WSU Football: Cougs get big
boost with WR Robert Lewis awarded sixth year!
By Barry Bolton Cougfan.com
WASHINGTON STATE received a
big boost on Wednesday. Wide receiver Robert Lewis has received a sixth year of
eligibility from the NCAA, WSU SID Bill Stevens confirmed to Cougfan.com.
Lewis, a fifth-year senior
last season, missed all of the 2017 campaign after tearing his ACL towards the
end of fall camp.
Lewis redshirted his first
season at Washington State in 2013. It is believed he was dinged up during all
or most of that season, which would be the opening needed to apply for a sixth
year. Receiving a sixth year requires
missing most or all of two seasons due to medical injury or hardship. Cougar
middle linebacker Peyton Pelluer was awarded a sixth year back in January.
Lewis’ return means even
more 2018 firepower for an inside receiver position that was already strong
coming out of spring ball, with Kyle Sweet, Renard Bell, Jamire Calvin, Travell
Harris and others in the fold.
Lewis has appeared in 37
games and started 22 in the slot (2014-16).
He earned his criminal justice degree last spring and is working towards
a second degree in political science.
Lewis first delayed
enrollment in 2012 to bulk up before became a regular part of the receiving
rotation in 2014. He earned a starting role in 2015 and 2016 and among his
crimson highlights, scored the winning TD against Oregon in 2015 in double OT.
In three seasons on the
Palouse, Lewis has racked up 117 receptions and 1,254 yards with 6 TDs.
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Washington State wideout
Robert Lewis gets another year of eligibility
By Adam Rittenberg, ESPN
Washington State wide
receiver Robert Lewis has been granted a sixth year of eligibility.
The NCAA approved Lewis'
waiver on Tuesday, allowing him to participate during the 2018 season. Lewis
has started 22 games for the Cougars, recording 117 receptions for 1,254 yards
and six touchdowns. He redshirted in 2013 before entering Washington State's
wide receiver rotation for the next three seasons. Lewis suffered a knee injury
before the 2017 campaign and did not play.
Washington State returns
running back James Williams, the team's receptions leader in 2017, but loses
top wide receivers Tavares Martin, who was dismissed from the program, and
Isaiah Johnson-Mack, who received his release from the program in December.
Lewis, a native of Watts,
California, has completed his bachelor's degree and is pursuing a second
degree.
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Derek Bayley repeats as
Idaho amateur match play champion
Mon., May 28, 2018, 2:05
p.m.
By Jim Meehan Spokane
Spokesman-Review
Derek Bayley, who recently
concluded his collegiate career at Washington State University, collected
another Idaho Golf Association men’s amateur match play championship.
Bayley, a product of
Lakeland High in Rathdrum, repeated as champion with a 6&5 win over
Auburn’s Graysen Huff on Monday at TimberStone Golf Course in Caldwell. Bayley
beat Huff 4&2 in the 2017 final.
Bayley torched the front
side in 29 strokes. He was 7 under in a six-hole stretch that included two
eagles. He holed out from 75 yards for eagle on the 284-yard par-4 sixth to
halve the hole with Huff, a former Eagle High standout who nearly made a
hole-in-one.
After closing out the
match, Bayley finished out the back side to see if he could break TimberStone’s
course record. Bayley made birdies on 14, 15 and 17 to finish at 11-under 61
and match the record.
Bayley won five matches in
a three-day span, including a 6&5 win in his opener and an 8&6
quarterfinal victory. Bayley defeated Notre Dame’s Hunter Ostrom, a former
Bishop Kelly standout, in 19 holes in the semifinals.
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Golden State’s Klay
Thompson reaches fourth consecutive NBA Finals
The former Coug will have a
chance to win his third championship ring
By Nick Nordi
Coug Center May 29, 2018
Former Washington State
Cougar Klay Thompson helped secure the Golden State Warriors their fourth
consecutive trip to the NBA Finals on Monday night with a 101-92 win over the
Houston Rockets.
Thompson and the Warriors
will start their quest for their second straight championship on Thursday
evening at 6:00 pm PT when they host the Cleveland Cavaliers who have been
their opponent in those four years.
Thompson, who came up huge
in game 6 on Saturday, tallied three fouls in the first four minutes of the
game on Monday. After sitting the rest of the first quarter he led the team in
the second quarter when he scored 10 of the Warriors 24 points. He kept his
composure the rest of the game and only picked up one more foul in the third
quarter and finished the game with 19 points.
In his previous three
Finals appearances against the Cavaliers he has averaged 19.3 points in his
35.5 minutes per game. So far this season he has averaged 20 points and just
over 7 rebounds in his 34.3 minutes per game.
