Fast Break

College basketball

Davis sends tough message

Unhappy with his team’s worst start in more than a decade, Middle Tennessee State coach Kermit Davis locked his players out of their plush locker room.

Junior center Theryn Hudson said nobody even tried the door after the team’s 62-51 loss Wednesday to Western Kentucky because Davis, the two-time University of Idaho head coach, told them it would be locked.

Players have been relegated to stark facilities down the hall, with two showers and two toilets for the whole team.

Davis said the players’ personal gear was in trash bags there and no one was going to step into the recently renovated room until attitudes improve.

“I want guys to appreciate college basketball and appreciate what we do it for,” Davis said.

“I feel like our guys have been coming to practice without that razor-sharp energy and passion.”

The Sun Belt Conference’s Blue Raiders have a 4-9 record, with a three-game losing streak heading into today’s home game against Denver (6-7).

Davis was the UI head coach during the 1996-97 season.

College football

Former assistant returns to WSU

Washington State University head football coach Paul Wulff filled one of two open spots on his staff Friday, bringing former Cougars assistant Chris Ball back to Pullman.

Ball served as a graduate assistant for WSU in 1989 and 1990. After stops at four colleges, Ball returned to WSU in 2000 as a secondary coach under Mike Price.

Ball followed Price to Alabama in 2003 and stayed with the Crimson Tide until last season when he moved to Pitt. The position he’ll fill on the Cougars’ staff was not announced.

“He gives us a veteran coach who has recent experience in the SEC and Big East Conference, not to mention his previous Pac-10 experience,” Wulff said in a media release.

The Cougars also received an oral commitment this week from Lakes High School quarterback Calvin Schmidtke, the Tacoma News Tribune’s all-area co-player of the year.

The 6-foot Schmidtke threw for 2,724 yards and 37 touchdowns while leading the Lancers to a 10-1 record.