Pomona’s Max
Borghi cites playing time, legacy, loyalty in decision to sign with Washington
State
Borghi was
officially presented with the Gold Helmet award during the Broncos’ season
finale against Kansas City
By Kyle Newman Denver
Post Dec 31, 2017
If the past six
months were a movie, Pomona tailback Max Borghi couldn’t have scripted it
better himself.
He led Pomona to
the Class 5A state championship. He won the Gold Helmet award. He played so
well down the stretch after coming back from major knee surgery that Stanford,
his dream school, came in with a late scholarship offer.
Such a
screenplay likely would’ve ended with Borghi flipping his commitment from Washington
State to Stanford. It would’ve had the player widely compared to Christian
McCaffrey clad in cardinal red, announcing his intent to head to Palo Alto
during the first day of the early signing period on Dec. 20.
But Borghi —
citing the combination of the three primary factors in his decision — instead
sent in his National Letter of Intent to WSU on Dec. 22, the final day of the
early signing period.
He wanted a
chance to play early, which WSU has assured him of. He wanted to carve his own
legacy, even if that meant turning down a Stanford education. And, rooted in
simple yet respectable principle, he had developed a loyalty to the Palouse and
the Cougars’ running backs coach who recruited him, Jim Mastro.
“He’s someone
who’s been a Max Borghi fan since day one,” Borghi explained. “There’s all
these schools that came in late, but pretty much it comes down to, where were
they at a long time ago? (Mastro) recruited me with a torn ACL, and he knew I
was committed to CU then but he continually told me how much they wanted me.
The relationship has built since then.”
As for the
naysayers who argue that WSU’s air raid offense is a bad place for a tailback,
Borghi offers a differing perspective — and one he believes will give him the
best chance to one day enter the NFL.
“What they do
with the running backs in the air raid at Washington State is a little bit
different than a typical college, obviously,” Borghi said.
“You catch a lot
of passes — and a lot of people might not say that’s a traditional running back
— but looking at the NFL, a lot of the backs are really involved in the pass
game. That offense will fit me well, and show all the skills I have — not just
rushing between the tackles.”
Borghi was
officially presented with the Gold Helmet trophy during Sunday’s Broncos game.
He is now graduated from Pomona and heads to WSU to enroll early Thursday.
……..
WSU QB Luke Falk
broke wrist in Week 2 and held off surgery
By Kevin
McGuireDec 31, 2017, 1:36 PM EST NBC
Sports
Washington State
quarterback Luke Falk broke his wrist in a Week 2 game against Boise State, but
he put off surgery on his wrist until after the end of the regular season.
According to a report from Cougfan on the 247 Sports network, Falk intended to
play in the Holiday Bowl against Michigan State but the wrist continued to get
worse and forced Falk to undergo surgery prior to the bowl game.
Falk was able to
continue playing with the injury, which was covered up for the rest of the
season because it was his non-throwing hand. However, the hand was still
vulnerable to further damage while playing. Falk was given medical clearance to
continue playing as long as the wrist was properly protected. Falk played every
game with a small cast around his wrist, and the cast was covered in a glove. Both
were removed immediately after a game to not arise suspicion and questioning
from media members covering the Cougars this season.
Tyler Hillinski
got the start in the Holiday Bowl in place of Falk, although head coach Mike
Leach did not want to address the injury status of Falk after the game, which
is typical for Leach.
Falk passed for
3,593 yards and 30 touchdowns with 13 interceptions.
……………………
All-American
Washington State defensive tackle Hercules Mata’afa departs for NFL
UPDATED: Sun.,
Dec. 31, 2017, 8:32 p.m.
By Theo Lawson
S-R of Spokane
The Cougars got
three outstanding seasons from Hercules Mata’afa, but there won’t be a fourth.
The junior
defensive tackle announced on Twitter Sunday he’ll skip his senior season at
Washington State and get an early start on his professional career, entering
the 2018 NFL Draft.
