TRACK
& FIELD: Charisma Taylor and Emmanuel Wells Jr. lead the way for Washington
State indoor track & field at home on Saturday
From WSU
Sports Info 1/19/2019
PULLMAN -
The Washington State University Track and Field program hosted the 17th annual
WSU Indoor meet Friday, and Saturday this weekend inside the WSU Indoor
Facility.
The WSU
women saw Charisma Taylor break the previous Cougar Freshman Indoor Record in
the triple jump at 41-feet 1 3/4 inches (12.54m). Taylor continued to lead the
Cougars as she took home second in the long jump at 18-feet 11 1/4 inches in
the event. Jordyn Tucker provided a strong outing as she claimed first overall
in the 60m at 7.52 seconds.
Multiple
WSU competitors saw first place finishes throughout the meet as well with
Samantha King-Shaw winning the 3000m with a time of 10:28.32, Suzy Pace won the
high jump at 5-feet 7 inches (1.70m), Chrisshnay Brown took first in the shot
put at 47-feet 7 3/4 inches (14.52m), Molly Scharmann won the pole vault event
at 12-feet 9 1/2 inches (3.90m), and Ronna Iverson took first in the 400m at
59.21 overall.
The
Washington State men saw solid overall results throughout the two-day meet, topped
off by Emmanuel Wells Jr. who posted a 6.69 in the 60m race to not only take
home first place, but set a new WSU Indoor meet record in the event, a record
which was previously held by Canadian Olympian, and former Cougar Anson Henry.
Wells also improved his all-time WSU standing in the 60m by jumping to a tie
for fifth overall.
The
Cougars saw strong outings in the high jump with Peyton Fredrickson finishing
second overall at 6-feet 11 inches, and in the long jump as Joseph Heitman
finished second as well at 22-feet 1 3/4 inches. Sam Brixey recorded a time of
7.88 in the 60m hurdles for second overall, and Jacob Englar led WSU in the
pole vault at 16-feet 3/4 inches (4.90m) for a second place finish also.
::::::::::::::::::
WOMEN’S
BASKETBALL
Noon
tipoff on Sunday, Jan. 20, 2019, WSU at Stanford
Information
below from WSU Sports Info
Live Stats | WSUCougars.com
Watch | Pac-12 Networks
Listen | WSU IMG Radio Network
WSU is in
search of its first win over the Cardinal in the 64th all-time contest.
> WSU
suffered a 77-63 loss at Cal Friday, clawing back from double-digits before an
18-2 run in the 4th ended the comeback.
>
Borislava Hristova, a Cheryl Miller Watch List nominee, enters the week scoring
21.9 ppg, 3rd in the Pac-12 and 9th in the nation. She has gone for
double-figures in all 17 games this season, tied for the 6th longest streak in
program history.
> For
just the 6th season in program history the Cougars put a pair of 1,000 point
scorers on the court together in Borislava Hristova (1,474) and Alexys Swedlund
(1,035).
> The
Cougars are 31st in the nation in shooting (5th in the Pac-12), at 44.8%.
Behind the arc, WSU hits at a 36.3% clip, also 33rd in the nation. The 44.8% is
the best percentage in program history.
GAME
INFORMATION - VS STANFORD
The
Cougars finish their California road trip with a Sunday matinee at #6/7
Stanford. The game at Stanford marks the first of three-consecutive games
against the nation's top-10 with the Oregon schools coming to Pullman next
week. The Cougars will have a tough test ahead of them as they face off against
the 15-1 Cardinal led by reigning Pac-12 Player of the Week Alanna Smith. In
addition, WSU does not have history on its side as the Cougs are still in
search of the program's first win over Stanford in what will be the 64th
all-time contest between the two teams.
:::::::::::
WOMEN’S
BASKETBALL PLAYER LOUISE BROWN, WHO TRANSFERRED FROM WSU TO TENNESSEE.
Info below
from October 2018
Lady Vols
transfer Louise Brown's first impression is that everyone is so nice in East
Tennessee
Story
based on info in story by Dan Fleser, USA TODAY NETWORK – Tennessee Oct 2018
Louise
Brown arrived late at Tennessee because of student visa issues, only to have
her season end before it started.
UT coach
Holly Warlick announced Friday afternoon that Brown suffered a torn anterior
cruciate knee ligament in practice on Wednesday. At Friday night's Rocky Top
Tipoff event at Thompson-Boling Arena, Warlick said that the 6-foot-3 forward
was out for the season.
