WSU WOMEN’S SPORTS: YOU KNEW. BUT, DID YOU KNOW? (THREE SISTERS AND THEIR COUSIN.)
WSU women’s BASKETBALL team 2018-2019 players include sisters Molina: Chanelle (junior), Celena (redshirt freshman) Cherilyn (freshman) of Kailua Kona, Hawaii. All are guards. You knew that. But, did you know their cousin, Alexis Dirige (junior) of San Francisco, is a defensive specialist/libero on the WSU VOLLEYBALL team 2018?
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WSU Women’s Basketball:
Era of Ethridge begins Monday with exhibition match in Beasley
By COLIN CONNOLLY, Evergreen Oct 29, 2018
WSU women’s basketball will host an exhibition match against Warner Pacific University on Monday in Beasley Coliseum.
This will be WSU Head Coach Kamie Ethridge’s first game coaching the team. Ethridge leads a team with four true freshman and a few senior leaders and is likely looking to continue her coaching success from University of Northern Colorado, where she had three seasons with 20 or more wins.
The Cougars ended last season with an overall record of 10-20 and 3-14 in conference. As a result, former Head Coach June Daugherty was dismissed. However, the Cougs have had a chance to work with Ethridge in the offseason, which may have helped them learn a new coaching style and adapt to the younger players.
The Cougars return with their top-three scorers from last season: redshirt junior forward Borislava Hristova, senior guard Alexys Swedlund and junior guard Chanelle Molina. They will also welcome five newcomers to the court this season.
WSU will host its exhibition against the Warner Pacific Knights at 7 p.m. Monday in Beasley Coliseum.
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WSU WOMEN’S BASKETBALL 2018-2018 ROSTER
Michaela Jones G5-10 Wymore, Neb / Beatrice HS Fr.
Johanna Muzet G6-0 Lyon, France / Jr.
Chanelle Molina G5-9 Kailua Kona,Hawaii /Konawaena HS Jr.
Shir Levy F5-11 Ness Ziona, Israel / Gimnasia-Yealit Fr.
Ula Motuga F6-0 Logan, Australia / Canterbury College Fr.
Maria Kostourkova C6-4 Lisbon, Portugal / E.S.P.J.A.L. Sr.
Celena Molina G5-9 Kailua Kona,Hawaii/Konawaena HS R-Fr.
Alexys Swedlund G5-11Rapid City,SD/ St.ThomasMore HS Sr.
Cherilyn Molina G5-6 KailuaKona, Hawaii / Konawaena HS Fr.
Jovana Subasic F6-4 Sabac, Serbia / R-So.
Borislava Hristova F6-0Varna,Bulgaria/Georgi Benkovski R-Jr.
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October 28, 2018 / Women's Basketball
Women's Basketball Tips-Off Exhibition Play Monday
The Cougs host Warner Pacific Monday night at Beasley.
From WSU Sports Info
WASHINGTON STATE vs Warner Pacific Mon., Oct. 29 7 p.m.
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> Washington State begins it's new era Monday with first-year head coach Kamie Ethridge. Ethridge takes over the Cougars after spending the last four seasons shaping Northern Colorado into a mid-major power.
> Last season the Cougars dominated their exhibition contest against The Masters Universtiy, winning 95-57.
> The Cougars return their top three scorers in Borislava Hristova, Alexys Swedlund, and Chanelle Molina. Overall, WSU returns six letterwinners from a season ago while welcoming five newcomers (four true freshman and one redshirt-freshman).
> Borislava Hristova, the Cougs' 2018 All-Pac-12 honoree from a season ago, enters the year on the Cheryl Miller Watch List as one of the top-20 small forwards in all of college basketball.
> WSU has a pair of players playing for their home countries as Chanelle Molina took gold with Team USA at the FISU America Games in Brazil over the summer while freshman Ula Motuga is currently with the U-18 Australian national team at the 2018 Asian Championships in India.
2017-18 AT A GLANCE
The Cougars finished the regular season with a 10-19 overall record, including a 3-13 mark in Pac-12 Conference play to finish 10th in the conference. They would fall 47-44 in the first round of the Pac-12 Tournament to USC. WSU lost nine games on the year and were 4-9 in contests that were decided by two possessions (six points) or less. The biggest wins of the season came against Rutgers (63-60) and at Nebraska (73-61).
