Sports in brief: Cougs open vs. Mississippi Valley

College basketball: The Washington State University Cougars will open the 2009-10 season tonight at Beasley Coliseum in Pullman with a familiar non-conference foe.

For the second consecutive season, WSU will open with Mississippi Valley State, a Southwestern Athletic Conference school that often travels to the West Coast.

The Delta Devils (7-25 last season) not only open their season with WSU tonight, but will travel to Spokane for a Saturday game vs. Gonzaga. They will return West in December to face Oregon and Oregon State.

WSU, which routed the Devils 76-25 last season and 71-26 the year before, is coming off a 73-51 exhibition win over Lewis-Clark State College last Monday.

Klay Thompson led WSU (17-16 last season) with 19 points while DeAngelo Casto (above) added 14 points and 11 rebounds.

Tonight’s game will also be coach Ken Bone’s WSU debut.

Vince Grippi

Apple Cup to be shown on FSN

The Apple Cup – the game that matches rivals Washington State and the University of Washington – will kickoff at 3:30 p.m. at Husky Stadium on Nov. 28 and be broadcast by FSN.

Tom Glasgow and Mack Strong will provide game analysis from the press box, while Jen Mueller and Jason Stiles will offer sideline reports during the game.

Riggleman loses interim tag

Baseball: Jim Riggleman waited a decade for another chance to be a full-fledged manager in the major leagues – no interim tag attached.

He finally earned that job with the Washington Nationals.

The Nationals are sticking with Riggleman after promoting him from bench coach midway through last season, announcing at a news conference Thursday that he’ll be their manager in 2010.

Riggleman replaced fired skipper Manny Acta in July on an interim basis.

The Nationals were 26-61 (a .299 winning percentage) at the time and went 33-42 (.440) under Riggleman, finishing with a majors- worst record of 59-103.

He found himself in a similar situation a year ago with the Seattle Mariners, who fired their manager during the season and gave Riggleman the position on an interim basis.

He was a candidate to stay on there, too, but didn’t get that job.

In addition to his brief stint in Seattle, Riggleman managed in the majors with the San Diego Padres and Chicago Cubs.

He has a .444 career winning percentage across 10 seasons, with only one finish as high as second place.

Associated Press