Warlick
also said that Tennessee will ask the NCAA for a waiver to allow Brown a sixth
year of eligibility. Brown said that she wants to stay an extra year.
Louise
Brown made 29 3-pointers last season at Washington State.
:::::::::::::::
WSU Women’s
Tennis Coach Lisa Hart earns 250th career victory
WSU
improves to 38-4 all-time against Montana
By DYLAN
GREENE, Evergreen Jan 18, 2019
WSU head
tennis coach Lisa Hart earned her 250th victory Friday as the Cougars swept
Montana 7-o in a pair of dual matches.
“I am
proud of the way our team took care of business today and encouraged by the way
we have improved in each match this season,” Hart said in a WSU news release.
The Cougars
kicked off their trip to Missoula on Friday morning as the team won the doubles
point and all six of the singles matches to sweep the Grizzlies. In five of the
singles matches, WSU won in straight sets.
The only
singles match that went beyond two sets was between freshman Hikaru Sato and
Montana sophomore Julia Ronney. Sato won the match by winning the decisive
tiebreaker 10-3.
The
victory was Hart’s 250th of her career.
In the
second dual match of the day, WSU swept Montana once again as the Cougars
improved to 4-0 on the season and Hart picked up her 251st win.
The
Cougars went a combined 12-0 in singles and 4-1 in doubles in the two matches
on the day.
WSU
improved to 38-4 all-time against the Grizzlies.
The
Cougars return to the court 8 a.m. Sunday to face Michigan State in Missoula,
Mont.
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Progress
isn’t in WSU’s basketball vocabulary
Sat., Jan.
19, 2019, 6:18 p.m.
By John
Blanchette Spokane S-R
PULLMAN –
So you’re saying that if Robert Franks plays … and the game’s at home … and the
other team is missing an NBA draft pick and its No. 3 scorer … and was on the
skids even with those guys … then Washington State has a chance.
Not that
the Cougars will win. And they didn’t.
But you’re
saying there was a chance.
That
doesn’t much sound like progress, does it?
Didn’t
look anything like progress, either.
In fact,
the Cougars’ 78-66 loss to Stanford at high noon on Saturday was a mad dash
into an open manhole. If somebody slides the cover back on, we may never see
them again.
“We
certainly wasted what was just a wonderful opportunity,” said WSU coach Ernie
Kent, “with the crowd, the students, the community coming out to see this team
play after playing so well on Thursday.
“No
excuses. I’m scratching my head.”
Well, he
has company in that, for reasons beyond one dismal game. But this pratfall is a
good enough place to start.
Now, not
much was expected from this Wazzu team before the season and losses to the
likes of Montana State and Santa Clara on neutral-but-still-509 courts dialed
it down further. The absence of their best player was floated as something of
an asterisk after five of the Cougars’ losses, especially after they crushed
even more hapless Cal on Thursday with Franks pouring in 24 points.
Then
Stanford, with its last road victory coming back on Nov. 9, showed up with KZ
Okpala and his ridiculous skill set shelved by back spasms, and guard Cormac
Ryan still out with a bum ankle.
And yet
the Tree’s remaining role players still shot 56 percent against a Cougar, uh,
resistance that continually lost snipers sitting on the 3-point line and
cutters knifing to the basket. Meanwhile, WSU guard Ahmed Ali nailed four
3-pointers in the first half and Kent somehow couldn’t get him another shot
until just 3 minutes remained. Finally, down six with a minute to go, the Cougs
opt to foul, perhaps unnecessarily – but not down eight 20 seconds later.
“We just
weren’t there,” Kent allowed.
Which
remains a pretty good description of basketball at WSU these past several
years.
The Kent
era at Wazzu now shows a record of 54-87 – 19-58 in Pac-12 play – 4 1/2 seasons
in, the conference high point still coming in his initial year of 2015 and
accomplished with a roster which received 93 percent of its production from
players already in the program.
Naturally,
the program’s few remaining devotees were mystified when former athletic
director Bill Moos rolled over Kent’s contract to its original five years –
twice, after seasons of 22 and 18 losses. But considering no other investments
of substance were being made in the program, maybe it’s the least Moos felt he
could do for his hire.
But you’d
have to assume an exit visa is imminent – except that this is Washington State.
Where the
mitigating circumstance was, if not invented, at least patented.
