PULLMAN – The times, they are a-changin'. And they're going right back to what they were two years ago. The NCAA, after one year of modified clock rules that shortened games and drastically reduced the number of plays in the average college football game, has decided to go back to the old, 2005 timing rules.
PULLMAN – Two players on the Washington State basketball team, seeing little playing time for themselves in the future, have asked to be released from their scholarships. Sophomore guards Mac Hopson and Chris Matthews will both transfer from WSU after the end of the spring semester.
PULLMAN – It's safe to say that no college football coach would feel comfortable taking his team onto the field now for the first game of the season, not with spring football in its final stages on many campuses across the country. Things are no different at Washington State, where head coach Bill Doba, having assumed defensive coordinator and linebacker coaching duties this season, spoke Tuesday about the process of trying to figure out how he'll attempt to confuse and contend with Pac-10 offenses come this fall.
PULLMAN – Washington State has made the decision to keep sophomore Jared Prince off the mound for the rest of the baseball season after an MRI on his throwing shoulder. Head coach Donnie Marbut said Monday that Prince, who hasn't thrown since early in the non-conference season, will now be limited to playing in right field for the rest of this season and could well have some minor surgery after the year is through.
PULLMAN – Based on initial returns, it appears the football season-ticket base at Washington State will shrink for a fourth consecutive year this fall. Though the process is still a few weeks from its completion, about 500 accounts were not renewed from 2006, which, based on an average of more than three tickets per account, would leave WSU down anywhere from 1,500 to 2,000 tickets at this point.
PULLMAN – Maybe the real winners were the handful of fans who came out to watch Washington State's second football scrimmage of the spring Friday afternoon in Martin Stadium, getting to bask in the sunshine all the while. On the field, though, the wins and losses weren't so important – at least not in the big picture.
PULLMAN – Vanilla is the flavor of the day for Washington State football this spring, especially on defense. With their ranks thinned and their experience level low, the Cougars are keeping it basic on defense. That was the case in their first spring scrimmage last week, and WSU coaches indicate that it won't be any different in today's second outing, either.
PULLMAN – With almost five months left before the start of the 2007 football season, Washington State has four-fifths of a starting offensive line already assembled. That's the good news for the Cougars.
Tony Bennett moved into a new house in Pullman within the last year, but he and his family may have to do a little rearranging already – a trophy room is probably in order. Bennett, who has already won the Pac-10's coach of the year award and a number of national coach of the year honors, picked up the first "major" national coaching award, winning the Associated Press title in a landslide.
PULLMAN – With experience comes expectation, and suddenly when Michael Bumpus looks around, he sees no one with more of either. Jason Hill has graduated and moved on, and with his departure Bumpus becomes the Washington State Cougars' most veteran wide receiver, the player who will be counted on most to get open for quarterback Alex Brink this fall.
PULLMAN – There are many details left to be hammered out, but Washington State was in no mood to wait for someone to pluck its coach with a plum offer. The school announced Wednesday that it has reached an agreement in principle to restructure the contract of men's head basketball coach Tony Bennett, whose star is on the rise after leading the Cougars to the second round of the NCAA tournament in his first year as head coach.
PULLMAN – This was not the start to the Pac-10 season that Donnie Marbut envisioned for his Washington State baseball team. One day after playing in front of the eighth-largest crowd in Bailey-Brayton Field history, Marbut's Cougars sent a crowd of 1,576 home with nothing but disappointment after they lost 15-4 to archrival Washington on Saturday.
PULLMAN – Two new assistant coaches might not be all that great an upheaval in the relative picture of the college football world, but this year's coaching staff at Washington State has seen more changes than it has in any year since Mike Price's departure after the Rose Bowl. Running backs coach Steve Broussard and defensive ends coach Marty Long are both new to the scene, and even if one of them has experienced Pullman as a player there is still an adjustment period.
PULLMAN – Washington State hopes to come to a contract agreement or something close to it with men's basketball coach Tony Bennett in the next week, athletic director Jim Sterk said. Beyond that, Sterk was not inclined to talk much about the process of trying to renegotiate the contract of his coach, who has become one of the hotter commodities in the nation after leading the Cougars to a 26-8 record in his first season.
PULLMAN – Washington State's two practice fields, sitting side by side, have been flipped this year, with the solitary goalposts moving from one field to the other because of construction work happening behind the field. Similarly, the Cougars hope that a little on-field reconstruction this spring will help to flip their fortunes.
PULLMAN – Unless his hollering can be heard from 8 miles down the road, Washington State's practices will be a little quieter this spring without former defensive coordinator Robb Akey. After the Cougars assistant took Idaho's top job in December, WSU football coach Bill Doba decided that it was time for him to take on more responsibilities.
PULLMAN – Basketball season is not long in the rearview mirror, and yet football is here. Washington State begins its spring practices Thursday, ready to make another run at reaching a bowl game in the fall.
PULLMAN – It took George Raveling more than three seasons to win 26 games as head coach at Washington State, proof that even for the best and most beloved of Cougars coaches winning on the Palouse isn't easy. The 2006-07 men's basketball team's 26-8 record, capped off with a second-round loss in the NCAA tournament, is but one part of its legacy, though certainly an important one.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. – Washington State University loses just one scholarship player to graduation this season, forward Ivory Clark. Two days after playing a starring role in the Cougars' first NCAA tournament win in 24 years, Clark got the start against Vanderbilt but ended up playing just 15 minutes.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. – Kyle Weaver has the rebounds, the assists, the blocks and the steals to justify his All-Pac-10 status this season. Unfortunately for the Cougars, their stat-sheet stuffer put up big numbers in one more category Saturday in Arco Arena – turnovers.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. – The Cougars could taste the Sweet 16. They just couldn't hang onto their place in it. Washington State, in a game that served as a fittingly thrilling end to a remarkable season, had more than its fair share of chances but couldn't convert any of them into a victory in Saturday's second-round NCAA tournament game.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. – The mantra is heard constantly this time of year, probably because it holds true more often than not. Live by the 3, die by the 3.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. – Even if Gonzaga had managed to defeat Indiana Thursday night, things would not have become any easier in the second round of the NCAA tournament. In fact, they would have become much, much tougher.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. – All it took for 24 years of history to turn on its head was three seconds. The Cougars, trailing by six and playing generally bad basketball for the first half of its first-round NCAA tournament game against Oral Roberts, changed their fortunes in a flurry of action just before halftime.
When Spokane last hosted an NCAA tournament subregional four years ago, the most important game in town may have been played off the court. Forget the Connecticut Huskies and BYU Cougars teams that joined six others in opening their postseason efforts here.