THE 2018-19 SCHEDULE
The Cougars hit the court for the first time Monday, Oct. 29 in exhibition play while the regular season begins Tuesday, Nov. 6. WSU and the rest of the Pac-12 will begin play conference play Sunday, Dec. 30 with Washington State heading to Seattle for the first part of the Boeing Apple Cup Series with rival Washington. In all, the Cougars will face 10 teams that played in the 2018 NCAA Tournament, four in nonconference play and six in Pac-12 competition. In addition, the Cougars will host three Elite Eight teams from a season ago with Oregon, Oregon State, and Stanford come to the Palouse.
FOLLOW THE COUGS ON SOCIAL MEDIA ALL SEASON
Get all the info, photos, and videos a true Coug Fan could want by following the team on Facebook (facebook.com/wsuwomenshoops), Twitter (@WSUWomensHoops) and Instagram (WSUWomensHoops).
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Kamie Ethridge was clearly impressed with her first experience as a member of the Pac-12 on Wednesday at the annual Pac-12 Women’s Basketball Media Day Event.
“Coming in new, being around this kind of setup, this kind of media attention, the validity and the value that you put into women’s basketball is something I am certainly thrilled to be a part of,” said Ethridge, the only new head coach in the Pac-12 ranks this season. “This is not what most people who coach women’s basketball get to experience.”
Ethridge comes to Washington State after a successful four-year stint at Northern Colorado, where she led the program to a record number of wins last season and its first appearance in the NCAA Tournament last spring. She is inheriting an experienced, but not terribly deep team that has endured significant injuries over the past two seasons and finished 3-14 in conference play in 2018. She has seven returning players.
Among her returners is Borislava Hristova, the redshirt junior from Bulgaria, who has been among the conference’s most consistent scoring threats. Hristova averaged a team-leading 17.8 points a game last season.
Junior guard Chanelle Molina, the team’s assist leader, also returned, surrounded by plenty of familiar faces, with her two sisters Celena and Cherilyn, playing on the Cougars’ team this season.
“We played together in high school, so it’s kind of a natural feeling to play together in college,” Chanelle said. “We are competitive, so I’ll get on my sisters when I see they are not doing their jobs.”
Hristova said her expectations for this season are very high, even with a coaching change.
“With the new coaching staff we have, it gives us freedom offensively,” Hristova said. “It’s like a free-flowing offense. We’re just able to create for yourself, create for your teammates…it’s just a great opportunity for us, and I think it’s going to help us grow as players and people.”
Ethridge knows the degree of difficulty is high as she begins her career in one of the country’s toughest conferences. And she acknowledged that she doesn’t have “all the pieces she wants for her program yet. But she said she wants to “lay a foundation” this first season.
“I think I’m walking into a pretty special situation,” Ethridge said. “I think the seven that stayed and stuck around for this program and committed to this program and wanted to stay and want it to become success, that’s unique. I think they represent a lot of the things that I want to be about and I think they give us a great foundation. They are committed players…they want to be coached.”
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Commentary
MONDAY MORNING QUARTERBACK:
First he did a flip. Then he traveled the longest yard
By Dale Grummert, Lewiston Trib
Oct 29, 2018
If Gardner Minshew had all day to think about the problem, perhaps he'd have head-faked cornerback Alameen Murphy and prudently trotted out of bounds, as Air Raid quarterbacks are wont to do.
Instead, he tried to leap over him. It made no sense. Murphy wasn't diving for the quarterback's ankles. And Minshew, for all his virtues, isn't Javier Sotomayor.
So Murphy simply pressed a shoulder into the left thigh of the airborne quarterback and sent him spinning out of bounds like a pinwheel, a yard shy of the first-down marker.
"I thought they should have given me the first down just because I imagine it looked cool," a grinning Minshew said later. "It felt cool."
Washington State's uncanny new quarterback knows there are no style points in football. There is style, to be sure, but it's supposed to be subordinated to substance, and Minshew demonstrated his understanding of that rule on the next play Saturday night at Stanford, Calif.
