Year in review: 2023 saw many changes in college athletics, including the demise of the Pac-12 Conference
Eastern Washington is a region that loves its college sports, and so it is no surprise that most of the biggest stories of 2023 focus on its five university athletics programs.
A major college conference collapsed, leaving Washington State to clean up and pillage the rubble, and in the last go-round, two Cougars programs had some of their best seasons.
Gonzaga powerhouse basketball programs also had great calendar years, and so did some of the school’s other teams.
Teams from Idaho, Eastern Washington and Whitworth had impressive years, and also on this list are memorable stories from high school athletes and the cities of the region.
The stories on this list were compiled and then voted on by The Spokesman-Review’s sports staff to determine the top five. What follows is a summary of the biggest stories this staff told in the year 2023.
Pac-12 saga
While the exodus began 18 months ago with the departure of USC and UCLA, the dominoes fell quickly in the summer of 2023: Colorado left for the Big 12 in late July, and it was joined a week later by Arizona, Arizona State and Utah. That same day, Oregon and Washington announced plans to leave for the Big Ten. Four weeks later, California and Stanford left for the ACC.
A legal battle ensued, leaving Washington State and Oregon State ultimately in control of the Pac-12’s assets and also mired in a conference conundrum: whether to rebuild the Pac-something, join someone else, or go it alone and wait out the process.
In the end, the two announced plans to join the West Coast Conference in the majority of their sports for the next two seasons while partnering with the Mountain West Conference in football for the same duration.
The collapse of the Pac-12 spurred a national conversation about the role of conferences – and money – in college sports, and that conversation is anything but finished.
WSU women’s basketball wins Pac-12 Tournament
Since its inception in 2002, the Pac-10 (and then the Pac-12) women’s basketball tournament had largely gone to seed, won 15 times by the No. 1 seed, twice by the No. 2 and three times by the No. 3. Just once – fifth-seeded USC, in 2014 – had a team ranked lower won the tournament.
But that changed in 2023, when seventh-seeded Washington State won four games in five days to claim its first tournament title and a spot in the NCAA Tournament.
It wasn’t just significant for the basketball program, but the whole school. None of WSU’s team sports had won a conference championship since the football team did so in 2002.
Gonzaga basketball makes Elite Eight on buzzer-beater from Strawther
With a shot that mirrored one by Jalen Suggs two years earlier, Julian Strawther gave the Gonzaga men’s basketball team – a program rich with such moments – another thrilling finish when he launched a deep 3-pointer with 7.2 seconds left to lift the Zags past UCLA and into the Elite Eight.
Strawther’s shot came with the Zags down a point and gave them a 78-76 lead. UCLA then turned the ball over, and Strawther hit 1 of 2 free throws before the Bruins missed a last-second heave at the buzzer.
The run ended there, though: The fourth-seeded UConn Huskies trounced the third-seeded Bulldogs 82-54 two days later.
The Denver Nuggets selected Strawther 29th overall in the summer’s NBA draft.
WSU volleyball climbs to No. 4, earns second straight Sweet 16 appearance
In Jen Greeny’s last season as the program’s head coach, Washington State’s volleyball team reached the Sweet 16 in the Division I tournament for the first time since 2018. It was the Cougars’ eighth consecutive appearance in the tournament.
The fourth-seeded Cougars lost in straight sets to top-seeded Pittsburgh.
In December, Greeny, WSU’s coach the past 13 seasons, announced she was leaving to become head coach at West Virginia.
Timme breaks Burgess’ GU scoring record
In March, as Gonzaga secured another WCC Tournament championship, Drew Timme became the program’s all-time leading scorer. After he muscled his way into the key for a right-handed hook shot, Timme passed Frank Burgess – who scored 2,196 points from 1959 to 1961 – on Gonzaga’s all-time scoring list.
He finished his career with 2,307 points, one of three Bulldogs players to score at least 2,000 points. Jim McPhee, with 2,015, is the third. Timme was named a first-team All-America selection for the third straight season.
Other notable stories from 2023:
In their second season under head coach Jason Eck, the resurgent Idaho Vandals hosted an FCS playoff game for the first time since 1993, advanced to the FCS quarterfinals and had five first-team All-Big Sky selections.
Spokane County, Spokane Valley and the state of Washington pieced together the approval and funding for a $16.8 million renovation of Avista Stadium, ensuring the future of minor league baseball in Spokane.
The Gonzaga women’s basketball team scored more points than any other Stanford opponent in 23 years in a 96-78 victory over the No. 3 Cardinal in early December at McCarthey Athletic Center.
Eastern Washington became the first men’s basketball team in Big Sky history to start 16-0, part of an 18-game winning streak that tied for the longest in-season run in conference history.
In April, EWU star and Big Sky MVP Steele Venters announced he was transferring to Gonzaga, and two weeks later the Zags added transfers Ryan Nembhard (from Creighton) and Graham Ike (from Wyoming).
Gabriel Hughes, who as the 10th overall selection the year before was the highest drafted Gonzaga Bulldogs baseball player, began the 2023 minor league season with the Spokane Indians and in June earned a promotion to the Colorado Rockies’ Double-A affiliate in Hartford, Connecticut.
In March, the Whitworth men’s basketball team beat rival Whitman for its 15th Northwest Conference Tournament championship. In November, the Whitworth football team beat its rival, Linfield, to win its second conference title in six seasons. The Pirates won their first playoff game and finished the football season 10-1.
Abandoned by nearly all of its conference foes, the WSU football team won its first four games – including a victory over remaining Pac-12 member Oregon State – before dropping six in a row. That streak included a 44-6 home loss to Arizona, the Cougars’ largest margin of defeat in Pullman since 2008 (69-0 to USC).
The Gonzaga women’s soccer team accomplished two program firsts, winning a West Coast Conference title and an NCAA Tournament game, 1-0 over Idaho, in its second appearance in the bracket.
In taking fourth place in the 10,000 meters at the NCAA championships, James Mwaura posted the best individual finish for a GU track and field athlete.
Tyson Degenhart and Naje Smith – a pair of Spokane prep stars from Mt. Spokane and Lewis and Clark, respectively – started at Boise State and led the Broncos to the NCAA men’s basketball tournament as a No. 10 seed in March.
Spokane secured a team – named Spokane Zephyr FC – in the new USL Super League, a top-tier women’s professional soccer team, scheduled to begin play in August 2024.