After attaining statehood November 11, 1889, the Washington State Legislature took steps to claim a land-grant college. On March 28, 1890, passed a bill for the creation of the Agricultural College, Experiment Station and School of Science of the State of Washington. In 1905 it became Washington St. College, and in 1959 Washington State University. Main campus sits in Pullman in the rolling hills of the Palouse region of eastern WA.
WSU enrollment is 21,923 undergrads, 4567 grads. They were rated No. 107 public school by USN&WR. The have a $1.3B endowment. The school colors are crimson and gray, nickname is the Cougars, mascot is Butch R. Cougar. Alums include Edward R Murrow – father of broadcast journalism, Laurence Peter – creator of The Peter Principle, John Fabian Challenger II astronaut.
WSU Basketball began in 1902 (1671-1592 .512), 1 pre-NCAA national championship 1917, NCAA runner-up 1941 (only Final Four, Elite Eight team), 2008 Sweet Sixteen lost to #1 UNC, 5 NCAA appearances (last 2008), Conf champs 1917, 1941, 7 NITs, 21 NBA players, 2 retired numbers: 1 - Klay Thompson, 55 - Steve Puidokas. Career scoring 1. Isaac Fontaine, 2. Steve Puidokas, 3. Klay Thompson.
WSU Coaches by all-time wins: Jack Friel 495, Fred Bohler 226, George Raveling 166, Marv Harshman 155, Kelvin Sampson 103, Ken Bone 80, Kyle Smith 79, Tony Bennett 69. Many successful coaches passed thru WSU:
Tony Bennett followed father Dick as WSU head coach. Had a WSU-best .676 win %, and after 3 yrs, moved to UVA in 2000. He's created a perennial powerhouse at UVA, going 352-129 .732 and winning the 2018-19 National Championship.
Kelvin Sampson (1991 Pac-10 COY at WSU) left for Oklahoma and was AP COY in 1995. He compiled a 280-108 .772 record at OU, with a Final Four in 2001-02, and an NCAA appearance every year but 1 (NIT). He also led Indiana to an NCAA appearance before getting fired for a “Show Cause” penalty for NCAA violations. Ater 5 years as an NBA assistant returned to coach Houston and has a 246-75 .766 record, including the 2020-21 Final Four and 7 straight NCAA appearances.
George Raveling, first African American head coach in the Pac, at WSU 1972-83 was 2-time Pac-8 COY, 1983-86 coached at Iowa, went to 2 NCAAs and was SC’s coach from 1986-1994 (‘91, ‘92 NCAAs, ’93, ‘94 NIT). One of SC’s best ever teams (1991-92) with star Harold Miner had clear Final Four potential, but the Miracle in Milwaukee happened when James Forrest with 0.8 secs left, threw up a prayer and hit his only 3 of the season for Georgia Tech’s 79-78 upset victory (that one STILL HURTS!). Rav was voted Kodak’s National COY in ’92.
Rav was an USA Olympic team assistant in 1984 (Los Angeles – Gold medal), 1988 (Seoul – bronze). He was named to the College Basketball HOF in 2013 and the Naismith Basketball HOF in 2015.
He also holds a special place in history. On Aug, 28, 1963 during Martin Luther King’s March on Washington, Rav was a volunteer to provide security for Dr. King and was on the podium for the famous ‘I Have a Dream’ speech. He asked King if he could have the typewritten copy of the speech and he gave it to him. He kept the original, even declining a $3 Million offer in 2013, instead ‘loaning’ it to his alma mater Villanova in 2021 for permanent stewardship.
Current coach Kyle Smith in 6th season 79-66 (36-45) .545. replaced Ernie Kent. Under Smith NIT Semifinals ‘21-22, NIT 1st rd ‘22-23. Previously coach at Columbia 2010-16, USF ’16-19. Career record 243-188 (.564)
The Cougars are 10-5 overall and 1-3 in conference. Wins: Idaho, Prairie View A&M, Rhode Island, Utah Tech, EWU, Portland State, UC Riverside, Grambling, Boise State, Oregon State. Losses: Mississippi State, Santa Clara, Utah, Colorado, Oregon
USC is 82-49 all-time vs WSU including 7 straight wins at Galen. WSU is currently No. 72 in the NCAA’s NET rankings, KenPom 73. USC is No. 84 NET, KenPom 63
WSU scores: 75.0 ppg (47.3% FG, 33.8% 3FG, 6.4 3’s/g, 68.2% FT). 38.3 rebs/g (+7.0),13.0 assists/g, 10.9 TO/g (+0.2), 12.1 ppg off TO, 5.6 steals, 5.3 blks
WSU Leaders:
Scoring: Myles Rice 14.6 ppg (45.2% FG, 33.3% 3FG, 82.0% FT), Isaac Jones 14.1 (59.4% FG, 10% 3FG, 71.2% FT), Andrej Jakimovski 10.7 (40.1% FG, 34.9% 3FG, 52.9% FT)
Rebounds: Jones 7.1 rpg, Jakimovski 6.1, Rueben Chinyelu 5.9, Assists- Rice 3.1 apg, Kymany Houinsou 2.9, Steals – Rice, Blocks – Chinyelu 1.3 bpg, Oscar Cluff 1.0 bpg
SC scores: 77.9 ppg (45.6% FG, 36.4% 3FG, 8.6 3’s/g, 70.8% FT). 35.9 rebs/g (+0.6), 15.7 assists/g, 13.1 TO/g (+0.7), 15.6 ppg off TO, 7.2 steals, 7.2 blks
SC Leaders:
Scoring: Boogie 18.8 ppg (4th in Pac) 46.1% FG, 45.5% 3FG, 3.4 3’s/g (1st in Pac), Collier 15.4 ppg (50.6% FG, 31.3% 3FG, 66.3% FT), Kobe 11.6 ppg, 39.7% FG, 29.7% 3FG, 75% FT)
Rebounds: Kobe 4.5, Josh 4.3, Assists 4.3 (4th in Pac), Kobe 3.6, Steals- Kobe 2.2 (2nd in Pac), Blks Josh 2.3 (1st in Pac) and 69.2% FG (1st in Pac)
Pregame
Jay Morris is the speaker today in the Founder’s Room - excited to talk to us after 2 W’s, team starting to play better, but still learning. WSU always plays us tough. They feature less 3-pt shooting and more post play than last season - Keep them out of the paint! Have a freshman PG, Rice who leads them in scoring and we intend to guard him like we did K-State’s PG. (Note: Rice missed his first 2 seasons battling Hodgkin’s Lymphoma). Nothing the Coug’s want more than beating SC on the road, “they also want DJ Rodman back,” he jokes - haha.