It was a fourth-and-1 keeper, and it was initially toast. Michael Williams, a 293-pound defensive tackle, tattooed Minshew at the line of scrimmage, which by all rights should have ended the play. But the 220-pound quarterback lowered a shoulder, drove his legs and slipped past Williams for a remarkable first down.
Four snaps later, he threw a go-ahead, fourth-quarter touchdown pass to Renard Bell to point the Cougars toward a gritty 41-38 victory over the tough guys of Stanford. Combined with Washington's loss across the bay to the Cal Bears, the Cougars' fourth straight win lifted them into sole possession of first place in the Pac-12 North and, the next day, a No. 10 spot in the AP poll.
From the moment he gave his first interview during preseason workouts at Pullman in August, it's been obvious that Minshew is a performer in two senses. He's the athlete as actor, a guy who's putting on a show even while he's wholeheartedly trying to win games and bring some cheer to a place that really needs it.
That's what the disco-era mustache is all about. Intentionally or not, Minshew seems to be spoofing 1970s glitz and glamour, as a way of spoofing prima donna quarterbacks.
As it happens, he's got the comic timing and baritone charisma to pull it off. The fact that it's so convincing, or the fact that Minshew conjures up a decidedly un-prima donna Burt Reynolds in the "The Longest Yard," makes it all the funnier. In a parallel universe, it's easy to imagine a guy named Gardner Minshew who is, yes, full of himself.
But the Gardner Minshew here in Pullman is a football player who happens to be a quarterback. In addition to throwing the ball all over the yard, he irrationally tries to overleap cornerbacks. If necessary, he jackhammers his way to critical first downs. This combination of faux glamour and genuine toughness has proved irresistible at Wazzu, if only because Minshew is playing so well and the Cougars keep finding ways to win.
When he arrived in Pullman as a graduate transfer in May, it didn't take Minshew long to win over his new teammates with his wit, affability and resolve to strengthen team bonds. Once the season got rolling, Cougar fans too signaled their approval. By donning fake mustaches by the dozens on game day, and by the hundreds on GameDay, they're buying into Minshew's spoof of QB stereotypes as well as embracing a new phase of Cougarmania.
In postgame news conferences, Minshew has settled into a consistent costume that addresses both of his definitions of "performance." Every time, it's the same aviator shades. The same white-gray, wavy-striped T-shirt with a big red Cougar logo. The same mustache and soul patch, of course. But also the same unflattering backward cap - perhaps his version of the grungy baseball cap that predecessor Luke Falk wore, expressly to keep himself humble.
After the win on The Farm, somebody asked WSU coach Mike Leach why be believes Minshew personifies his, Leach's, notion of a Heisman Trophy winner. For one thing, he said, the guy makes his teammates better.
"We have some new faces on the offensive line, and the thing that I think is hard for you guys to see perhaps is the way he elevates them," Leach said. "He's a get-your-hands-dirty kind of guy. Built like he is, he doesn't get to play O-line, so he has to play quarterback. But he identifies with those guys."
And vice versa. Yes, teammates surely thought it was pretty cool when Minshew tried to jump over a cornerback. They thought it was even cooler when, on the next play, he traveled the longest yard.
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Football Cougs come out on top of Cardinal
WSU moves to No. 10 in latest AP poll after comeback win
By JOHN SPELLMAN, Evergreen reporter
Oct 28, 2018
WSU football defeated then-No. 24 Stanford University 41-38 on Saturday night in California thanks to redshirt freshman kicker Blake Mazza who hit a 42-yard field goal with 19 seconds remaining to complete the comeback victory.
“We had them right where we wanted them the whole game,” Head Coach Mike Leach said. “I thought our first half was disjointed on both sides of the ball … the second half was like doing surgery with chainsaws, but we did a good job of executing well.”
Stanford opened up the game with the ball and showed the WSU defense how dangerous the Cardinal offense can be. The team drove down the field and dominated the Cougars’ secondary as it took a 7-0 lead on an 18-yard touchdown pass from junior quarterback KJ Costello.
The Cougars responded to the opening score from Stanford with the combination of quarterback Gardner Minshew II and redshirt junior running back James Williams. The pair carried the Cougars down the field before Williams scored a 5-yard touchdown to tie the game.
