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Jacob Thorpe

Jacob Thorpe

Current Position: Sports columnist

Jacob Thorpe is a freelance sports columnist covering Washington State football.

All Stories

Sports >  Gonzaga basketball

Late-season success helps Bruins regain fans’ respect

HOUSTON – It is not an easy thing to impress fans that are used to seeing 11 national championship banners in Pauley Pavilion and a program that has been to three Final Fours in the last decade. But good vibes surround the Bruins since reeling off a pair of wins over No. 6 seed SMU and No. 14 seed UAB. UCLA has won six of its last seven games as a young roster rounds into form. Leading scorer Norman Powell is the only senior in the Bruins’ nine-man rotation, and center Tony Parker is the only junior.
Sports

Bulldogs should again be able to handle improved Bruins

HOUSTON – An improved frontcourt means UCLA is a more imposing team than the one Gonzaga beat 87-74 earlier this year. Kevon Looney and Tony Parker have developed into a frontcourt tandem that is better equipped to take on GU’s size down low than any team the second-seeded Bulldogs have faced since Arizona.
Sports >  Gonzaga athletics

College baseball: Cougars off to rough start

PULLMAN – Washington State played seven baseball games on the road in 10 days and the worst team they faced, San Diego, is on the verge of being ranked in the college baseball polls. The Cougars went 1-6 in that stretch and were saved from a seven-game losing streak by the indomitable arm of Joe Pistorese. WSU’s freshmen, four of whom start frequently, got a rude welcome to the rigors of Pac-12 play.
Sports

WSU spring football: Cougars want faster defense

PULLMAN – The Washington State football players will emerge on Thursday from a winter spent in their expansive new weight room. But to the public, able to see the Cougars at the 2:30 p.m. Martin Stadium practice for the first time since the Apple Cup, WSU will look pretty much the same.
Sports >  Gonzaga basketball

Bulldogs answer every Hawkeyes effort

SEATTLE – After spending the first 20 minutes of Sunday’s NCAA tournament game against Gonzaga as chew toys for the Bulldogs, the Iowa Hawkeyes came out for the second half with some teeth of their own. The seventh-seeded Hawkeyes executed their game plan. Their zone defense hustled the Bulldogs into seven second-half turnovers while the offense committed just four of its own. Forwards Aaron White and Jarrod Uthoff made their usual impact, combining to score 27 second-half points while shooting better than 50 percent from the field.
Sports

Wiltjer vs. White: Stretch 4’s on display at KeyArena

SEATTLE – Fans of the skinny- forward motif in college basketball that watched the second session of Friday’s NCAA tournament games at KeyArena got a 2-for-1 deal. First they saw a 6-foot-9 guy use his octopus arms to lead his team with an array of slow-developing but impossible-to-stop jump shots, hook shots, putbacks and dunks. Then they saw his carbon copy in the encore.
Sports >  Gonzaga basketball

Wiltjer-White matchup may determine Gonzaga’s fate

One of the NCAA tournament’s biggest, most-skilled frontcourts will be gone at the conclusion of today’s game between Gonzaga and Iowa. The battle between Gonzaga's big imports and Iowa’s homegrown Midwesterners should be a good one will likely decide which team advances to the Sweet 16.
Sports >  Gonzaga basketball

Bison-sized Werner gives Zags fits

SEATTLE – With more buzzer-beaters, upsets and general madness soon to come, college basketball fans won’t long remember a No. 15 seed from a game that ended after midnight in the Eastern time zone. But it should be acknowledged when this is all over that one of the NCAA tournament’s most inspiring performances came courtesy of a previously unimposing player on a supposedly unthreatening team.
Sports

Hoyas flip script to old narrative

PORTLAND – Jabril Trawick let the moment overcome him and dunked with 1.2 seconds left to celebrate the enormity of the win. Bradley Hayes and Trey Mourning walked around the arena with their arms held high, and Josh Smith waved to the crowd. Georgetown’s 84-74 win over Eastern Washington on Thursday won’t be remembered by college basketball fans in the nation’s capital as one of the program’s shining moments.
Sports

EWU notes: Hoyas’ Josh Smith immovable force in spurts

PORTLAND – Since his playing days at Kentwood High, Josh Smith’s undeniable talent has been overshadowed by his gargantuan size. No matter what he does on the court, poundage-per-game has always been his most-analyzed statistic. His search for basketball fame and fortune, and a workout routine that could keep him on pace to achieve both, took him first to Los Angeles and then across the country to our nation’s capital.
Sports >  Gonzaga athletics

College baseball: Brandon Bailey picks up where he left off for Bulldogs

The Tommy John surgery that took Brandon Bailey’s senior season of high school baseball also disrupted his freshman season of college, even if he was still Gonzaga’s best pitcher. Bailey led the Bulldogs in wins (six), earned-run average (3.69) and threw four of the team’s five complete games. But the elbow surgery took away his slider and affected the pitcher’s control, so Bailey’s strikeout numbers were average and his 26 walks in 102 1/3 innings also led the team, by a wide margin.
Sports

Improvement evident among Cougars

LAS VEGAS – When the Washington State men’s basketball team’s season ended on Wednesday, it did so in the same unremarkable fashion as the ones immediately preceding it. Most of the improvements coach Ernie Kent referred to during his postgame press conference were unquantifiable.
Sports

Washington State takes early exit from Pac-12 tournament

LAS VEGAS – Throughout his first season as the Washington State men’s basketball coach, Ernie Kent has tried to supplement his players’ basketball education with off-the-court lessons and support. He’s helped Jordan Railey navigate the challenges of building a family and reunited DaVonté Lacy with estranged parental figures.