“I would like to
thank the entire Coug Nation for all the love and support you’ve shown me
throughout my four years of college, I’ve decided to forego my senior year to
enter the 2018 NFL Draft and pursue the dream I’ve had since I was a kid,”
Mata’afa wrote. “I have had an incredible journey at WSU and I couldn’t be more
grateful for the coaches, teammates, fans, friends, community and family who have
helped me along the way.”
Mata’afa signed
off: “I will always be a Coug at heart.”
The Lahaina,
Hawaii, native leaves WSU as the most decorated defensive lineman in more than
a decade and heads into the pro ranks on the heels of a dominant season that
concluded with his name atop the Pac-12 charts for both sacks (10.5) and
tackles-for-loss (22.5).
Mata’afa was an
All-American for the first time in his career this season, earning the honor
from three of the five organizations that hand out the honor: Walter Camp
Foundation, Associated Press and Sporting News. That made the dominant pass-rusher
WSU’s first consensus All-American since 2002.
………
USC outmuscles
Washington State in paint for 89-71 win on New Year’s Eve
UPDATED: Sun.,
Dec. 31, 2017, 9:44 p.m.
By Theo Lawson
Spokane’s Spokesman Review
Washington State
guard Milan Acquaah, center, goes up for a basket as Southern California guard
Derryck Thornton, left, and forward Bennie Boatwright defend during the first
half of an NCAA college basketball game Sunday, Dec. 31, 2017, in Los Angeles.
(Kyusung Gong / AP)
Washington State
guard Milan Acquaah, center, goes up for a basket as Southern California guard
Derryck Thornton, left, and forward Bennie Boatwright defend during the first
half of an NCAA college basketball game Sunday, Dec. 31, 2017, in Los Angeles.
(Kyusung Gong / AP)
LOS ANGELES – On
New Year’s Eve, with an NFL game on the other side of campus and the country’s
preseason No. 10 in a bit of a rut, a Pac-12 basketball game at the Galen
Center was understandably not the most popular gathering of Los Angelenos, or
perhaps even USC fans, on Sunday night.
Thus, it
could’ve been an ideal scenario for the Cougars to snare an unlikely win on the
road, especially from the 5:43 mark of the first half on. That’s when USC’s
high-rising, ball-swatting junior forward Chimezie Metu was disqualified for
swinging a closed fist into Carter Skaggs’ groin following a 3-point attempt.
The Trojans, WSU
learned over the first 15 minutes, are plenty formidable with Metu on the
court. But they also have enough in reserve to get by without him and it was an
army of players with similar measurable attributes that overpowered the
Cougars, 89-71, in front of a holiday break crowd (2,518) that only filled a
quarter of USC’s home venue.
“At times, it
looked like every bit as the team that should be a Final Four team, that was
picked to be in the top three teams in the nation and for whatever reason,
they’ve been out of rhythm,” WSU coach Ernie Kent said. “And I thought they
played really tough and really physical. … They took us out of our offense,
made things tough for us to score.”
Anticipating
USC’s trio of 6-foot-10-or-taller forwards to be in the starting lineup, Kent
went about as big as his roster allows him, rolling out 6-9 Arinze Chidom in
place of Kwinton Hinson, alongside 6-9 Robert Franks and 6-8 Drick Bernstine,
who returned Sunday from a minor knee injury that kept him out of the loss at
UCLA.
But USC coach
Andy Enfield countered with his version of a “small-ball” lineup and the
Trojans jumped out to a 6-1 lead when Chidom’s second foul in two minutes put
Elijah Stewart on the foul line.
“They were more
worried about us; they went small,” Kent said. “That didn’t work too well. I
thought Arinze got lost a bit in their smaller lineup and that’s why we went
down a little bit.”
Enfield
eventually brought out his lineup of redwood trees – 6-11 Metu, 6-11 Nick Rakocevic
and 6-10 Bennie Boatwright (6-7 Jordan Usher came in when Metu was ejected) –
and the Trojans countered their 5-of-20 3-point shooting with 58 points in the
paint and 12 more at the free-throw line. They distanced themselves from the
Cougars with under 12 minutes left in the second half.
