Eastman Reinstates Ellison And Mack

Donminic Ellison and Tavares Mack are back in good standing with the Washington State men’s basketball team, Cougars coach Kevin Eastman announced Tuesday.

Ellison, a sophomore point guard, who had started WSU’s first 10 games, and Mack, a backup forward, were suspended and did not play in Saturday’s 91-78 loss at UCLA. They were punished for breaking curfew two nights earlier.

Eastman met with the two players Monday and allowed them to resume practicing with the team. He did not say whether either would start Thursday night when the Cougars entertain 17th-ranked Oregon at 7 on Friel Court.

“When you even discipline your own children - and sometimes discipline them harshly - you’ve got to still have them in your family when you wake up the next morning,” Eastman said. “They understood they made a mistake in judgment. It cost them, embarrassed our program, embarrassed them and put the other 10 guys in a tough situation at UCLA. But now they’re back and ready to go.”

Eastman said Monday’s practice, the first time Ellison and Mack had been with the team since being sent back to Pullman from Los Angeles Friday, was “mediocre, at best.

“But we kind of felt that might be the case,” he added. “You just never know how players are going to react to each other after a suspension. And there’s always a little doubt or question as to their thinking - ‘Well, I wonder how the coach is going to react today.’

“Our reaction was that we had to get back to a normal setting.”

Ellison sprained his knee in Thursday night’s loss to USC and was originally expected to miss at least a week. But he wore a rubber sleeve around the knee Monday and Tuesday and showed no ill-effects.

“He’s fine,” Eastman said. “I don’t think there’s going to be any problem at all.”

Flower man-child

Arizona’s Joseph Blair has been taking some good-natured ribbing from teammates and friends since changing to an unorthodox freethrow shooting style.

But the massive 6-foot-9, 256-pound junior said he can live with the barbs as long as his oncedismal foul-shooting percentage of 35.5 keeps rising as it has of late.

“I feel stupid, but I don’t care,” said Blair, who has shot 73.9 percent from the line the past four games. “As long as it keeps going in, I’ll look like a pansy.”

Henderickson’s new pitch

WSU forward Mark Hendrickson, one of only two Pac-10 players averaging double figures in scoring (13.3) and rebounding (10.1), plans to play baseball for the Cougars this spring.

Hendrickson, a 6-9, 230-pound, left-handed pitcher, had hoped to try out for the baseball team last spring but decided against it after suffering a stress fracture in his lower left leg near the end of the basketball season.

Last summer, after the leg healed, he went to Harrisburg, Pa., and pitched for a semipro team in the Susquehanna League.

“I got a lot of looks back there from East Coast (pro) scouts and I got my name circulated nationally, which was something I need to do,” said Hendrickson, who went 10-1 with a 0.84 earned-run average while pitching Mount Vernon to the Washington AA state championship as a high school senior. “And I had a good time playing. It was fun again. I still love the game.”

Hendrickson, who has been drafted twice by the Atlanta Braves and once by the San Diego Padres, returned to WSU this fall and worked out with the Cougars baseball team under first-year coach Steve Farrington.

“I kind of worked around our (basketball) conditioning schedule,” he explained. “I went out twice a week and then played in intrasquad games and scrimmages on the weekends, so I got my foot in the door with them.”

Eastman said he doesn’t mind Hendrickson giving baseball a try.

“It’s no problem at all,” he said. “We’re just going to want him to get his three skill-development sessions in each week. And then he can lift (weights) however Steve thinks he should lift.”

Former WSU basketball coach Kelvin Sampson refused to let Hendrickson try out for the baseball team as a freshman in 1993.

Roster rousings

UCLA guard Marquis Burns has decided to transfer, but still has not decided where he will go.

Burns has not played since injuring his back during the Bruins’ 137-100 win over George Mason back on Dec. 22, and UCLA coach Jim Harrick said he will petition for a medical redshirt year for the little-used junior guard at whatever school he chooses.

“I want to help him go where he can get some playing time.” Harrick said. “He’s a terrific kid.”

Arizona State’s roster is down by two players following the losses of sophomore guard Ryan Cuff, who quit the team because of lack of playing time, and junior forward Jimmy Kolyszko, who has not practiced recently because of classroom deficiencies.

ASU coach Bill Frieder said he is not sure when Kolyszko will return.

“He’s working out an academic matter,” Frieder said. “But the semester started (Monday), so I’m positive I’ll know something in the next day or two.”

Poll-arized

This week’s Pac-10 news release pointed out a peculiar pattern of ups and downs in the latest USA Today/ CNN men’s basketball ratings.

Arizona, the release noted, went on the road last weekend and beat two ranked opponents - Stanford and California - yet dropped from ninth to 11th in the poll.

And 22nd-ranked Cal, after losing to top-10 teams Arizona and Arizona State, fell out of the Top 25.

Yet 25th-ranked Clemson, which lost to Virginia and North Carolina, somehow managed to climb a spot to 24th.

3-pointers

Six of the last eight games between Bay Area rivals Stanford and California have been decided by 17 points or more. … The dunk Tyus Edney had in UCLA’s 91-78 rout of WSU last Saturday was the first of the senior point guard’s career. … Arizona freshman Miles Simon, who is averaging 7.9 points per game, could be lost for as long as a month after undergoing surgery last weekend to repair the right index finger he dislocated in Thursday night’s 99-86 win over Cal. … Oregon State’s sophomore center, Jerohn Brown, who has been sidelined since spraining his left knee against Notre Dame late last month, has started working out with the team, but is not expected to make this weekend’s trip to Washington. … Frieder’s next win will be his 100th since taking over the Arizona State program six years ago. … WSU assistant Byron Samuels, a three-year starter for Jerry Green at North Carolina-Asheville in the early 1980s, will be reunited with his mentor Thursday night when Green brings his Oregon Ducks to Pullman.