Fast Break: Seattle Pacific hires Looney
Men’s basketball
Seattle Pacific hires Looney
Former Central Valley High School basketball player Ryan Looney is the new men’s basketball coach at Seattle Pacific.
Looney, 33, led Eastern Oregon University to the quarterfinals of the NAIA Division II tournament last season. He compiled a 95-55 record in five seasons at Eastern Oregon in La Grande.
Looney replaces Jeff Hironaka, who left after 18 years on the Falcons staff to become an assistant coach at Washington State.
Before being hired at Eastern Oregon, Looney served two seasons as the top assistant at NCAA Division II Minnesota State University Moorhead. He played at Eastern Oregon from 1996 to 1998, and was an NAIA All-America scholar athlete.
He was an assistant for two years at Wisconsin-LaCrosse, where he received his Master of Science degree in sports administration in 2001, Looney joined the staff at North Idaho College for the 2001-02 season.
Men’s basketball
Few selected for team trials
Gonzaga’s Mark Few has been selected as one of six court coaches for the 2009 USA Basketball Men’s U19 World Championship and World University Games team trials.
Few joins Missouri’s Mike Anderson, Michigan’s John Beilein, Navarro College’s Johnny Estelle, Iowa Wesleyan’s Alan Magnani and Arizona State’s Herb Sendek as court coaches who will work with roughly 40 players vying for spots on the U19 World Championship and World University Games teams.
Washington State’s Klay Thompson and DeAngelo Casto are among 17 players attending the U19 team trials June 16-18 at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colo.
Pittsburgh’s Jamie Dixon will coach the U19 team. Wisconsin’s Bo Ryan will serve as head coach of the World University Games team.
College baseball
Three Cougars make first team
Pitchers Jeremy Johnson and Matt Way, and outfielder Jared Prince are Washington State’s selections on the All-Pacific-10 Conference team, released by the conference Wednesday.
Prince hit .350 with six home runs and 36 runs batted in. Johnson, a reliever, finished 6-1 with an earned-run average of 2.83 in 571/3 innings. Way (8-4) started 14 games and led the Cougars with an ERA of 2.49.
Cougars on the honorable mention list were seniors Alex Burg and Greg Lagreid, sophomores Chad Arnold and Shea Vucinich, and freshman Derek Jones. Burg led the team in hitting at .355.
Washington freshman pitcher Andrew Kittredge, of Ferris High, also made honorable mention.
Washington State plays Arkansas on Friday in Norman, Okla., to open the NCAA Regionals. Way is scheduled to start.