A WSU football/basketball post
COUGARS
Our evening post is split into two parts. There is the football section, with some items from Paul Wulff's press conference and practice. And there is basketball in advance of tonight's game. Read on.
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• A couple of notes from Paul Wulff's press conference. The Cougar coach answered some questions I had concerning the seniors, which will be part of our Saturday story. He then went into the injury situation for this week, intimating he thought Marquess Wilson (hip) would play Saturday but that Deone Bucannon (ankle) would be less likely to do so and Daniel Simmons (ankle) was even more unlikely. Though C.J. Mizell (shoulder) was better, Mike Ledgerwood, a senior, would start but Mizell should be able to play a lot. As for quarterback Jeff Tuel, he hasn't improved enough to be cleared to play, so he's out this week and probably next week as well. If the Cougars somehow earn a bowl berth, he may available. ... My observations are Bucannon and Simmons seem to be getting better, though a lot can happen in 48 hours. I'm not all that sure about Wilson, though he seems like a gamer to me. ... Wulff talked about how much his team needs the students to stick around through Saturday and fill Martin Stadium with noise. And that's about it. ... The Cougars had two players earn first-team All-Academic honors from the Pac-12, led by senior receiver Jared Karstetter. Defensive back Kyle McCartney, who plays mainly on special teams, was also a first-team selection. Tight end Andrei Lintz earned second-team honors. There were six players who earned honorable mention: Dan Wagner, Skylar Stormo, Aaron Dunn, Andrew Furney, John Fullington and Kristoff Williams... Wulff had talked about making changes on the kickoff team and there have been some, both in personnel and how it's used, but that's game plan stuff and we won't get into that. ...
• Now on to basketball. This isn't the same Sacramento State outfit that failed to score for more than half the opening 20 minutes last season and fell behind 27-0. It's better, though it's 2-0 record might be a bit deceiving as the Hornets have played two lower division schools. Their best player may be point guard Jordan Estrada, a JC transfer that hasn't been off the court much and has 13 assists to one turnover. But, again, he hasn't faced Division I athletes yet either. ... With Abe Lodwick still out, I'm thinking 6-foot-5 sophomore Will DiIrio might get the start tonight for two reasons. He played well down the stretch Monday night and Sac State are expected to start a quicker lineup along with 6-9 center Josh McCarver. The Hornets did start 6-11 Pete Rakocevic their first two games but he's expected to come off the bench tonight. I've been wrong before, though. ... If you bought the webcast, what are you looking for tonight? I am going to focus on the defense and how different the Cougars fight through screens, both on- and off-ball. They did such a poor job Monday night it has to be better tonight. ...
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• That's it for now. We'll be back after the game, more precisely, after our story is filed, here. We'll be on twitter throughout, mainly because we have a bit of time. Until later ...
