Washington State,
Wyoming set lunchtime kickoff for season opener in Laramie, says the Spokane
S-R
WSU announced a
kickoff time for its football season opener at Wyoming on Saturday, Sept. 1,
2018. The Cougars and Cowboys will kick off at 12:30 p.m. PDT at War Memorial
Stadium in Laramie. CBS Sports Network will televise the game.
According to
Wikipedia, War Memorial Stadium is “the highest Division I FBS college football
stadium in the nation; the playing field sits at a lofty elevation of 7,215 feet
(2,199 m) above sea level…”
The S-R says, “WSU
and Wyoming have met six times in their history and the Cougars head into the
seventh matchup with a 4-2 lead in the all-time series. In the most recent
meeting, WSU beat Wyoming 31-14 in Pullman behind 303 passing yards and two
touchdowns from Luke Falk.
“Last year, the
Cougars opened with consecutive late-night kickoffs, playing Montana State and
Boise State at 7:30 p.m. in Pullman before hosting Oregon State for a 2:30 p.m.
kickoff at Martin Stadium.”
….
Restoring a musical
relic
May 1, 2018, WSU
Insider
By Will Ferguson,
WSU News
(WSU photo shows Thomas
LeClair and the Webster pipe organ)
Sophomore Thomas
LeClair is trying to fix a 91-year-old theatre organ languishing in the
basement of the Webster Physical Sciences building on the Pullman campus.
A biology and music
double degree student, LeClair discovered the instrument while thumbing through
old files in the WSU Libraries Manuscripts, Archives and Special Collections.
“I was looking up
information about the organ I practice on in Bryan Hall and came across a
couple of papers about a different and much older organ in Webster,” LeClair
said. “I was like, what? That’s the physics building, they don’t have an organ.
So, I went to the office in Webster and asked about it and they told me that
yes, they do in fact have an old theatre organ in the basement.”
In 1927, early
Pullman developer P.W. Struppler purchased the organ that is now in the
basement of Webster to accompany silent movies at the soon to be built Cordova
Theater.
It was donated to
WSU in 1961 and installed in the physical sciences building in 1975 at the
behest of then-chairman of physics Edward Donaldson where it was used to
demonstrate and study musical acoustics.
Thomas LeClair and
the Webster pipe organ
LeClair was told to
talk to Tom Johnson, a scientific instructional technician for the physics
department, about the organ. Johnson had known about the old instrument for
years and he and LeClair decided to see if they could fix it.
“We decided to do
some electrical testing,” LeClair said. “By identifying and working around a
faulty generator, we eventually got the keyboards to power up. The instrument
is functional, but hilariously out of tune and needs some work to get it
sounding like it originally did.”
LeClair said tuning
and refurbishing the organ is both a time consuming and expensive process but
his eventual hope is to get it into good enough shape so that he can record a
video of himself playing the WSU fight song to help raise money for much needed
repairs.
“It’s a really cool
organ,” LeClair said. “Because it was originally designed to accompany silent
movies, it has all kinds of unusual accessories like crash cymbals, bass drums
and a marimba.”
In addition to his
musical exploits, LeClair is a student ambassador for the College of Arts and
Sciences and an undergraduate researcher in biology professor Wes Dowd’s lab.
He is helping Dowd’s
team examine how tiny crustaceans called copepods are adapting to survive in
ocean environments that are rapidly evolving as a result of climate change.
“We are putting
together an aquarium system to simulate an ocean environment so that we can
study how copepods respond to changes in salinity, oxygen and other variables,”
LeClair said. “Doing marine biology research and fixing an old theatre organ
are not experiences I ever would have fathomed having a few years ago.”
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Nursing has
most-ever DNP graduates
April 30, 2018 WSU
Insider
By Addy Hatch, WSU College
of Nursing
The WSU College of
Nursing will graduate 33 Doctor of Nursing Practice students this spring, its
largest-ever DNP class.
Most of those 33
students will become family nurse practitioners, psychiatric-mental health
nurse practitioners, or will take on leadership roles in public health, public
policy, or health care administration.
Before they
graduate, however, they all had to complete a final project. They were tasked
with investigating an area of nursing practice, a health care delivery system,
or a policy issue, and using scientific evidence to improve practice or patient
outcomes.
Thanks to the work
of the latest class of WSU DNPs, a psychiatric practice in Spokane has more
information on the effectiveness of group medical visits.
Medical personnel in
a Western Washington prison have new information on standardizing wound care to
help prevent MRSA.
New moms who had
gestational diabetes during pregnancy are more reliably receiving postpartum
follow-up at a large health clinic in the Seattle area.