On the next drive, the Cougar defense forced a fumble from Costello that was picked up by redshirt senior defensive lineman Taylor Comfort in Stanford territory. The Cougar offense was able to take advantage of the field position and grab a 14-7 lead on a touchdown pass from Minshew to freshman running back Max Borghi.
On the ensuing drive, Stanford used star senior running back Bryce Love to drive down the field and score a touchdown to tie the game at 14.
The next Stanford drive had Costello carving up the WSU secondary and throwing a 10-yard touchdown pass to junior tight end Kaden Smith to give the Cardinal a 21-14 lead.
With 4:43 left in the second quarter and Stanford’s offense driving down the field, Leach called a rare timeout with every member of the team on the field to get them back on track.
It did not have a positive short-term effect for the defense as they committed consecutive personal foul penalties, giving Stanford 30 yards and leading to another Cardinal touchdown to make the score 28-14.
The Cougs got the ball back with about one minute remaining and needed to put some points on the board. Sophomore wide receiver Jamire Calvin made a 54-yard catch to put the Cougs in field goal range. Mazza nailed a 23-yard field goal as time expired to put the score at 28-17 at halftime.
Coming out of halftime, the WSU offense looked primed to score as it moved the ball down the field. The Cougars cut Stanford’s lead down to 28-24 after Williams scored on a 3-yard touchdown run.
The WSU defense stepped up in the second half by only giving up 40 yards in the third quarter. When the quarter ended, the Cougars were only down by a touchdown with the score at 31-24.
WSU opened up the fourth with the ball knowing it needed a touchdown to tie the game. Minshew delivered when he threw a 7-yard touchdown pass to sophomore wide receiver Tay Martin to make the score 31-all.
The Cougar defense then forced a punt to give the offense the ball again. WSU then drove all the way down the field before Minshew found redshirt sophomore wide receiver Renard Bell for a 3-yard touchdown to give the Cougs a 38-31 lead.
However, just as fast as the Cougs took the lead, Stanford came right back down the field on offense to tie the game at 38 with 1:25 left in the fourth quarter after Costello found senior wide receiver JJ Arcega-Whiteside wide open in the end zone on a 25-yard pass.
The Cougs would have time for one final drive.
With three timeouts and the game in his hands, Minshew showed why he is one of the top quarterbacks in the nation. He drove the Cougars all the way down the field, highlighted by a 35-yard pass to Calvin.
This set up Mazza to make the game-winning 42 yard field goal with 19 seconds remaining. Stanford got the ball back with 15 seconds left, but the Cougs would stop the Cardinal, giving the Cougs the 41-38 win.
Minshew had another phenomenal game as he complete 40 of his 50 passes, throwing for 438 yards and three touchdowns. Two of his receivers also had big games, with junior wide receiver Dezmon Patmon and Calvin racking up 127 and 102 yards respectively.
“On Sunday, I’m not sure we can beat Pullman Junior High, but on Thursday I think we can beat an all-star team of the [Philadelphia] Eagles and the [New England] Patriots,” Leach said. “This is not a business for rational people.”
The Cougs are now in first place in the Pac-12 North division after University of Washington lost to University of California, Berkeley, on Saturday.
WSU returns home to play Cal at 7:45 p.m. Saturday in Martin Stadium.
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Shhh, WSU's Skyler Thomas has carved out niche as a quiet leader
BY RANDY ROSETTA/Special to Cougfan.com 10/29/2018
LOW-KEY ISN'T A TERM that generally gets tossed around when the subject of Washington State football is the topic. Not when the Cougars’ flashy offense and a quotable head coach like Mike Leach tend to dominate the story lines. So far this season, though, WSU’s defense has operated at a low-key but hugely important level, and one of that unit’s leaders typifies the off-the-radar persona.
Third-year sophomore Skyler Thomas — who played in just two games and tallied four tackles last season — is tied with LB Jahad Woods as the Cougars’ second-leading tackler this season, behind leader LB Peyton Pelluer, with 44 (27 of those solo stops). Those numbers are for a defense that, perhaps surprisingly to many, ranks fourth in the Pac-12 in total defense and 25th nationally, allowing 331.6 yards per game.