This is the sixth
consecutive season that the Cougars have had a former athlete in the NBA
Finals. Aron Baynes, who is currently on the Boston Celtics, went 1-1 in the
Finals in 2013 and 2014 with the San Antonio Spurs.
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(In story below, note, overall
rankings included No. 88 Pullman.)
Spokane, Cheney hoop fans
receive high marks in WalletHub rankings
UPDATED: Tue., May 29,
2018, 4:01 p.m.
By Jim Meehan Spokane S-R
A round of applause for
basketball fans in Spokane and perhaps a standing ovation for Cheney.
Gonzaga has ranked among
the nation’s top collegiate programs for decades and that was largely reflected
in WalletHub’s ranking of the 291 best and worst college and/or NBA cities for
basketball fans.
Spokane checked in at No. 1
among best-performing college teams – a metric calculated by average winning
percentage over the last three seasons – followed by Lexington, Kentucky;
Tucson, Arizona; Dallas and Lawrence, Kansas.
Spokane generally received
strong marks in numerous other categories but was just 237th in stadium
capacity, based on the McCarthey Athletic Center’s 6,000 seats divided by
city’s population.
Spokane was No. 13 for
midsized cities, trailing No. 9 Provo, Utah, and No. 12 Eugene, and No. 80
overall, the latter based on 21 metrics.
Los Angeles was No. 1
overall, followed by Boston; Oakland, California; San Antonio and Salt Lake
City. Portland was No. 18.
Cheney, home of an Eastern
Washington basketball program with three 20-win seasons and one NCAA Tournament
appearance in the last four years, came in at 57th overall, just behind
Stillwater, Oklahoma, and two spots in front of Syracuse, New York.
Cheney was No. 22 in the
small-city category.
The overall rankings
included No. 62 Provo; No. 73 Eugene; No. 83 Seattle; No. 88 Pullman; No. 94
Moraga, California; No. 254 Moscow, Idaho, and No. 255 Missoula.
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WSU wine researchers
working to improve the color and taste of rosés
Tue., May 29, 2018, 5 a.m.
By Mike Prager Spokane S-R
Most people think of rosé
wine as a pink drink.
Those who love rosé and
admire its appearance in the glass will tell you it is something different.
A good rosé often is closer
to salmon or coral in color – distinctly not pink although pink is OK.
Achieving consistency in
color and flavor is apparently the challenge for top winemakers.
Kristina Mielke van Loben
Sels, wine director at Arbor Crest Wine Cellars in Spokane, said she tried to
make a rosé from the Italian sangiovese grape, but wasn’t pleased with the
outcome, so she used that wine for blending instead of marketing it as a rosé.
Now she has plans to make
rosé from pinot noir grapes out of the acclaimed Conner Lee Vineyard north of
Pasco. It should be released in early 2019, she said.
“I love dry rosés. They are
wonderful this time of year,” she said. Her color preference is coral. “You’ve
got to preserve that gorgeous color,” she said.
To help winemakers, a pair
of Washington State University wine researchers is coming up with techniques to
achieve consistency in color and flavor as part of the university’s outreach to
the growing wine industry.
Rosé is normally sold in
clear glass bottles so color is the first thing consumers see when they make a
purchase, Jim Harbertson, an associate professor at WSU Tri-Cities, said. “I
would say what sells dictates the market.
Making that good first
impression is critical. “There is a lot in psychology that goes into
perception,” he said.
Rosé is made from
dark-skinned grapes. In the initial fermentation, the juice is left to soak
with the dark skins from two to 48 hours to impart color into the wine, but not
too much color. The length of time on the skins depends on what the winemaker
is trying to achieve, Harbertson said.
According to the WSU news
service, Harbertson has become “an expert in the science of pink-esque pretty”
for the viticulture and enology program at the university.
For years, one of the most
popular rosés has been white zinfandel, which shows a pinkish hue but has been
frowned on by wine aficionados for being too sweet, cheap and of lesser
quality.
Rosé can be made from
numerous types of grape varieties, including Grenache, sangiovese, syrah,
mourvedre, cinsault and pinot noir, even obscure European varietals.
“There is no right or wrong
answer to what someone likes,” Harbertson said. “Consumers like variety.”
As the years go on and
consumers become more sophisticated, Washington winemakers have responded by
offering more rosés.
But not all of them.
Michael Haig, winemaker at
Lake Roosevelt Wine Company, grows the Bordeaux varietals of cabernet sauvignon,
cabernet franc and merlot at his family’s estate on the south shore of the
lake. He said he would never try to make a rosé from those grapes because they
are intended to be used in dark red wine. That said, he is always a fan of
well-made rosés, especially those from Spain.
The website for Townshend
Cellar on Green Bluff features a photo with two glasses of brut rosé sparkling
wine, a longtime favorite of wine drinkers locally. Winemaker Michael Townshend
said he is planning to make a still rosé from Grenache or sangiovese from the
Willard Vineyard.