And working nurse
practitioners who want to set up an independent practice have new resources for
doing that.
Such projects
demonstrate that an advance-practice nurse can assess a population or
organization “and understand how to be a change agent or implement change in
very complex settings,” said Anne Mason, director of the DNP program at the WSU
College of Nursing and clinical associate professor.
Projects aren’t
intended to be basic research, noted Clinical Professor Anita Hunter, who
served as faculty mentor for some of the DNP student projects. Instead, “It’s about
taking information that’s already in evidence, applying it to a particular
setting and saying, ‘Does it work, or does it need further evolution?’”
Many DNP students
undertake projects in their workplaces, but others connect with an organization
outside of their professional setting. Projects often change during the course
of the systematic investigation.
David Colvin, for
example, developed a framework for a project to improve patient “handoffs” from
provider to provider within a small rural hospital. He quickly discovered that
there was no baseline – “they didn’t know what people were already doing,” he
said. His primary objective shifted to creating that baseline on current
practices and attitudes, with recommendations for future work on standardization
and training.
Projects can result
in improved patient care or organizational efficiency, lower costs, or greater
knowledge – or a combination of those benefits.
DNP students
presented the projects this week, and will graduate in ceremonies next week.
::::::::::::::
WSU Coug Alissa
Brooks-Johnson is Pac-12 Track Athlete of the Week!
From WSU Sports Info
5/1/2018
SAN FRANCISCO --
Washington State's Alissa Brooks-Johnson has been named the Pac-12 Women's
Track Athlete of the Week after scoring 23 of the Cougars women's 88 points in
the Dual meet win over Washington April 28.
Brooks-Johnson, a
redshirt senior from Doty, Wash., competed in six events Saturday, winning four
and scoring points by placing second in the other two. She won the 100m hurdles
in a time of 13.73 seconds which equaled her lifetime-best, won the 400m
hurdles in a time of 58.05, 19/100th seconds off her PR time which is
second-best in the conference, and was the anchor of the winning 4x100m relay
that ran a season-best time of 45.28. On the infield, Brooks-Johnson won the
high jump with a clearance at 5-feet 5/14 inches (1.66m). She was the runner-up
in two events: the long jump where she leaped a PR distance of 19-3 1/2 (5.88m)
and in the 4x400m relay where she ran the third leg.
A two-time and
defending Pac-12 heptathlon champion, Brooks-Johnson competes in the conference
combined-events championships this weekend at Stanford. She won the event in
2015 and 2017, and is a two-time All-American in the heptathlon.
This is the third
time this spring a WSU competitor has been tabbed for conference's Track &
Field Athlete of the Week honors. Sander Moldau (men's pole vault) and Brock
Eager (men's hammer) were honored with Men's Field Athlete of the Week earlier
this season.
::::::::::
COUG BASEBALL: The
Cougars will be hosts to a weekend series with No. 5 Oregon State beginning
Friday at 5 p.m at Brayton-Bailey Field. The schedule shows games at 5pm both
Friday and Saturday and 1pm Sunday. The Saturday contest takes place on the
same day as WSU Commencement 2018 on the Pullman campus in Beasley Performing Arts
Coliseum, across North Fairway Road from Brayton-Bailey Field.
:::::::::
LINK TO INTERVIEW
AUDIO
Larry Weir from the
Spokesman-Review’s Pressbox …
… interviews Theo
Lawson, who covers WSU athletics for the S-R
“Washington State
beat writer Theo Lawson joins Larry Weir to talk NFL Draft, from Cole Madison
to Luke Falk to Hercules Mata'afa to Cody O'Connell. Then the two look at
Washington State football and what we learned from spring.”
……….
MEN’S BASKETBALL
Guard Milan Acquaah
will transfer from Washington State
Published 3:52 pm,
Friday, April 27, 2018
PULLMAN, Wash. (AP)
— The exodus from the Washington State basketball program has continued, with
guard Milan Acquaah announcing he will transfer.
Acquaah, a freshman
guard, started nine times for Washington State and appeared in 30 of 31 games,
averaging 4.9 points per game.
His decision Friday
means the Cougars have lost four members of their backcourt this offseason,
including point guard Malachi Flynn, reserve guard Jamar Ergas and walk-on
guard TJ Mickelson.
Leading scorer
Robert Franks has already announced for the NBA draft. The Spokesman-Review
reports that junior KJ Langston, who didn't play for the Cougars much of the
season because of an indefinite suspension, isn't expected to return.