For one
thing, there’s that contract – at $1.4 million a year. It runs through 2022 and
Wazzu is on the hook for all of it. For another, there’s That Darned Deficit in
Cougar athletics, creeping toward a projected $85 million at last spring’s
accounting to the state, and even so football must be kept fed.
And for
yet another, there were these remarks by athletic director Pat Chun on the
radio in Spokane last week.
“The
talent is there,” he said. “The culture is right with this program … I see
what’s in that locker room and my faith in them has not wavered because I know
the quality of the young guys and the coaches that will get through this.”
No real
surprise there. That’s the gallant way to go.
But the
talent? There’s an A-lister in Franks and a happy find in CJ Elleby, whose
considerable abilities make it easier to live with his freshman tendencies.
Beyond that, there’s no one who keeps a Pac-12 game-planner up nights.
This has
been Kent’s undoing. The players he was able to get in his Oregon days are not
showing up at Wazzu. His one other recruit of note, Malachi Flynn, bailed last
spring to San Diego State – one of 13 scholarship players Kent has had leave.
People want to wave that as a cultural red flag, but it’s actually red because
most of the departed weren’t Division I caliber.
But
there’s another thing squeezing Chun between a rock and red ink: Part of his
escape plan from deficit hell is increasing ticket revenue, which he admitted
last spring would have to be felt mostly in basketball, as Martin Stadium is
doing capacity business.
The crowd
that had Kent so jazzed Saturday was 2,304.
And that
isn’t progress, either.
::::::::::::::
Coug Mark Rypien rolls with veteran quarterbacks in NFL conference
championship games
Sun., Jan.
20, 2019, 5 a.m.
By Dave Boling for Spokane Spokesman-Review
Mark
Rypien is pulling for the veteran quarterbacks, Tom Brady and Drew Brees, to somehow
continue to forestall the forces of aging and physical attrition. He
understands the ultimate futility of that battle.
But if
Charles Darwin were handicapping the NFL’s conference championship games, he’d
urge the bettor to beware of the teams led by the hungry youngsters, Patrick
Mahomes of Kansas City and Jared Goff of the Los Angeles Rams.
“I really
believe that the dichotomy between the old and the young is going to play a
huge role in how these games come out,” said Rypien, the Shadle Park graduate
who earned Most Valuable Player honors of Super Bowl XXVI for quarterbacking
the Washington Redskins over Buffalo.
“This
really could be a changing of the guard,” Rypien said last week. “They’re going
against the young guys who are going to be the face of the NFL in the future,
so maybe (it’s) the last chances for Tom and Drew to take their teams to
championships.”
This
inflection point in the evolution of the quarterback species may have been
delayed beyond the regular cycle of renewal as the Patriots’ Brady (age 41) and
the Saints’ Brees (40) give scant indication of deterioration.
Brady, who
is looking for his ninth Super Bowl appearance and his sixth title ring, put up
statistics that exceeded his career averages in almost every category. Brees
registered the highest passer rating (115.7) and completion percentage (74.4)
of his career, leading the NFL in both metrics.
“It’s
amazing,” Rypien said of Brady and Brees. “The physical training these guys go
through. They’re in their 40s but say they feel like they’re 30.”
Brady’s
personalized training regimen has become famous, featuring hydration,
nutrition, stretching, massage, and the wearing of some manner of special
(presumably magic) pajamas. Brees’ routines are more conventional, but
nonetheless maniacal.
Perhaps as
important to their longevity are the increasingly protective rules that
essentially bubble-wrap quarterbacks like Chihuly glassware being prepped for
shipping.
“The rules
changes help quarterbacks,” Rypien said. “They’re trying to protect their
health and well-being, so you’re not seeing as many lower extremity injuries
because (low) hits are penalties. I think it’s allowing quarterbacks to extend
their careers.”
Rypien
cited the quick maturation of Mahomes and Goff, products of early quarterback
camps, enhanced coaching and the expanse of NFL-like schemes all the way down
to the high-school ranks.
With
astonishing arm strength, the 23-year-old Mahomes led the league in touchdown
passes (50) and is considered the presumptive NFL MVP. Goff, 24, is a former
No. 1 overall draft pick who finished fourth in the NFL in passing yards and
leads a powerful and balanced Rams attack.
“These
guys are being schooled at a high level and coming into the NFL having played
multiple years at high levels,” Rypien said.