Stanford had considerable success throwing the ball against the Cougs but before Stanford’s game-tying touchdown with just more than a minute to go in the game, Thomas and Co. had held the Cardinal had only 97 yards of offense in the second half. A week earlier, in the defining 34-20 victory against Oregon, the Cougars stymied quarterback Justin Herbert into a 5 for 16 performance on third down and rendered the Ducks one-dimensional, suffocating the running game to 58 yards on 24 attempts (2.4 yards per carry). Herbert threw for 270 yards, but was sacked three times.
Stepping in at free safety this season for graduated Robert Taylor, Thomas, out of Riverside, Calif., has carved a niche as a quiet leader for WSU.
“I kind of like to be around the ball all the time,” Thomas said earlier this fall. “I just see the ball and then make my best effort to make the tackle.”
The 5-9, 185-pound Thomas is a poster child for how well WSU’s defense has emerged. He played sparingly last season after redshirting in 2016. His steady evolution came after a quiet recruitment process when the Cougars were by far the biggest-name program to pursue him out of Southern California powerhouse Citrus Hill High. His other offers were from Hawaii, Wyoming, UNLV and Idaho.
“We liked Skyler because we had him in two different football camps and he was the fastest guy in both camps,” Cougars’ linebackers coach Ken Wilson tells Cougfan.com. “He could play anywhere in the secondary, he was a good person and we thought his speed fit what we were doing defensively so that’s why we signed him.”
Turns out Thomas fits the WSU defensive scheme like a glove.
That speed and nose for the ball has produced at least 5 tackles in every game this season but one and that was vs. Utah when he was flagged for a helmet-to-helmet tackle and was ejected in the first quarter.
“I’ve learned that I just need to settle down myself and catch the flow of the game,” Thomas told reporters last month. “It’s not as fast as people make it seem. I mean, it’s fast and it’s a big jump from high school to college, but as long as you play fast, do your job and make tackles, you feel pretty good.”
NOTABLE: Thomas verbally committed to the Cougars when he was a prep junior coming off a breakout, 86-tackle season with 4 sacks and 7 forced fumbles as a ball-hawking linebacker. He was tagged a 3-star prospect by 247sports and Scout.com and 2 stars by Rivals.com and ESPN.
Thomas is one of six players who has made their first career start this season. The others are Dominick Silvels, Willie Taylor III, Will Rodgers III, Nick Begg and Taylor Comfort.
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Forecasting the crimson holidays: Rose? Fiesta? Peach?
By Barry Bolton, Cougfan.com 10/28/2018
IN THE FIRST GAME OF WHAT shapes up for No. 10-ranked Washington State as a regular-season stretch run divined by the football gods, oddsmakers have installed the Cougars as 10 1/2-point favorites in their home date this Saturday night at 7:45 (ESPN) against Cal.
Three of the Cougars’ final four games are at home. That’s significant because playing on the Palouse is a formidable chore for visitors — the Cougars have won 16 of their last 17 home contests. But what makes these final three home dates extra savory for WSU partisans is that two of the opponents — Cal and Arizona — aren’t exactly world beaters.
Granted, the Bears are coming off a huge upset of Washington and they thrashed the heavily favored Cougars a year ago in Berkeley, but they’re just 1-3 in conference play and 4-3 overall this season. The Apple Cup wraps up the regular season and the home slate the day after Thanksgiving. The Cougars’ lone travel date in the final four weeks, on Nov. 10, is at rapidly sinking Colorado. In other words, 7-1 WSU figures to be favored in all four of its remaining games.
JERRY PALM OF CBS FORECASTS Washington State in a New Year’s Six bowl game — the Peach, to be precise — but the way he gets the Cougars that Dec. 29 date with Kentucky will be both good news and bad for crimson partisans. The good? Palm has the Cougs winning the Pac-12 North. The bad? Palm believes Utah will avenge its loss earlier this season to the Cougs in the Pac-12 title game in Santa Clara.
But the Peach Bowl? In Atlanta? Under Palm’s scenario, the Cougars would go to the Peach rather than the more geographically logical New Year’s Six bowl, the Fiesta in Phoenix, because he doesn’t believe decision makers will want Central Florida playing in the Peach back-to-back and that the Peach won’t want a Group of Five team for the third time in four years. You can read his full bowl analysis here.