Says he doesn’t know about Bronny’s minutes restriction; Bronny just lets them know when he needs to come out and when he’s ready to go back in. For the record, he has averaged 17.3 minutes.
After the national anthem by a sax player, I look and see that Lebron is seated courtside. Rodman’s sister Trinity is also back. Producer/DJ/Record exec Zack Bia (Olivia Rodrigo’s ex) and Rapper/singer-songwriter Blxst (2023 Grammy nominee) are here, as are former SC basketballers Chimezi Metu and Chris Penrose.
A nice crowd of 6218 is in the house, there was a student line to get in today, with Crash back in his No. 1 position. I note that he is not rocking the CP3 football jersey, but a No. 3 SC baseball jersey. Is there a story with the number 3? hmm
Game
Morris didn’t tell us (Lincoln Riley school?) but Josh is not available tonight. Apparently, he is home sick with an upper respiratory infection. Vince will start alongside the Big 3 and Rodman.
The first half was ugly, SC couldn’t hit water falling out of a boat! In the first 17 mins, SC was 6 for 26 (23%!) and had to hit 4 of 5 at the end of the half to finish at 32.3% FG (10-31), 14.3% 3FG (1-7), FTs were OK at 70% (7-10). The Cougs shot 42.9% FG (12-28), 40% 3FG (4-10), 25% FT (1-4).
It was back and forth with each team holding 5 leads with 4 ties. Despite these numbers, WSU was only up 29-28 at halftime. WSU had 2 more points in the paint and 4 more fastbreak points. Points off TO and 2nd chance pts were even.
Of the 28 pts: Boogie had 7, Collier & Kijani had 6, Kobe 5, Oziyah and Hornery 2. Bronny made his first appearance at 14:50, but the poor kid cannot get going when his pops is here, last game he scored 2 pts (0-4 FG, 2-5 FT) and in this finished scoreless in 16 min. I can’t imagine the pressure he feels every day being the son of the GOAT and having the media prop him up as an NBA draft pick. If he wasn’t Lebron’s son, I don’t think he would be, at this point in his college career.
In the 2nd half, WSU, specifically Isaac Jones, pounded the SC bigs inside for a game high 26 pts on 7-10 FG, 12-15 FT. You don’t realize how important Josh is to this team until moments like this where there’s No rim protection. After the game DJ said “Having rim protection, we take that for granted so much. When Josh is there, I’m not worried about if I get blown by, I know he’ll block the shot.”
Boogie played on a bum hamstring the whole game, but still led the team with 18 hard-earned pts. Collier was next with 12 pts on 5-9 FG, 2-4 FT, but unfortunately, he was injured (right hand) at 12:12 and sat out the rest of the game. He was having a nice game and WSU had no answer for his drives to the bucket. think he would have made a difference in the outcome of this game.
For the game:
WSU shot 47.1% FG (25-51), 31.6% 3FG (6-19), 78.3% FT (18-23)
SC shot 37.9% FG (22-58), 28.6% 3FG (6-21), 63.3% FT (14-22)
WSU had more pts in the paint (34-28), pts off TO (11-9), 2nd chance pts (10-5), fastbreak pts (12-4) and bench pts (36-16).
The final margin of victory for WSU of 8 points (72-64) is a bit deceptive as this was their biggest lead of a close game, tied 5 times in the 2nd half and there were 14 lead changes. The difference was that after a Hornery 3-ptr put SC up 64-63, SC did not score for the remaining 2:16 left in the game, while WSU closed with 2 baskets by that man Isaac Jones and 5 FTs.
WSU won in Galen for the 1st time in ~ 9 years. SC’s 12-game streak of scoring 70 or more pts came to an end. The Trojans are now 0-6 when trailing at halftime.
SC drops to 8-8 (2-3), while WSU goes to 11-5 (2-3). Next up for SC is a tough 3-game road trip to Colorado (12-4, 3-2) and the Arizona schools. SC will be without the services of Isaiah Collier who is out for 4-6 weeks. This is going to get a whole lot worse before it gets better!
I know Enfield has said he prefers not to use the transfer portal, but with Josh exhausting his eligibility, we need a good big man who can rim protect and score inside like no-one we have on this team.
This once promising season is slowly slipping away from us. It looks a lot like football, a high ranking in the preseason, followed by underachieving. At this point SC may be reduced to reaching the NCAA tourney only by winning the conference tournament – a long shot.. We may not even be able to make the NIT. It’s a real shame.
Fight on! Beat the Buffs!
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