“Everyone is into rosé this
time of year,” he said during a wine and food event Wednesday in Spokane. “Rosé
is magnificent in the right place.”
Rosé’s popularity started
growing maybe a decade ago, led at first by trendy types in large urban areas.
Over time, consumers have
discovered that a chilled bottle of rosé goes well during warm weather. Grocers
already know that as summer approaches, it is time to put more rosés on the
shelves.
Many drinkers consider rosé
a perfect patio wine. And to stay true to good entertaining, rosé should be
served with a variety of foods such as cheeses, charcuterie, fruit, grilled
vegetables, salmon, shellfish, salads, olives, chewy breads or light pasta.
“Rosés are so food-friendly.
I just love them,” Mielke van Loben Sels said.
Sparkling rosés like the
one from Townshend are always a popular choice. There are any number of bubbly
rosés imported from Europe and widely available in the U.S.
Harbertson said consumers
generally expect a lighter flavor in rosé if the color is lighter. A darker
color signals a fuller body in the taste. The color essentially is a clue to
what’s inside the bottle, he said.
But getting consistency can
be tricky. Bottling causes the color to lighten by as much as 60 to 70 percent.
Time in the bottle allows the wine to regain color, he said.
The problem of consistency
paired with flavor was brought to Harbertson’s attention by a winemaker who was
having issues. The winemaker urged Harbertson and graduate researcher Caroline
Merrell to work on the problem.
They discovered that by
proper management of sulfur dioxide used in winemaking, the vintner can
approach consistency. They also found that spectral and other analysis helps in
the blending process. Using more science in the winemaking is a key to rosé
success, Harbertson said.
Mielke van Loben Sels said
that means using lighter amounts of sulfur, which is typically applied to
control fermentation in winemaking.
Across Europe and
especially in France, winemaking is governed by a multitude of laws and rules.
American winemakers on the other hand are not shackled by a wine bureaucracy,
giving them more freedom to be creative, Harbertson said.
Linda Weiford of WSU News
said there is even a National Rosé Day on the second Saturday in June. She said
one vintner is offering kegs of it for sale.
For many wine drinkers, the
color of rosé is the magical thing. Not always pink, it could be a rouge like
colors offered at makeup aisles. Other ways to see rosé might be as a blush,
berry jam, strawberry, melon or cerise.
WSU’s Weiford came up with
one of the more creative rosé hues – ballet slipper pink.
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From Cougfan.com
NEW WSU WOMEN'S basketball
coach Kamie Ethridge is making serious tracks in her first month on the job.
She’s signed three players
to join Cherilyn Molina in the 2018 recruiting class that arrives on campus
this summer and has filled all but one spot on her staff.
The new signees are:
5-10 MICHAELA JONES
(Wymore, Nebraska)
"Michaela is a
multi-dimensional guard that had a tremendous high school career,” says
Ethridge. “She is an aggressive guard that can score at the rim, has a
fantastic mid-range
game and can shoot the
three. Michaela will bring a tough, competitive and 'run through the wall'
disposition to the floor …”
5-11 SHIR LEVY (Ness Ziona,
Israel)
"Shir is a dynamic
wing player that has tremendous perimeter skills,"says Ethridge. "We
love her ability to shoot the three and slash to the basket. Her size and
length will be great assets in the Pac-12.
Shir, will come to WSU with a mature game since she has completed her
military duty for Israel while playing in their top Division of basketball.”
6-0 ULA MOTUGA (Loganholme,
Australia)
"Ula brings a
versatile game that we value," says Ethridge. "She has the ability to
play any number of positions. Primarily, we envision her as a stretch-4 player
who will play in pick and roll and pick and pop situations that will allow her
to showcase her range, hands, IQ, and power."
The four members of the
recruiting class, plus seven returnees, mean Ethridge has three more recruiting
slots still available. She could save them for the 2019 recruiting cycle, which
would then give her five slots in that class as the 2018-19 Cougars include
just two seniors in Maria Kostourkova and Alex Swedlund.
ETHRIDGE ALSO IS FILLING UP
HER coaching staff. Laurie Koehn, an Ethridge assistant at Northern Colorado
and a prolific 3-point shooter as a player at Kansas State when Ethridge was an
assistant there, is the associate head coach. She played 11 years of pro ball.
Jackie Nared, who spent
last season at Oregon and two at Washington before that, is coming on as an
assistant coach with a major focus on recruiting, and Katie Shepard, coming
from Ethridge’s Northern Colorado staff, will be the video coordinator.
Kate Werner is the lone
hold over from Daugherty's staff, as director of operations. Ethridge has one
assistant coaching spot to fill.
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