Meanwhile, ESPN’s Mitch Sherman also forecasts UCF going to the Fiesta Bowl — but against Washington State. And his ESPN colleague, Kyle Bonagura, is smelling roses and Pac-12 title for the Cougars, as he predicts a WSU-Ohio State match up in Pasadena on New Year’s Day. You can read call of the Bonagura and Sherman bowl forecasts here.
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The Monday After: This season is so great, even Mike Leach is having fun
It’s not just the winning; it’s the winning with this particular group of players.
By Jeff Nusser Coug Center Oct 29, 2018
You can almost see him smiling here. Stan Szeto-USA TODAY Sports
Nationally, fans and media members know Washington State Cougars coach Mike Leach as the quirky mastermind of the Air Raid, liable to go off into the weeds on tangents about just about anything from dating to pirates. But we local fans who have watched him closely for the past seven years know him to be somewhat cantankerous and occasionally irascible. The rest of the country got a little window into that last weekend, after it was revealed he had sent text messages calling a Pac-12 executive a “coward.”
Even when things are going well (and they’ve gone well for most of the previous three seasons), Leach could always seem to find something to be grumpy about. That’s not a knock, by the way; that’s pretty standard fare for most leaders who are excellent at what they do. Failing to be satisfied is what allows them to continue to push their organization forward.
But the 2018 season — in which his team that was picked to finish fifth in its own division is now ranked 10th in the entire country, thanks to this weekend’s 41-38 victory over the Stanford Cardinal that moved them to 7-1 overall and into sole possession of first place in the Pac-12 North — has got even Leach feeling a little giddy.
Observe the first 10 seconds of Leach’s postgame news conference, in which coach is out here trying to crack jokes:
Leach definitely needs to work on his comedic timing, but the fact remains that this is the first time in his tenure that I actually believe that Leach is having a good time winning all these games. He might have been having a good time before, but this is the first time I remember him showing it outwardly, barely bothering to hide it.
Seriously, I’m pretty sure this is a smile:
As we’ve gotten deeper into this particular season, there’s been a noticeable loosening up with Leach, who can be combative with reporters even in the best of times. And I think that’s pretty revealing about what kind of team we’re rooting for this year.
Much of what a coach says in public isn’t for us — it’s for the guys in the locker room. So when Leach answers a specific question about game strategy with a general answer that goes something like “I thought our guys were trying to do too much, everyone just needs to focus on doing their job and the rest will take care of itself,” that’s (mostly) not him being obstinate, it’s (mostly) him continuing to coach.
Apparently, this particular group doesn’t need to be coached like that. Maybe they need subtle reminders (here’s to guessing a variation of that is what was said during those first half timeouts when Stanford was marching up and down the field), but for the most part, they don’t need to constantly be reminded to “be a team” and “do their job” and “be the most excited to play” — it appears they’ve got all that more or less nailed down.
Instead, Leach has chosen to go for affirmation. Like most of the foregoing, I have no actual data to back this up, but I don’t know that I’ve heard him say that he was “proud” of his team as much as he has this season. When you win seven of your first eight games, you obviously have a lot of opportunities to say that, but it seems like he’s making a point of it.
Example: In years past, I could imagine him spending much of his postgame news conference bemoaning the lackluster first half and emphasizing how much work there is to do going forward. On Saturday, he praised Stanford’s talent and then praised his team for its resiliency.
“I was proud of our guys for sticking in it,” Leach said after the game. “I think everybody for the Cougs would like to have the first half over, because we think we’re better than what we did in the first half ... but you just gotta stick in it. You never know what’s going to happen in a football game, especially tough and physical guys like them, but we felt like we could execute well, and our guys, sideline wise, we do a good job of sticking together and playing together, so I thought that was really strong for us.”
These guys have had to do a lot of sticking together in the last 10 months.
“We went through a lot of adversity, obviously, with Tyler’s passing, which everybody misses him, and I think that was tough on everybody,” Leach said, “but the best way to honor and glorify one of your friends and relatives is to reach your full potential.”
How have they done it? Leach wasn’t short on ideas.