He’s seen
it first hand, as his nephew, Brett, starred at Rypien’s old high school,
Shadle Park, and went on to start for four years at Boise State.
“Brett was
in the same type of system at Shadle that he played at Boise State,” Rypien
said.
Brett
Rypien competed Saturday in the East-West Shrine game in St. Petersburg,
Florida, while Mark Rypien played in the celebrity portion of the LPGA’s
Diamond Resorts Tournament of Champions in Lake Buena Vista.
“Brett’s a
good kid and a good athlete,” Mark said. “We’re hoping he gets his shot (in the
NFL). Maybe he’ll get drafted by the Redskins and be the next guy to lead them
back (to the Super Bowl).
Until his
nephew lands in the NFL, Rypien will continue to root for the aging
quarterbacks. He knows Brady and Brees from having shared festivities at Super
Bowls involving former MVPs.
“Tom was a
sixth-round draft pick, like myself,” Rypien said. “So we’ve talked and kidded
about that a little bit.”
If Brady
can add another Super Bowl championship ring to his collection, it would
solidify the argument so many have that he is the best quarterback in NFL
history.
“Joe
Montana was a lot like Tom, winning a lot of championships,” Rypien said.
“Brett Favre played at an amazing level; he was a guy who was fearless. I
played with Peyton Manning (Colts, 2001), and I think he may be the smartest,
most intellectual quarterback I’ve ever played with.
“Drew has
the numbers and he deserves the recognition, to be able to be healthy the
number of years he has. But I think Tom has to be at the top.”
Rypien
also is a fan of Seattle’s Russell Wilson, whom he says seems to be still
improving.
“I believe
this was his best year,” he said. “I marvel at the success he had, especially
when this was supposed to be a down year. He kind of willed them back into the
hunt.”
On Jan.
28, Rypien will join Green Bay Packers Hall of Famer Jerry Kramer at an event
at the Bing Crosby theater titled “Super Stories: Tales from our Super Bowl
Champions.”
In the
meantime, the 56-year-old Rypien will be cheering for Brady and Brees to meet
in Super Bowl LIII.
“Taking
nothing away from the two young quarterbacks,” Rypien said. “But I’d love to
see the older guys going against each other in the big one.”
:::::::::
Football
NFL DRAFT:
WSU's Andre Dillard projected to be taken in Round 1
From
Cougfan.com Jan 18, 2019
HOW DOES
THIS sound: “With the 17th pick in the 2019 NFL draft, the Cleveland Browns
select … Andre Dillard, offensive tackle, Washington State!” That’s how Daniel
Jeremiah of the NFL Network sees it playing it out for the Cougar offensive
lineman on April 25.
And to say
Jeremiah is bullish on Dillard is an understatement.
“I believe
Dillard is the top left tackle prospect in the draft and his pass-protecting
prowess is just what Baker Mayfield needs,” Jeremiah writes in his first mock
draft.
Dillard would
make history if Jeremiah's prediction comes to pass. The highest-drafted Cougar
offensive lineman according to the WSU media guide is Mike Utley, taken in the
1989 draft with the third selection in Round 3, with the 59th overall pick.
Jeremiah
projects Dillard to be the third OT taken in the draft, after Florida’s Jawaan
Taylor (No. 9 to Buffalo), and Oklahoma’s Cody Ford (No. 11, Cincinnati).
Dillard
and QB Gardner Minshew are currently preparing for the Senior Bowl
The 70th
edition of the premier showcase for NFL hopefuls game will be played Saturday,
Jan. 26.
“But the
real work gets done during the week of practices, where NFL coaches, general
managers and scouts gather to watch the top outgoing players in college
football,” writes Dan Salomone on the NY Giants official site.
Dillard
and Minshew will play for the South Team, coached by Kyle Shanahan and the San
Francisco 49ers staff.
Related:
WSU coach says new Coug Fifita reminds him of Dillard
MEANWHILE,
ANOTHER NFL draft site, Draftsite.com, has Dillard coming off the board as an
early second-round pick, with the 37th overall selection, to the Giants.
Draftek
has Dillard as a late third-round pick, as the 92nd top prospect on its Big
Board and the No. 7 OT prospect in the draft. Dillard has taken a large leap up
on Draftek, which had him as a seventh-round pick in November.
The Draft
Network’s Joe Marino has Dillard as the 101st prospect on his Big Board,
equating to an early fourth-round pick.
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