COUGARS

There are now more former Seattle Pacific University head men's basketball coaches on WSU's staff than any other college in America. New head coach Ken Bone made that official Wednesday by hiring his former SPU assistant – and SPU's head coach the past seven years – Jeff Hironaka. The staff now how its full compliment of three assistants and needs just a director of basketball operations to be complete. For more on Hironaka's hiring, read on.
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• Here is the unedited version of the short story that will be in tomorrow's S-R ...

PULLMAN – Ken Bone filled out his Washington State University men's basketball coaching staff Wednesday with the hiring of Jeff Hironaka as an assistant.

Hironaka, who replaced Bone as Seattle Pacific University's head coach seven years ago, is the third assistant Bone has hired since replacing Tony Bennett two weeks ago. Hironaka joins holdover Ben Johnson and former Portland State assistant Curtis Allen.

"Jeff will be an outstanding addition to our staff here at Washington State," Bone said. "Jeff brings a wealth of coaching experience as both an assistant and head coach.

"His energy and passion for the game are second to none."

Hironaka was an assistant to Bone at SPU for 11 years, rising to the head coaching position when Bone moved on to the University of Washington. In seven years as the Falcons head coach, Hironaka's teams were 134-67, qualifying for the NCAA Division II Tournament the past five years.

Seattle Pacific was 19-10 last season, finishing third in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference with an 11-5 record. The Falcons received an at-large berth in the NCAA Tournament before losing in the second round.

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• That's it for now. We'll be back when events call for it. Until then …

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