“I think the biggest thing is we really had a good offseason — a great offseason — I thought (strength and conditioning coach) Tyson (Brown’s) done an outstanding job,” Leach said. “We’ve asked ourselves that same question that you’re asking. I’m not sure part of it doesn’t have to do with the fact that we had so many open jobs, so many people competing for their jobs. You had to fight to get reps.
“And I think the competition — and we tried to elevate it all through the offseason, too, the competition — and also our guys were about that age where ok, now it’s my turn to distinguish myself. ‘Yeah, except we’re not so sure about you, this other guy, we like him too, you know,’ and I think the level of competition was really good, and I think Gardner (Minshew’s) energy escalated that.
“And then the other thing is I think coach Claeys does an outstanding job, and coach Brock as far as holding our team together. There’s none of these ‘sides of the ball’ type of divisions, and those things I hate. It’s just pathetic. There isn’t any of that division and I think that’s kind of elevated everybody. It’s a very supportive, all-for-one environment.
“Maybe the most coachable team I’ve ever had.”
That, more than anything, probably is why Leach seems to be having so much fun. As an educator, I can tell you there’s no more satisfying feeling professionally than when your students take a thing you’ve taught them and run with it. And coaches, being (very well compensated) educators, feel the same — plus, they get the added bonus of tangible results. Even better if those results are unexpected to everyone around you.
“This is not a business for rational people,” Leach said. “And that’s not why anybody comes to the games – to see what’s supposed to happen. They want to be surprised. And it’s an opportunity for players to elevate and do something no one thought they could do and maybe didn’t know they could do themselves. But that starts with expectations and generating them for the whole group.”
That’s an awfully fun place to be as a coach. I’m glad he’s enjoying it. Everyone deserves it.
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WSU FOOTBALL
Washington State Football in driver’s seat atop Pac-12 North after Stanford win
Sun., Oct. 28, 2018
Spokesman-Review
By Theo Lawson
PALO ALTO, Calif. – Mike Leach and his Washington State football team may be the top target for Pac-12 referees who’ve been peeved by the aggressive text messages the Cougars’ coach sent off to various conference executives decrying the league’s replay review process – and those who’ve been accused of tampering with it.
A fair percentage of Cougars fans already seem to think Pac-12 officials are after them, and many voiced those opinions when targeting wasn’t called on USC’s Porter Gustin _ influencing the result of a week-four contest in Los Angeles, won by the Trojans 39-36. Most recently, the Cougars were subjected to nine penalties in Saturday’s win over Stanford. WSU supporters would point to the fact the Cardinal drew just three.
At the same time, if league commissioner Larry Scott had the option to slip a call or two to any of his 12 members at this stage of the season, 10th-ranked, one-loss Washington State would probably be his top recipient. The College Football Playoff disperses $6 million to each conference represented in the four-team semifinal and the Cougars, winners of four straight games, remain the Pac-12’s best, and only chance, at getting a share of the pot.
It’s a straightforward path for WSU now: there’s four games left on the regular-season schedule – versus Cal, at Colorado, versus Arizona, versus Washington – and if the Cougars win each, they’ll earn the North’s top seed and book their first trip to the Pac-12 championship game since the conference split into two divisions seven years ago.
“It’s kind of in the back of our heads right now,” WSU nickel Hunter Dale said after the Cougars’ 41-38 win at Stanford. “But we’ve got a lot more games in the Pac-12 and each of them are going to be hard just like it was tonight.”
The king of the Pac-12 North could be determined by the Apple Cup game for the third consecutive season. Or, the scenario WSU fans would prefer, it’s decided one week before the annual rivalry game – which the Huskies have won each of the last five years and by an average of 23.6 points. A UW defeat to Stanford this weekend, however, would give the Huskies three conference losses – and allow WSU to get its hands on the Pac-12 North title a week early. That is, if the Cougars can manage to beat Cal, Arizona and Colorado – teams that share a combined conference record of 7-9.
For Stanford to reach the title game, the Cardinal would need to win their final three games – and require at least two more losses from WSU. The Cougars will have head-to-head tiebreakers on Stanford and Oregon, which also faces an uphill climb having already lost three conference games. The Ducks would have the head-to-head edge on a three-loss UW team, but WSU and Stanford would each have to finish with four conference losses for Oregon to reach the title game.