It was a series
of mental mistakes that once again bugged WSU, and USC’s ability to capitalize
– often with highlight dunks or acrobatic plays on the other end.
“They’re very
physical, they play with a little dirty chip on their shoulder,” WSU forward
Robert Franks said. “But it’s something you’ve got to deal with in a game. …
We’ve got to play with tremendous toughness. That would cause a lot of that to
be neutral.”
The Cougars
trailed 33-19 when Skaggs, unmarked, stepped into a corner 3-pointer. On a late
closeout, Metu flew toward the WSU shooter, cocked his left fist back and swung
it into Skaggs’ crotch.
“That’s
something I’ve never had happen to me before,” Skaggs said. “That kid took a
full fist and really tried to take a swing at me. Then, the funny thing is, one
of their assistant coaches looked up at me and said, ‘Why are you faking?’”
USC coach Andy
Enfield later told reporters “If it’s poor sportsmanship, we’ll address it.”
WSU followed
with an 11-0 run to make it 33-30, but Usher meandered into the paint on the
next possession and scored before McLaughlin hit a floater to put the Trojans
up seven. USC trailed by three or more scores the rest of the way.
“That is a good
team,” Kent said. “They’ve got depth, they’ve got shooters, they’ve got
athleticism, they’ve got experience.”
Malachi Flynn
led the way for WSU with a game-high 21 points and Skaggs, on five 3-pointers,
chipped in 18. Six Trojans finished in double figures.
………………
Pullman city
officials still eye passage of bonds
By Scott Jackson Moscow Pullman Daily News
As Pullman
toasts to a new year, city officials still have one major item to cross off
their to-do list: securing passage of a pair of major bonds totaling more than
$12 million.
"Obviously,
the bond issues are going to be No. 1," Pullman Mayor Glenn Johnson said.
"That's gonna be a major concern because the election comes up in
February."
The first bond
was a $10.5 million measure to purchase and convert the Encounter Ministries
campus into a new city hall, construct a new event center and to acquire a
location for a third fire station. The second was a $2.4 million bond for
maintaining the city's parks and paths.
The bonds
appeared to have passed when they were put on November's ballot, however, after
doubts were raised by some county officials about whether enough people had
voted on the issues for them to be validated, the city elected to place the
bonds on a new ballot in a special election scheduled for February.
In addition to
pursuing the passage of the bonds, Johnson has several other items on his
agenda for 2018, including developing a "welcome park."
"I would
like to see a welcome park with the word 'welcome' in a variety of languages
that we have here in Pullman," Johnson said. "We've been talking
about our welcome park for a long time, and we think we now have all the
sponsors lined up. We think that when we go out to bid again, it will be a done
deal."
Johnson said the
last time the project was put out for bid the price was higher than
anticipated. This time around, Johnson said, the city's public works director
believes the bid will be much more reasonable, and they've picked up an
additional sponsor.
City Councilman
Nathan Weller said the venture has been close to the mayor's heart, and he
would be happy to see it finished. Weller said he believes communication is key
in maintaining an inviting atmosphere in Pullman.
"That's
been a huge project for him," Weller said. "It's really important,
just like the welcome resolution that was passed earlier this last year."
Moving forward,
City Supervisor Adam Lincoln said he'd like for the city to remain focused on
improvements downtown.
"There's a
big emphasis from several groups, including the business owners downtown, to
really pursue some positive changes down there," Lincoln said. "I
think there's some big things coming for downtown."
While the City
Council traditionally sets its yearly goals around January, Lincoln said he has
recommended they push that phase back a few months. Lincoln said holding goal
setting in April or May gives the city a chance to monitor how the budget is
holding up before presenting new ideas. He said it also helps manage
expectations.
"That gives
us about a quarter of the year to get into the budget a little bit and see how
things are going," Lincoln said. "It was just an attempt to kind of
align things a little bit better than than they have been in the past."
#