Coach Ernie Kent has
already signed a pair of junior college guards, Jervae Robinson and Marvin
Cannon, to compensate for the losses.
………
(Story dates April
26, so “right now” relates to that date, not to the 5/1/2018 date of this News
for CougGroup report.)(
Star hoops prospect
Blake Hinson on WSU visit right now!
Cancelled official
to Illinois to instead trip to Pullman
By Barry Bolton -
Apr 26, 2018 Cougfan.com
WASHINGTON STATE’s
basketball coaches, with five new members of the 2018 class already signed, are
gunning for a sixth in star forward Blake Hinson. The 6-7, 230-pounder out of
Bel Aire, Kansas, was widely viewed as one of the top 100 prospects in the
nation for the 2019 recruiting class but has since reclassified for 2018 and is
now in Pullman. CF.C spotted him on the campus today.
Hinson would be a
big get for Ernie Kent & Co. He has
the ability to shoot, score and handle the ball. He can play the 2 or 3 at the next level at
6-foot-7 and has a high basketball IQ, with his dad a longtime hoops coach.
He’s coming off an
official visit to Missouri and earlier took trips to Ole Miss and Seton Hall.
He was supposed to trip to Illinois this week but cancelled it in favor of
Wazzu and it's been reported this is his last official visit.
Hinton has been
offered by more than a dozen high-majors including Boston College, Florida
State, Georgia Tech, Virginia Tech and Miami before eventually trimming his
list down to six: WSU, Missouri, Seton Hall, Ole Miss, Illinois and
Oklahoma.
WASHINGTON STATE has
been on Hinson for a while, before he made the decision to reclassify from 2019
to the 2018 class.
Hinson, who has gone
back and forth between a 3- and 4-star ranking on 247Sports, transferred to
Sunrise Christian Academy this past year after averaging 29.3 points per game
as a sophomore at Deltona High in Florida. He was also a top football prospect
at tight end but decided to put all his efforts into hoops.
The last day of the
regular signing period is May 16. Hinson is expected to sign his letter of
intent before then, possibly as soon as next week, and enroll in summer school
in June at his college of choice.
Adding Hinson to the
class of players he's already signed would give Kent not only his best
recruiting class at WSU but the best -- and tallest -- at WSU in a decade or
more. You can check out the class here: WSU 2018 basketball recruiting class
………
FOOTBALL
Analysis: Who’s up,
who’s down in Jon Wilner’s post-NFL Draft Pac-12 stock report
Originally published
April 30, 2018 at 12:54 pm
Colorado might be
the Pac-12's DB-U, until the Huskies catch up to them, says Pac-12 expert Jon
Wilner
By Jon Wilner, San
Jose Mercury News
With the NFL draft
now behind us, here’s a Pac-12-focused stock report.
Rising: SEC.
Let’s review: Two
teams in the College Football Playoff … two teams in the title game … eight
teams in the NCAA tournament … 10 first-round picks Thursday night .. and 53
totals picks, tops among all conferences for the umpteenth consecutive year.
It’s not the
Conference of Champions, perhaps, but it does okay in the sport that matters
most.
Rising: Pac-12.
Finished fourth
behind the SEC, ACC and Big Ten in total selections but exceeded the Big Ten on
the picks-per-team ledger:
The Pac-12 produced
2.5 selections per school, while the B1G had just 2.3. (It can blame Michigan
and Michigan State, which combined for just three picks, for that.)
Worth noting: The
Pac-12’s modest number of first-round selections (four) matched the ’16 figure
but is not the lowest total of the 12-school era. It had just three
first-rounders in the ’14 draft.
The top end? The
conference did a spot-on impression of the SEC in the spring of ’15, with nine
first rounders.
Not coincidentally,
that followed one of its most successful regular seasons, with two teams in the
New Year’s Six, one team in the playoff (Oregon), a 6-3 bowl record, an 8-3
regular-season mark against other Power Five and six teams with 9+ wins.
Rising: Group of
Five.
The bottom half of
the FBS, in a manner of speaking, produced five first-round picks thanks to
Wyoming, San Diego State, Boise State, UTSA and UCF.
Rising: Colorado.
Isaiah Oliver went
in the third round (to Atlanta), giving the Buffs four defensive backfield
selections in the past two drafts.
There are worse
things than being the Pac-12’s version of DB U.
(Granted, the Buffs
will have a difficult time holding that monicker when Washington’s young
cornerbacks and safeties become draft-eligible.)
Rising: UCLA OT
Kolton Miller.