The picture in the Pac-12 South is just as wobbly as the one in the North. Utah is the current frontrunner with a 4-2 conference record, but the Utes sit just one game ahead of USC and Arizona, who both share 3-3 records. Utah beat both the Trojans and Wildcats in consecutive weeks, so the Utes would have a tiebreaker if all three shared an identical win-loss tally at the end of November.
The Cougars have the most desirable path to the Pac-12 title game of any team in the conference, but the road to the CFP is much more daunting. To start, they’d obviously have to snatch four more regular-season wins and claim a victory in the conference championship game. Even by doing that, WSU could still fall short. Four of the country’s top 10 teams – all from different conferences – are still unbeaten and WSU is one of eight top-15 teams with one loss.
But the CFP and even the Nov. 30 Pac-12 title game, as far as the Cougars are concerned, are thoughts for another day.
“All I’m worried about is playing the best we can against Cal and if we win one game a week often enough, that’s all we can control,” Leach said. “Because if we worry about other stuff, then it’s just clutter. I mean everyone thought we’d get our head kicked in nearly every game, so it didn’t do us any benefit to pay attention to that and it didn’t do us any benefit to pay attention to the other. It’s like John Wooden said, basically ‘Don’t let criticism or praise affect you negatively.’ So we have to just focus on stuff like that.”
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Game between No. 10 Washington State, Cal to kick off at 7:45 p.m., air on ESPN
UPDATED: Sun., Oct. 28, 2018, 12:48 p.m.
By Theo Lawson of Spokane’s S-R
After Cal beat Washington in Berkely and Washington State topped Stanford an hour or so later on the opposite side of the San Francisco Bay, it was assumed ESPN would opt to televise an upcoming game between the 10th-ranked Cougars and Golden Bears, rather than the one between the unranked Huskies and Cardinal.
Using the seven-day selection window, ESPN chose the WSU-Cal game, which will kick off at 7:45 p.m. this Saturday in Pullman. The Cougars (7-1, 4-1) are coming off a 41-38 win over the Cardinal, while the Golden Bears (5-3, 2-3) are on the heels of a 12-10 upset of the Huskies and will come into the game seeking their first bowl bid under second-year coach Justin Wilcox.
UW (6-3, 4-2) and Stanford (5-3, 3-2) will kick off at 6 p.m. on Saturday at Husky Stadium. The Pac-12 Networks will carry the live broadcast.
Both games carry big ramifications in the race for the Pac-12 North. WSU and UW each control their own destiny and can claim the division by winning out. Stanford would need to beat UW and get two losses from WSU in order to finish on top of the North.
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Coug Tusa Tabbed as Pac-12 Volley Offensive ‘Player of the Week’
She helped anchor WSU offensive attack in wins over Utah and Colorado
From WSU Sports Info 10/29/2018
SAN FRANCISCO -- Washington State's Penny Tusa was selected as the Pac-12 Offensive Player of the Week for the week of Oct. 22-Oct. 28 as announced by the Pac-12 Conference office Monday.
A sophomore, she is the second Cougar to earn the award in 2018, and is the second straight Offensive Player of the Week award for WSU. The weekly award was the first career Player of the Week honor for Tusa as well.
During the previous week, Penny was crucial in the offensive attack for the Cougars as Washington State defeated both Utah, and Colorado on the road in back-to-back matches for the first time in program history. This was also the first program victory on the road at Utah as well with the Cougars sweeping the Utes in Salt Lake City. Tusa notched 15 total kills against Utah Wednesday evening last week, and recorded an impressive hitting percentage of .483 by the final point in this contest. She went on to add 14 digs, one service ace, two assists, and one block assist in the 3-0 road win.
Tusa continued to find success in the following match at Colorado, providing a career-high 19 kills in the matchup, and tallied two service aces. Penny posted her second consecutive double-double with 13 digs in the contest, added two assists, and totaled 21.0 points overall in the four-set victory over the Buffs as well. She complied 34 total kills in the week, with three total aces, and 27 overall digs to help fuel the Cougars to back-to-back Pac-12 road wins.
Washington State returns to the court next, Friday, November 2, as the Cougars will host Pac-12 opponent Arizona inside Bohler Gym with first serve scheduled for 7 p.m. PT.
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