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We’re in Buffalo with Gonzaga’s basketball team – the Zags play Florida State this evening – but we couldn’t resist passing this on. The University of Oregon has scheduled an 11:30 a.m. press conference to have an “announcement about leadership at Athletics Department.” Here’s the Oregonian’s John Canzano’s take and a story in the Eugene Register-Guard. We’ll have more later.
• UPDATE: It’s official. Mike Bellotti has stepped down as UO athletic director and will join ESPN. It must have been too tough to have to fire his former colleague Ernie Kent.
About six hours from tip of Gonzaga-Florida State, so we’ll get a quick post together while the wireless is still functioning (yes, it’s been hit or miss)..
Links: Here’s the S-R advance, notes and column. The Tallahassee newspaper preview, side bar, and glance at GU. Orlando Sentinel advance and capsule, the Sports Network,the National Post, Miami Herald, A.P. and Tacoma News Tribune, The WCC’s Saint Mary’s thumped Richmond.
UPDATE: GU 2011 recruiit Kyle Dranginis has been named the player of the year in Idaho.
Rakim Brown, a 6-foot-7, 190-pound small forward from Central High School in Fresno, Calif., has made an oral commitment to play basketball for Eastern Washington University next winter.
Brown, who made an official visit to the EWU campus last weekend, averaged 22 points, eight rerebounds and three blocks per game as a senior and led his team to the quarterfinals of California’s D-I Central Section tournament, where he scored 29 points in a 91-88 loss to Bakersfield.
Brown decided not to take any other recruiting visits after receiving a scholarship offer from Eagles coach Kirk Earlywine, who recently received a one-year contract extention.
“It just felt like the right fit when I was there,” Brown explained. “I got along really well with the players, and I think the program is going to get a lot better, with all of the young guards they already have in the program.”
For more on Rakim check out this story from the Fresno Bee.
Good evening once again. As promised, here’s an unedited notebook and Vince Grippi’s unedited column. Both will run in Friday’s S-R. Read on for more.
Good evening from Buffalo. Weather’s great, the press conferences and team practices are over and we’ll give you a couple of posts tonight.
First up, my unedited game advance and a quick capsule look at the two teams. Come back in a while for a notebook and Vince Grippi’s column.
Read on.
Spokane Chief forwards Mitch Wahl and Kyle Beach were named to the Western Hockey League’s Western Conference All-Star First Team on Thursday morning and defenseman Jared Spurgeon was named the Conference’s Most Sportsmanlike Player. Jared Cowen, the Chiefs Captain and John “Hitman” Hern Defenseman of the Year, earned second team WHL All-Star honors.
Details below
I was a little remiss in providing stories in a timely fashion yesterday but I was a little busy.
There was the advance for the Eastern Washington WNIT game at Oregon tonight as well as a brief look at Gonzaga’s first-round opponent in the NCAA Tournament, North Carolina.
Tomorrow is a short feature with Gonzaga’s Janelle Bekkering. The unedited story I’m filing for tomorrow’s paper is below. Bekkering showed a great deal of maturity in dealing with the disappointment of a critical mistake late in last year’s NCAA Tournament loss, using it as motivation to become a better player.
EWU fans are gathering at Northern Quest for tonight’s game, which is at 7 p.m.
Tri-City gets a player and loses a player, both related to the Chiefs. Read the Tri-City Herald story below.
To start our Western Hockey League playoff coverage we’ll have a feature on popular defenseman Jared Spurgeon (18 above in a Jesse Tinsley photo from Sunday’s game). Click below for the unedited story.
As of this moment, Kyle Beach, the WHL’s leading scorer, is expected to play for the Chiefs when they open at Portland on Saturday. He was injured last Saturday at Tri-City. Ryan Letts, injured in the regular-season finale on Sunday, is day-to-day. Both took knee-to-knee hits.
Good early evening. A couple of things to post. Here’s your first look at a notebook that will run in Wednesday’s S-R dealing with several key Zags who have played through nagging ailments this season. Nobody is immune to the aches and pains that come with playing heavy minutes, but players adapt and learn how to not only play, but play effectively.That’s below.
The worst kept secret in Eugene became official: Oregon fired coach Ernie Kent on Tuesday. There will almost certainly be speculation about Gonzaga’s Mark Few, an Oregon alum. The Ducks figure to have a lot to offer — a respected conference, money and a new arena — but I’m not convinced Few would leave to take over a program that finished ninth in the Pac-10.
Oregon made overtures to Few last year, but he seems quite content at GU.
UPDATE: Here’s another edition of the Gonzaga Roundtable on KGA 1510 with host Toby Howell. I joined Richard Fox and Max from Slipperstillfits.com Tuesday for the 40-minute show on GU basketball.
Read on.
The women’s basketball notebook this week is a short visit with the local players for NCAA-bound Portland. As usual, there are more notes than will ever make the paper, so read the story below.
As expected Wendy Schuller is the Big Sky Coach of the Year.
