Nov. 27-29.

• WSU played seven games away from Pullman before it hosted its fourth home game of the season against San Jose State, Sunday, Dec. 21.

• WSU's game against OSU Jan. 17 marks its seventh home game of the season...its opponent, Oregon State has already played 10 home games.

• The Cougars opened Pac-12 play with three-straight road games, including a second trip to the Bay Area to take on Stanford (Jan. 2) and California (Jan. 4), followed by a trip to Seattle to take on Washington (Jan. 10).

• As of Jan. 13, Washington and Stanford had each played the second-fewest home games, 8, two more than the Cougars.

• WSU's experience on the road paid off as it got the first Pac-12 conference road win this season and the only road win in the first 12 Pac-12 games.

• As of Jan. 16, Pac-12 teams had won seven conference road games, two of those wins belonging to the Cougars.

• With its victory at Cal, Jan. 4, WSU won its first Pac-12 road game since the 2012-13 season, breaking a 15-game conference road losing streak.

• With the Jan. 10 win at Washington, the Cougars guaranteed their first two-win Pac-12 road season since 2011-12 and marked the first time they won back-to-back Pac-12 road games since 2008-09.



WSU'S HOT STREAK:

• WSU has won its last three games with victories at Cal (Jan. 4) and Washington (Jan. 10) and at home against Oregon (Jan. 15).

• With the win Jan. 4, the Cougars won their first Pac-12 road game in 15 tries and first since the 2012-13 season.

• With their win Jan. 10 at Washington, WSU won two Pac-12 road games in a season for the first time since the 2011-12 season.

• The win Jan. 10 also gave WSU it's first two-game conference winning streak since the 2011-12 season.

• WSU's win against Oregon, Jan. 15, gave WSU its first 3-1 Pac-12 start since the 2007-08 season...it is also the first time since the 2008-09 season that WSU has won three-straight conference games.

• The Cougars' 108 points in their overtime win over Oregon marked the most since scoring 114 against Grambling State, Dec. 29, 1998...it was the second-most in conference play, second to 111 points against Arizona in double overtime, March 2, 1995 and the first time WSU reached the 100-point plateau since scoring 104 in overtime against Gonzaga, Dec. 7, 2002.

• WSU has already won as many Pac-12 games in four league games this season as it did all of 2013-14.

• The Cougars need just one more win to match last year's win total (10).



ABOUT THE COUGARS:

• The Cougars are currently 9-7 overall and 3-1 in Pac-12 play, tied for third in the league with Arizona.

• WSU is 2-5 on the road, 2-1 at neutral sites and 5-1 at home...WSU's game against Gonzaga counted as a road game, although played at Spokane Arena.

• Last season WSU finished 10-21 overall and 3-15 in Pac-12 play, finishing 11th.

• Nine letterwinners returned for the Cougs, including three starters in seniors DaVonté Lacy, Dexter Kernich-Drew and Jordan Railey.

• Lacy and sophomore Ike Iroegbu are the only two Cougars to start all 16 games so far this season.

• Lacy leads the team and ranks fourth in the Pac-12 in scoring with 17.4 points per game, just 2.0 points below his 19.4 ppg average last season.

• Lacy is fourth in the league with 2.3 made 3-pointers per game.

• Lacy ranks 14th in the conference for free throw percentage with a .778 (84-for-108) clip...he has the most free throws made by a Pac-12 student-athlete this season.

• Sophomore Josh Hawkinson is averaging a double-double per game as he leads the Pac-12 with 11.1 rebounds per game and ranks tied for eighth in scoring with 15.7 points per game.

• He's first in the league with 10 double-doubles and leads the league with 9.1 defensive rebounds per game.

• Hawkinson is seventh in the league with 1.4 blocked shots a game and ranked 10th in free throw percentage with a .806 (58-for-72) clip.

• Nationally, Hawkinson ranks in the top-10 in the following categories; he's second the nation in defensive rebounds per game, is eighth in rebounds per game, seventh for double-doubles and 11th in total rebounds. (as of games Jan. 15)

• Freshman point guard Ny Redding has been a surprise for the Cougars, moving into the starting lineup.

• He leads the team and ranks sixth in the Pac-12 with 4.1 assists per game, ranking second-highest among all Pac-12 freshman for assists per game.

• Redding ranks 10th in the league with a 1.6 assist/turnover ratio...he's second amongst all Pac-12 freshmen.

• He is also ranked seventh in free throw percentage with a .814 mark (35-for-43)...he's second-highest amongst all freshman in that category.



LACY MARKING UP RECORD BOOKS:

• Senior DaVonté Lacy is making his mark on the WSU record books.

• In the first round of the 2014 Pac-12 Tournament, Lacy became the 34th Cougar to reach 1,000 career points, ending the season in 32nd with 1,023 points.

