A Grip on Sports: Despite the Arizona State loss Wednesday, there is optimism around the WSU basketball program
A GRIP ON SPORTS • When the season ends (maybe) and a college basketball team’s record is right around .500, is it appropriate to say its been an up-and-down year? In Washington State’s case, yes.
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• Last season, the Cougars ended with a win. As everyone in the world began to lose. If you recall, they played the final Pac-12 basketball game pre-pandemic and defeated Colorado. It led to optimism for this truncated season.
A not-unwarranted optimism cemented by nonconference success, though WSU’s schedule in that area wasn’t all that tough (Ken Pomeroy has it rated 317, which is near the bottom).
After last night’s 64-59 tournament loss to Arizona State, Washington State finished this year 7-13 against conference opponents. To quote Steve Spurrier, “not the best, but not the worst either.”
Seems like a springboard, right? Well, it was actually not as good as Kyle Smith’s first year with WSU. Counting the win over the Buffs, the Cougars’ first tournament success since Tony Bennett left, they finished 7-12 against other Pac-12 teams. Sure, we’re nitpicking here. But that’s what we do. And another thing we do is point out the record isn’t everything.
That Cougar team included CJ Elleby, now an NBA player. There was no one of that caliber on this year’s Cougar team, despite the heroics of Isaac Bonton and Noah Williams. This one’s resume includes some outstanding freshmen, including one at the most important position no one saw play this year, Jefferson Koulibaly.
The Canadian point guard suffered a preseason shoulder injury and didn’t return. Not only was he expected to allow Bonton to play off-ball more, Smith said more than once he was an outstanding on-ball defender. You can’t have too many of those in the Pac-12.
Of the freshmen we did see, Efe Abogidi impressed the most – he was on the Pac-12’s All-Freshman team – and certainly was the most game-ready. But he was joined in potential by Dishon Jackson, Andrej Jakimovski and TJ Bamba.
But freshmen make freshman mistakes. That leads to up-and-down play. The result? A 14-13 record.
It also leads to optimism, something that would be enhanced should the Cougars receive an opportunity to play in a postseason tournament (hence the “maybe” above). The more games the freshmen (and sophomores, etc.) can play, the better prepared they will be for next season.
A season in which a lot more ups should be expected.
• If you’ve been paying attention to our local Division I college hoops, you would have known this Ryan Collingwood story was coming. Well, actually, not unless you have hacked into the S-R Slack conversation. But the thrust of it was obvious.
Between Gonzaga and Eastern Washington, they have owned their respective conference’s MVP awards recently. And by a whole bunch of different players.
The schools have each produced four different MVP winners in the past five years. That’s pretty cool.
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Gonzaga: It wasn’t easy but it happened. Winning another West Coast Conference Tournament title that is. Jim Meehan rewinds the victory for GU’s men over BYU. … The women had the same result and their road may have been even harder, thanks to an almost team-wide bout of food poisoning. Jim Allen rewinds their win over BYU. … Steven Karr, who follows Gonzaga in more than one role, joined Larry Weir yesterday for the latest Press Box podcast. … Back to the men, many people who focus on recruiting expect Chet Holmgren to sign with the Zags in April. That would make him the first Naismith Player of the Year to do that. Jim Meehan has more in this story. … Donny Daniels, who retired a couple years ago at Gonzaga, is retiring for good now. He’s spent the past couple years working at Utah.
WSU: We covered the Pac-12 Tournament loss extensively above, but here is another link to Theo Lawson’s game story. As we said, he also has a notebook, which delves into Isaac Bonton’s future. My guess is he’s not coming back. … Around the Pac-12 and college basketball, Jon Wilner has his usual stock report, which includes a down arrow for Arizona basketball. … USA Today’s Dan Wolken believes a decision on Sean Miller’s future has to be made now. … Art Thiel took a look this morning at the state of college basketball in our state. … Besides WSU’s loss in Las Vegas, Washington lost as well. The Huskies did score a bunch of points but gave up almost 100 against a Utah team playing without one of its starters. The Utes will face off against USC, which is on a quest to improve its NCAA seeding. … Stanford’s odd season ended with an odd loss to California. The Bears will meet Colorado next. … Oregon hopes to win the tournament, and it begins that quest today against Arizona State. … Oregon State hopes to burnish its resume, starting against UCLA. … In football news, Christian Caple has a Washington mailbag. … Arizona State is rushing around in spring practice. … Finally, the conference is going to be playing financial catch-up for years.
EWU: Though we mentioned it above, Ryan has this story on the MVPs coming out of Eastern and Gonzaga. … Around the Big Sky, Eastern will play Northern Arizona, which upset Portland State. … Weber State and Montana meeting in the conference tournament? That’s cool. … Northern Colorado moves on after defeating Sacramento State. … Montana State starts today. … In football news, Weber State will be at home this weekend. With fans.
Idaho: The Vandal men won just one game this basketball season but they played a handful of close ones. Last night, in the Big Sky Tournament opener against Montana, they had one more. And one more defeat. … The women ran away from Montana State in the second half. They will meet Idaho State in the finals.
Whitworth: Bryce Hornbeck has made a lot of big plays for the Pirates’ football team. Dan Thompson has this story on the senior defensive back. … There is no guarantee the Pirates’ next school president will be as big a sports supporter as Beck Taylor. As Greg Mason tells us in this story, Taylor announced his long tenure at Whitworth is over and he is headed back to Samford University.
Preps: The Spokane School Board kicked the stadium can down the road a bit, looking for more public input. Jim Allen covered the downtown stadium supporters’ presentation and the board’s response. … Speaking of stadiums, with Joe Albi undergoing a facelift (or a demolition, depending on the school board’s decision), the Spokane high schools have to play their “home” games elsewhere. Steve Christilaw checks into Rogers’ schedule. (My question: With no fans in attendance, and the weather turning nice, why aren’t games scheduled for Saturday afternoons at the high school instead of traveling to, say, Central Valley or University or Union Stadium?) … Speaking of football, Dave Nichols previews this week’s games. … Dave also has a roundup of last night’s action as well as a listing of all-league teams in North Idaho.
Mariners: As we said yesterday, Ty France is ripping the ball. … John Stanton didn’t rip anything or anyone when the M’s leader spoke with the media yesterday. … The M’s have made plans for fans at home games but nothing has been approved by the state. … They lost yesterday.
Seahawks: Just who will be playing linebacker next season? … The salary cap has been set. It dropped quite a bit.
Sounders: Seattle will open its season at home April 16 against Minnesota. Will their be fans in the stands?
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• It has been a year of turmoil and angst, hasn’t it? And one of alone time, though not by choice in a lot of cases. As the sun shines more, there is a hope it will shine on a more normal world. That hope is why I wear my mask everywhere, I try to keep my distance and I wash my hands like a brain surgeon. And haven’t had a haircut, though today that might change. … And, by the way, thanks Kent for the Grampa Simpson gif on Twitter yesterday. Until later …