The final polls are out. My vote and All-American vote are also below the notebook. After having some discrepencies all season, my final 25 is the same as the coaches with most teams close to the same spot, and there are only two differences in the AP vote.
Gonzaga’s Courtney Vandersloot is on the final for both the WBCA and Wooden All-America teams.
Washington State wide receiver Johnny Forzani has left the team and, according to a report in Cougfan, intends to try to play in the CFL this year. I talked with Forzani quite extensively the last home basketball weekend and, during the course of the conversation, asked him how offseason workouts were going and about school, my usual questions. He said both were tough but OK, the usual responses. Sometime in the past three weeks something changed. Anyhow, here’s a short we’ll have in the paper tomorrow, so read on.
Back with a notebook that will run in Tuesday’s S-R. I talked with FSU coach Leonard Hamilton and defensive whiz Chris Singleton today. The Seminoles are one of the top defensive teams in the country and we discuss that in the first item in my notebook.
I also touch on GU assistant coach Ray Giacoletti being on the short list for the head coaching opening at Hawaii. At first glance, he has the best resume and the most coaching experience of the names I’ve seen mentioned for the job. I also heard strong indications today that Gonzaga associate head coach Leon Rice and former Montana coach Larry Krystkowiak are on Boise State’s list of candidates, but it sounds like the process is just beginning and Rice will be busy with GU’s preparations the rest of the week. Stay tuned on that one.
Also, ex-Zag coach Dan Monson made an interesting NCAA Tournament champion prediction. And the winner is …. revealed below.
It’s the kind of matchups teams like Gonzaga crave - a name program on a neutral court.
That’s the first take on the Bulldogs’ NCAA Tourmanet bracket, a chance to play North Carolina.
But wait, Gonzaga is the higher seed, the Tar Heels having stumbled in the second half of the seed are were definitely a bubble team, landing a 10 seed to face No. 7 Gonzaga.
But wait some more, the game is in Seattle Saturday night and there’s a good chance, especially with the Gonzaga men getting shipped to Buffalo, N.Y., for a Friday game, the women will feel like they’re playing a home game. They definitely excited about it. The unedited story I filed for tomorrow’s paper is below.
Eastern Washington (19-11) plays at Oregon (16-15) on Thursday in the WNIT. The two teams met in Eugene the first week of the season with the Ducks rolling 86-48. Oregon’s coach is Paul Westhead, who coached in the NBA and WNBA as well as the high-flying Loyola Marymount teams of Hank Gathers-Bo Kimble fame.
Washington State coach Ken Bone met with the media today on a conference call, answering questions about the year just past and the offseason right ahead. We have the unedited version of our story for tomorrow’s S-R on the link, so read on.
I attended part of the Spokane Shock’s first training-camp practice today, conducted by new head coach Rob Keefe (pictured above). You can read my unedited article below that will run in Tuesday’s S-R.
A couple of nice compliments rolled in for the Spokane Chiefs after their effort on Sunday, a 3-2 win over Everett, in what was a meaningless game for them on the last day of the Western Hockey League season.
First, though, some sad news to pass along. The son of former Chiefs goalie Troy Gamble was killed in Afghanistan. The story is below.
As for the Chiefs’ win that gave Tri-City the Western Division title, Americans’ captain Jarrett Toll told Annie Fowler of the Tri-City Herald: “There was a pretty big eruption when Spokane won. It¹s an unbelievable feeling. Spokane already had their playoff position locked up and we were really expecting them to sit their better guys, but they played them. Kudos to them.”
Long-time WHL writer Gregg Drinnan of Kamloops, a respected observer of the league, said on this blog: “It says something about Spokane head coach Hardy Sauter, his coaching staff, the players and the entire organization. After losing their leading goal scorer in Kennewick, they easily could have lost to Everett, thus having a say in who finished atop the Western Conference and U.S. Division standings. The Chiefs didn’t do that, and it looks good on them!”
Good morning. It’s going to be a crazy week — trying to line up interviews with Florida State and the Shock opening training camp today — but we’ve got links from Sunday’s NCAA Tournament announcement.
Here’s my article on GU’s first-round matchup, John Blanchette’s view, the Seattle Times, Tacoma News Tribune, Tallahassee Democrat, Miami Herald, Buffalo News and Niagara Gazette.
Also, Mark Few was named NABC District 9 coach of the year.
As you all know by now, Gonzaga will face Florida State in Buffalo on Friday. When the pairing flashed on the TV screen, I quickly checked the weather in Buffalo: 38 degrees, windy, wind chill of 28. Driving to Gonzaga’s media session Sunday afternoon, the temp was 56 degrees.
Oh well. I’m guessing it’ll be about 70 inside the HSBC Arena.
Read on for my contributions to Monday’s S-R. There’s an article on GU’s reaction to the draw and a look at the four teams in Gonzaga’s bracket. I’ll post John Blanchette’s column in the morning.
With more reasons to lose than win, the Spokane Chiefs would have none of it, smothering the Everett Silvertips 3-2 Sunday night to close out the Western Hockey League regular season.
