Locally: Carlos Daniel, Stu Jackson will join Pac-12 Men’s Basketball Hall of Honor
Carlos Daniel and Stu Jackson, two men with Washington State ties, have been selected for induction into the Pac-12 Men’s Basketball Hall of Honor on March 10 prior to the semifinals of the 2017 Pac-12 men’s basketball tournament in Las Vegas.
Daniel was a student-athlete in every sense of the term during his career from 1995-98. Even 19 years later, Daniel still has six spots in the top 15 of WSU’s career record book, including blocked shots (third, 136), rebounds (eighth, 775), points (15th, 1,285), and minutes played (15th, 3,162).
The native of Louisville, Colorado, remains the only Cougar to lead the team in rebounding all four seasons, including a league-leading 10.1 average as a senior when he was first-team All-Pac-10 Conference. That season he was the first league player since 1995 to average a double-double.
Daniel is one of just three WSU players to earn Pac-10 All-Academic first team all three years he was eligible and is the only Cougar named a CoSIDA Academic All-America multiple times, a third-team selection in both 1997 and 1998.
Jackson, a star at Oregon (1974-76), was a men’s assistant coach at WSU from 1981-83. He has gone on to become one of the nation’s most respected basketball coaches and executives at both the collegiate and professional levels.
Since 2002, an individual from each conference school has been enshrined. This year’s class includes 11 former players and former Stanford coach Mike Montgomery. The other players in the 16th class are Bob Elliott (Arizona), Tarence Wheeler (Arizona State), Jerome Randle (California), Chauncey Billups (Colorado), Ray Blume (Oregon State), David Greenwood (UCLA), Ralph Vaughn (USC), Andre Miller (Utah) and Quincy Pondexter (Washington).
Administration
John Lamanna, a Spokane native in his second season as men’s head basketball coach at Ave Maria University in Florida, had the interim tag removed and has been named director of athletics at the 1,100-student Catholic school that was founded in 2003.
A 2000 graduate of North Central High School and a 2004 graduate of Washington State, Lamanna will also retain his men’s basketball coaching position. The Gyrenes, who play at the NAIA level, entered this weekend with a 5-14 record after compiling a 5-24 record last season.
“I feel incredibly blessed for the opportunity to lead the athletic department at Ave Maria University,” said Lamanna, who served in an interim capacity since August when the previous A.D. was promoted within the university. “There are very few professional opportunities where someone is allowed to bring two of their passions together … my passion for the Catholic faith and athletics.”
Lamanna is in his 17th year of coaching and athletic administration that started as a student assistant at WSU. The four years before arriving at Ave Maria he was men’s head basketball coach and manager of compliance and facilities at Franciscan University in Steubenville, Ohio.
College scene
Gunnar Kayser, a Montana Tech senior safety from Colbert and Mead High School, has been named by Victory Sports Network a first-team All-American for NAIA schools and the VSN Defensive Player of the Year.
Kayser, a two-time All-Frontier Conference selection for the two-time conference champions, had a league-leading seven interception and 64 tackles in spearheading the top defense in the conference.
He was also the Frontier Defensive Player of the Year, an American Football Coaches Association (AFCA) second-team All-American and a finalist for the Cliff Harris Award that goes to the player from NCAA Divisions II, III and NAIA judged to be the best defensive player.
Brittany Tackett, a Lewis-Clark State junior from Coeur d’Alene High School, was named the Frontier Conference Women’s Basketball Division I Player of the Week for the second time this season after averaging 22.5 points, six rebounds, two steals and one assist as the No. 2-ranked Warriors won twice at home.
The NAIA field-goal percentage leader hit 19 of 21 field goal attempts and 7 of 8 free throws. In a 57-42 win over No. 25 Carroll, playing with four fouls, Tackett scored 12 of her 20 points in the fourth quarter.
Bogdan Bliznyuk and Delaney Hodgins, junior forwards on the Eastern Washington men’s and women’s basketball teams, respectively, have been selected the Eastern Washington Athletics Department Scholar-Athletes of the Month for December.
Formerly from Lutsk, Ukraine, and a 2014 graduate of Todd Beamer High School near Seattle, Bliznyuk led Eastern to a 4-3 record in December, averaging 19.0 points, 5.4 rebounds and 3.4 assists per game. He made 48 percent of his field goals and had performances of 34 (a career high), 31 and 25 points, including one double-double.
He has received two Big Sky Conference player-of- the week honors and was selected by HoopsHD.Com as a midseason All-Big Sky selections and its “Player of the Year So Far.”
Hodgins, a Chiawana High School graduate, leads the Big Sky in scoring at 18.5 points per game and is the only player with more than 100 field goals this season as she continues a double-figure scoring streak that has reached 31 games.
In December, Hodgins scored 28 points in one game, missing her career high by a point, and broke her career high in steals in a game with six. She was a Big Sky co-player of the week a week after being named the College Sports Madness Big Sky Player of the Week
Brandon Davis, a senior guard on the Alaska-Fairbanks men’s basketball team from West Valley, scored a career-high 30 points in a Great Northwest Athletic Conference loss to Montana State-Billings on Jan. 14. He leads the Nanooks in scoring at 14.0 points a game and 36 3-pointers, shooting 40 percent from 3-point range and 83 percent from the free-throw line.
Shooting
Cassidy Wilson of Spokane won the women’s Washington State USA Shooting Junior Olympic Rifle Championship to lead the showing by members of the Spokane Junior Rifle Club in the two-day event last month.
Wilson, 16, who is home schooled, shot 563 out of a maximum 600 in the 3-position small-bore (0.22) event to win the gold medal and qualify for the National Junior Olympic Championships in April at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
SJRC had three of the top four in the women’s division that included teams from Vancouver and Seattle. All shot at their home sites. Maliya Hillman, 18, Lewis and Clark, shot 561 to earn the bronze medal while Mary Maystrovich, 17, Northwest Christian was fourth with 557.
In the men’s division, Mason Maystrovich, 15, Northwest Christian, and David Wright, 18, Riverpoint Academy, both shot 533, with Maystrovich placing 14th and Wright 15th.
SJRC’s gold team – Wilson, Hillman, Mary Maystrovich and Wright – missed the gold medal by a point, shooting 2,214 to win silver.