Jacob Thorpe

If you happen to find yourself among the small but growing band of looky-loos that linger in the Martin Stadium stands to watch the Washington State football team go about its drills, you will observe a brief period when the Cougars practice their handoffs.

The Cougars are a third of the way through spring football practice. Here's Mike Leach speaking about the team.

Over the course of 1,011 snaps last season the WSU quarterbacks received the ball under center just once. Expect that number to go up drastically next season.

Thursday would have been a great day for the Washington State defense, if only the receivers had cooperated.

Video: Mike Leach after practice

The Cougars were off from spring practice yesterday but it was still a busy day in Pullman.

There were NFL 13 scouts on hand to watch Connor Halliday and Vince Mayle work out on Wednesday, and maybe one general manager.

Federal Way's Viont'e Daniels has accepted a scholarship offer from Ernie Kent to play basketball at Washington State.

Connor Halliday and Vince Mayle were each recovering from injuries at WSU's pro day. But scouts were on hand to watch them workout Wednesday.

A season ago, Washington State had some established leaders at key positions. Now, those players are gone.

PULLMAN – Aaron Cheatum, Jackie Davis and Trevor Dunbar will transfer out of the Washington State basketball program and have been granted their releases, the school announced Tuesday. “We appreciate the contributions Aaron, Jackie and Trevor have made to the program over the last year,” coach Ernie Kent said in a press release. “We wish all three off them nothing but the best both on and off the court.”

PULLMAN – A week ago Whitworth baseball coach Dan Ramsay told his players that it was time to start growing out their playoff beards. “But coach,” they replied. “The playoffs haven’t started yet.”

I finally made it out to Martin Stadium to watch the Cougars in their third spring football practice and saw an impressive stand by the defense.

Video: Five Questions with Peyton Bender

Video: Mike Leach after practice

HOUSTON – As his younger teammates bounced around one side of the Duke locker room in celebration, the team’s elder sat apart from the revelers – who are still blissfully ignorant of what the other locker room feels like – and vacillated between shock and relief. The three freshmen who start and star for the Blue Devils know naught but winning; they came to Duke to beat other teams and that’s what they’ve done, 33 times now. Who knows if they will save their slips of cuttings from that net, or if they’re saving space on their walls for NBA trophies?

As his younger teammates bounced around one side of the Duke locker room in celebration, the team’s elder sat apart from the revelers – who are still blissfully ignorant of what the other locker room feels like – and vacillated between shock and relief.

While the players and coaches at the South regional in Houston have been reluctant to place any blame for poor shooting on the weird setup of NRG Stadium, the number shows that the cavernous, domed arena is having a real effect on team’s ability to shoot from outside. Duke fared better than any other team on Friday and still shot just 44.4 percent as teams had combined to shoot just 39.8 percent in nine NCAA tournament games at the venue prior to Friday’s games, according to the Associated Press.