One sign of spring at WSU
COUGARS
Despite the snow covering most of Pullman, Division I college baseball opens this weekend. Washington State, coming off back-to-back NCAA tournament appearances for the first time since the Reagan presidency, heads to central California to face Cal State Bakersfield. Use that as background when you read on.
••••••••••
• At the Review, we handle college football and basketball by school. For example, I cover WSU, Steve Bergum follows EWU and so on. But all the others are divided by sports, so I also keep tabs on college baseball. That includes not only WSU but Gonzaga, Whitworth and the local junior college, CCS. And that was what I have been doing this morning, trying to put together a season preview for the three local four-year schools (JC baseball in the area doesn't begin until March). With that mostly done – I'm still waiting for one call – I can attack WSU basketball coach Ken Bone's morning press conferences. ... The big news concerns DeAngelo Casto, who rolled his ankle late in the California win, did not practice yesterday, may not practice today and is questionable for Thursday at Arizona. I don't think I have to point out how big a blow it would be to the Cougars if he can't go. It's not just his 11.2 points and team-leading 6.4 rebounds per game. It's also his presence inside on the offensive end, where he has taken leaps and bounds this season in his ability to score in traffic. It's also his presence on the defensive end, where if he's not best inside defender in the Pac-10, he's among the top two or three. As Bone said today (and Mike Montgomery said Saturday, which I passed along in my post-game blog post), Casto is playing as well as he's ever seen on both ends of the floor. "It would hurt us if DeAngelo is not out there," Bone said. ... Casto's ankle injury is just the latest in a series of nagging, though not season-ending, injuries the Cougars have suffered. Those problems – Reggie Moore's wrist, Faisal Aden's knee, Casto's knee and ankle – have not only cost players games, but all-important practice time as well, something Bone made sure to point out in his local and Pac-10 calls. He believes the lost practice time might explain in part WSU's up-and-down play. ... Taking into account the lost time, Bone said he's really proud of his 17-8, 7-6 in the Pac-10, team. With all the problems, the Cougars, Bone said, are sitting in fourth place in the conference and still have a chance for postseason play. ... If Casto can't go Thursday, then the Cougars will really have their hands full with Derrick Williams. Even with Casto in there and playing well, Williams bulled his way to 19 rebounds and 17 points in the first meeting between the teams, a 65-63 Arizona win. As Bone said, Williams is as good as anyone in the conference in the post and among the nation's best. ... Asked on the Pac-10 call who he thought was the Pac-10's freshman of the year this season, Bone mentioned Allen Crabbe of Cal, UCLA's Josh Smith and UW's Terrence Ross, finally saying it comes down to Crabbe and Smith. ... If you want to watch Bone, you can here ...
•••
• And we also have some clips from baseball coach Donnie Marbut's press conference if you are interested. Both videos are courtesy of Jared Prenguber of the Washington State's athletic video department ...
•••
• That's all I've got for now. We'll be back later with more. Until then ...