It has been
can’t-remember-how-many years since a Pac-12 lineman climbed the draft board as
quickly as Miller, who played three years for the Bruins but tested off the
charts at the combine to secure his first-round position.
If the draft is
judge and jury, then Josh Rosen and Miller form one of the top quarterback-left
tackle combinations in conerence history.
Rising: USC OLB
Uchenna Nwosu.
For my money, Nwosu
was the top defensive player in the conference last season not named Vea or
Mata’afa.
Now, the Carson
native will spend next season playing … in Carson.
The Chargers, who
play at the StubHub Center, grabbed Nwosu in the second round.
Rising: Washington.
Five players picked,
all of them 4- or 5-star recruits …
Sorry, check that.
None of them were 4- or 5-star recruits, adding to the mountainous evidence
that Chris Petersen and his staff identify talent others fail to spot and
develop their personnel with remarkably consistency.
Falling: Pac-12.
The total number of
picks (30) marked the conference’s lowest output since 2013 — it was nine fewer
than the high-water 2015 draft and six fewer than last year.
Bottom lines: Talent
equates to winning, and the conference must improve its recruiting in order to
compete with the SEC and ACC on the national stage.
Falling: Big 12.
Produced the No. 1
overall pick (Oklahoma’s Baker Mayfield) and then only 19 more, another
disappointing year for the conference.
The raw number isn’t
quite as bad as it looks given that there are only 10 teams. But the American,
which is stocked with schools with limited football resources, managed 18
selections.
Falling: USC.
The Trojans have
produced more draft picks than any other school, ever. But they totaled just
four this year, the same as Louisville and Mississippi State — and three fewer
than N.C. State
That said, I’ll call
my shot here and now:
The Trojans will
have at least six selections next year; they’re loaded with upperclassmen.
Falling: UCLA.
The Bruins are in
their own category
Falling: Oregon OT
Tyrell Crosby.
The Hotline expected
Crosby to go in the second or third round, yet he dropped to the fifth.
The plunge couldn’t
have been his 2017 film; he played at a high level all season and was
impressive in the Senior Bowl.
But I wonder if
Crosby was quietly red-flagged in medical exams (perhaps resulting from the
previously-broken foot).
Falling: Arizona.
Yes, safety Dane
Cruikshank was selected in the fifth round, but he was the Wildcats’ only
selection and marked just their third pick in the past four drafts.
Teams with more
selections than Arizona in that span: Temple, San Diego State and Memphis.
Falling: Washington
State DL Hercules Mata’afa.
As a 250-pound
interior defensive lineman who must transition to linebacker but has no proven
coverage ability, Mata’afa was a candidate to slide.
But down and out?
That’s not something we expected. Here’s guessing he makes the Vikings’ roster
and plays many years in the NFL.
#
FOOTBAL Cougars not
done recruiting for 2018 class
Expect to add a
couple of defensive backs before the start of the season
By Scott Cresswell,
Coug Center, April 26, 2018
Washington State
Cougars head coach Mike Leach said this year’s recruiting class was his “best
yet” and he is still not finished. The Cougs have two scholarships left to go,
and CougCenter has learned from a source close to the program that these will
most likely both go to junior college defensive backs. This echoes the public
concerns from the coaching staff that we heard throughout the spring regarding
the defensive backfield.
New defensive
coordinator Tracy Claeys was very upfront with the media on how the team lacks
depth in the secondary. He talked with the Seattle Times before spring about
his need for his cover guys to excel in man coverage.
“They haven’t been
asked to play a lot of man in the past, and we’ve got to figure out how much
man they can handle,” Claeys said. “The more man (coverage) they can handle,
the more we will be able to disguise things.” Claeys will stick to the quarters
based scheme WSU had under Grinch, but said down the road, he will emphasize
recruiting cornerbacks proficient in man coverage.
Claeys’ comments
during spring practice made it clear that he hadn’t quite found what he was
looking for. From an article on Cougfan.com:
“We’ve got to get
the secondary figured out, who’s where and what they do well. (We) haven’t done
a very good job of that so far….we just don’t have a lot of depth right now.”
The top three
corners right now are Sean Harper, Darrien Molton and Marcus Strong with Jalen
Thompson, Hunter Dale and Skyler Thomas holding down the safety/nickel spots
with not a whole lot of depth behind them. Defensive backs tend to be — along
with offensive skill players — the most productive junior college recruits.
Shalom Luani, Robert Taylor and Kirkland Parker are the most recent examples of
JC guys making a nice contribution in the secondary.
Hopefully Cleays
will find two guys who can provide quality depth, while maybe even pushing for
a starting role.
#