The Chiefs, who now play Portland in the first round of the playoffs, handed the top-seed to Tri-City and assured themselves they will play Everett in the second round if the playoffs hold to form. Everett was 6-4 against the Chiefs this year, Tri-City 4-8.
The unedited game story is below.
Even though Spokane has home-ice over Portland, the Winterhawks get to start at home because of the NCAA basketball tournament. The schedule is:
Saturday-Sunday at Portland; Wednesday-Friday-Saturday (if necessary) in Spokane; Monday (if necessary) at Portland; Wednesday (if necessary) in Spokane.
The Chiefs handed out the following awards before the game:
Player of the Year, Mitch Wahl
Players’ Player, Jared Spurgeon
John “Himan Hern” Defenseman of the Year, Jared Cowen
Most Sportsmanlike, Jared Spurgeon
Humanitarian of the Year, Tyler Johnson
Rookie of the Year, Brady Brassart
Scholastic Player of the Year, Brady Brassart
The Zags are No. 8 seed in the West Region, but they will be traveling all the way to Buffalo, N.Y., to face ninth-seeded Florida State on Friday in the first round of its 12th consecutive NCAA tournament.
The Bulldogs won the West Coast Conference regular season, but lost to Saint Mary’s in the WCC Tournament and lost any chance of being able to play in Spokane for the first round.
The Washington Huskies are a No. 11 seed in the East Region and will play Marquette in San Jose in the first round.
Just got off the phone with WSU sports information basketball contact Jessica Schmick - I had asked earlier today about postseason - and she said coach Ken Bone had decided it would be best not to pursue a berth in the CBI or any other postseason tourney. That means WSU’s season, Bone’s first in Pullman, will end 16-15.
UPDATE: Read on for more on WSU’s decision.
The magic ended for Eastern Washington as sixth-seeded Montana State pulled away in the closing minutes to defeat the Eagles in the Big Sky Conference Tournament semifinals at Reese Court on Friday.
Mike Vlahovich’s unedited game story is below.
However, the season isn’t over as the Eagles head off to the WNIT, pairings to be announced after the NCAA pairings Monday night.
The season did come to an end for Idaho in a tough loss to in the WAC semifinals to league-champion Fresno State. Vandal coach Jon Newlee got into a little trouble with the league for his comments after the game.
WAC commissioner Karl Benson announced that Newlee has been publicly reprimanded for violating the WAC’s sportsmanship code. During the postgame press conference, Newlee extensively criticized the officiating of the game won by Fresno State, 80-66. In doing so, Newlee violated the WAC’s sportsmanship code and any further violations of the code may result in a minimum of a one-game suspension.
Any hope the the Spokane Chiefs had of finishing first was dashed with a mediocre effort in a 4-3 loss to Tri-City Saturday night at the Arena.
It also ended any hope of wrestling the No. 3 seed from Everett. They’ll need to rebound at Tri-City tomorrow or beat Everett Sunday at home to hold off Portland for home-ice in their four-five matchup when the playoffs open next weekend.
Our unedited game story is below.
The Shadle Park boys and girls basketball teams lost in the semifinals of the State 3A basketball tournaments in Tacoma while the previously undefeated West Valley girls team lost in the 2A semifinals at Yakima.
The Shadle boys lost to Enumclaw 46-34. The Highlander girls fell to Holy Names 47-42.
Prosser defeated the West Valley girls 55-41.
Just when you have this called Pac-10 basketball figured out, you find you’re totaled wrong. Completely wrong. The Arizona State Sun Devils were playing for an NCAA Tournament bid, right? So they had to play with passion and effort Thursday. There was no way they were going to let a Stanford team upset them, was there? Wham. The conference takes another punch to the stomach. Read on.
The Lewiston Tribune this morning reported Idaho football coach Robb Akey has agreed in principle to a contract extension. The deal comes after prolonged negotiations. No details were given in the story. “We needed to come to an agreement on what the contract was going to be, to get it extended so that it would be a good thing so we can keep taking this thing forward,” Akey told the paper. “And we got details worked out, and we came to an agreement this week that needs to go to have their approval.”
The Shadle Park Highlanders played well in the first half, building as much as a 10-point lead before going into halftime with a 36-28 lead over the O’Dea Irish.
Senior point guard Robby Douglas led the Highlanders with 12 points. O’Dea trimmed Shadle’s lead to 26-23 with 2:33 to go before intermission, but a 10-5 spurt opened a comfortable margin back up for the Highlanders.
More later.
Steve Bergum covers EWU football and men's basketball, college baseball, and writes weekly golf column during the summer.
Recent work by Steve
Vince Grippi covers WSU sports and invites readers to share their thoughts on the sports news of the day.
Recent work by Vince
Greg Lee covers high school sports throughout Inland Northwest.
Recent work by Greg
Jim Meehan covers Gonzaga basketball, Whitworth football, Spokane Shock football, college volleyball and prep softball.
Recent work by Jim
Dave Trimmer covers a variety of high school, college and professional sports and is the primary writer on the weekly Then & Now series.
Recent work by Dave
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