• He is the ninth-fastest Cougar to reach the milestone as he accomplished the feat in 85 games.

• Lacy has since moved up to 13th on the list with 1,302 points and is 31 points away from Chris Crosby (1997-00) in 12th.

• If Lacy were to average the same amount of points as last season (19.4) and stays healthy and plays at least 31 games, he would finish his career with at least 1,624 points, which would put him fourth in WSU's record books.

• If he sticks with his career average of 12.9 ppg, he will finish with 1,417 points which would put him at ninth in the WSU career record books.

• If Lacy stays at 17.4 ppg, he would finish with 1,562 points, which would put him at fifth in WSU's record books.

• Lacy is also climbing up the record books for career 3-pointers made and is on pace for the record, currently in sole possession of sixth with 218 3-pointers made.

• He is currently 2 away from Derrick Low (2005-08) in fifth with 220 made 3-pointers.

• Lacy is just 25 3-pointers away from tying Klay Thompson for the school record...if he were to stay healthy during his senior season, Lacy would need to average just under 2 made 3-pointers per game to reach the record...he's averaging 2.3 right now.



HAWKINSON'S SOARING IN SECOND YEAR:

• Sophomore Josh Hawkinson is averaging 15.7 points, 11.1 rebounds and 1.4 blocks per game in WSU's 16 games this season...he's playing 32.1 minutes per outing.

• Hawkinson had his first double-double of his career in WSU's second game of the season at TCU and now has 10 double-doubles.

• Last season Hawkinson averaged just 1.2 points and 1.6 rebounds a game in 6.4 minutes an outing, while compiling just 4 blocks the entire season.

• He is scoring 14.5 more points and grabbing 9.5 more rebounds this year than last year and has already played 334 more minutes than he did all of last year, more than double the 180 he played last year.



IROEGBU MAKING STRIDES IN YEAR TWO TOO:

• Sophomore Ike Iroegbu is having a breakout sophomore year as well, as he's averaging 4.2 more points this year than his freshman year while starting all 16 games this season.

• He is 15 points from last year's total of 170 points and has surpassed his assists total from his freshman year (45).

• Iroegbu needs just one more made baskets to reach his total from last season (55).

• Iroegbu ranks tied for 12th in the league in free throw percentage with a .780 clip (32-for-41), is tied for 12th in assists per game with 3.0 and is eighth for assist/turnover ratio with a 1.8 clip.



ALL ABOUT THAT BOESE:

• Junior Brett Boese (pronounced Base) has moved into a bigger role as well, his coming in his third season with the Cougars.

• In his first two seasons, Boese played a total of 194 minutes in 36 games for 5.4 minutes of action per game...this year he's played just 16 games (all 16 of WSU's games), a total of 287 minutes, for an average of 17.9 minutes per game.

• On top of that, Boese has already scored 44 more points this season than the last two combined (51 last year) for an improvement of points per game by 4.5 points per game from 1.4 his first two seasons to 5.9 this season.

• From beyond the 3-point arc, Boese has nearly doubled his 3-pointers made from 14 his first two seasons to 26, less than halfway through this season.

• His 3-point field goal percentage has also improved by six percent, going from .359 as a freshman and sophomore to .465 his junior season.

• Boese played 57% of the team's games last season and 100% so far this season.

(via WSU Athletics)

trying to hang on against #9 Oregon State right now. 10:54 left in game Cougs lead 52-46. Cough were ahead by 16 but can't buy a bucket right now.

Go Cougs!!!

It's Cougar basketball Saturday.

Here is the transcript.

IMO, most interesting thing is that his hire came about in the week or so before the announcement was made.

http://www.spokesman.com/blogs/sportslink/2015/jan/16/q-wsu-defensive-coordinator-alex-grinch/

Here's the senior season HUDL highlights for Washington State receiver commit Deontay Burnett out of Gardena (Calif.) Serra.

Link: http://www.hudl.com/athlete/1733944/highlights/224799376#

The four-star defensive tackle from Mountain View (Calif.) St. Francis who is committed to Washington State had an in-home visit with Oklahoma State last night and it apparently went well. He will also visit Stillwater this weekend.

"They said they're building something special and that I fit right in with the system," Toki said. "They're about to do big things in years to come."

I asked him if he was still committed to Washington State and his response was:

"We'll find out on Feb. 4."

Does anyone know how our verbals and kids we are recruting have responded to the hire?

Steve Gleason will be the guest of the Senate and hope to meet President Obama at Tuesday night's State of the Union Address, according to a tweet from Peter King of Sports Illustrated. King notes that Gleason will meet with Health and Human Service secretary Syvia Burwell prior to the address.


This post was edited on 1/16 1:09 PM by Britton Ransford