Volleyball: Cougars
Land Four on All-Pac-12 Teams
Mims, and
Woodford lead WSU as All-Pac-12 Team Selections
From WSU
Sports Info 11/27/2018
SAN
FRANCISCO – Washington State Volleyball landed four total All-Pac-12 selections.
Taylor
Mims and McKenna Woodford led the way for the Cougars, earning All-Pac-12 Team
honors.
Juniors
Jocelyn Urias, and Ashley Brown each received Honorable Mention selections as
well.
TAYLOR
MIMS
A senior
from Billings, Montana, Taylor Mims has continued to lead the Washington State
offensive attack throughout her four-year career. Taylor is currently ranked
second overall on the Cougars in total kills with 363 with a hitting percentage
of .229, and has been incredibly efficient on the year with a team-high 3.78
kills per set. She has continued to move up in the Washington State Volleyball
all-time ranks offensively after hitting the 1,000 kill mark earlier this
season, and currently stands at seventh overall all-time with 1,262 kills. Mims
is also ranked third all-time in Cougar Volleyball with 1,582.0 points in her
career as well. Defensively Taylor has been a force, ranked in the top ten in
three different blocking stat categories for the Cougars all-time as she is
fourth in total blocks (431), fourth in block assists (368), and sixth overall
in solo blocks (63). The senior posted one of her best career offensive matches
this season on the road against No. 17 Northern Iowa with 26 kills, and Taylor
set another career-high in digs with 21 this season against Oregon on the road
as well.
McKENNA
WOODFORD
A senior
from Chandler, Arizona, McKenna Woodford has anchored the prime offensive
duties opposite Mims this season with a team-high 398 kills this year, with
3.37 kills per set to go along with her high-powered attacks. Woodford's
continued success has seen her climb the all-time WSU Volleyball ranks as well,
currently at eighth overall in total kills with 1,219 overall. McKenna as also
accumulated 1,401.0 total points throughout her career, placing her fourth
all-time, just behind fellow teammate Mims on the WSU Volleyball all-time list.
Woodford went on to set multiple career-highs in matches this season with 23
kills against the No. 14 ranked Trojans of USC, and posted a career-best
hitting percentage of .563 early in the year against No. 17 Northern Iowa on
the road.
JOCELYN
URIAS
A
red-shirt junior from Tijuana, Mexico, Jocelyn Urias has been getting it done
on the court both offensively, and defensively for the Cougars this season.
Jocelyn is currently third overall in kills with 261, averaging 2.21 kills per
set, but has been incredibly efficient as she has posted a team-high .324
hitting percentage this year. Defensively Jocelyn has thrived in the middle
totaling 119 total blocks on the year, with seven solo blocks, and 112 block
assists. Urias continued to elevate her game this season, recording
career-highs in various state categories including 18 total kills against
Illinois State, hitting .700 overall against No. 20 UCLA, and totaling four
service aces against No. 23 Colorado.
ASHLEY
BROWN
A junior
from Prosper, Texas, Ashley Brown has helped guide the offensive attack from
the setter position this season, totaling 1,232 assists this season, and
averaging 10.44 assists per set as well. Brown also ranks 29th overall in the
NCAA in total assists as she continues to find success every time the Cougars
step onto the court. Ashley is currently second on WSU in total service aces
with 30 this year, and has been crucial all-around with 51 total blocks, and 51
overall kills in 2018. She played one of the best matches of her career with
Washington State on the road against No. 21 Arizona, totaling 59 assists in the
match, in the five-set victory over the Wildcats.
Washington
State is ready to head into the 2018 post-season now, hosting the first and
second rounds of the NCAA Championship Tournament, with an opening round match
against Northern Arizona inside Bohler Gym, slated for 7 p.m. PT. on Friday,
Nov. 30.
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More from
WSU Sports Info
NO. 16
SEED WASHINGTON STATE (21-9, 12-8 PAC-12)
VS.
NORTHERN ARIZONA (26-8, 15-3 BIG
SKY)
Fri., Nov.
30 | 7:00 p.m. PT
>
Watch
| WSU Live Stream
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Statistics |
WSUCougars.com
>>
Washington State enters the post-season as the No. 16 overall seed in the 2018
NCAA Championship Tournament, and will be hosting the first and second rounds
in Pullman this coming weekend, Friday Nov. 30, and Saturday Dec. 1. This will
be the third consecutive year making the NCAA Tournament for the Cougars as
well.
>>
The Cougars will take on Big Sky champion Northern Arizona in the opening round
match Friday at 7 p.m. PT inside Bohler Gym, while Mountain West champion
Colorado State will take on the number two team out of the SEC, the Tennessee
Volunteers at 4 p.m. PT.
Home Sweet
Home
Washington
State is ready to take on the post-season for the third straight year, this
time however it will be the first time since 2001 the Cougars are hosting the
first and second rounds of the NCAA Championship Tournament. No. 16 overall
seeded WSU will face the Lumberjacks of Northern Arizona in the first round of
play, with Colorado State and Tennessee squaring off in the first contest of
the afternoon inside Bohler Gym, Friday, Nov. 30.
Cougars up
to No. 19 in Latest AVCA Coaches Poll
The
Cougars jump up one spot to number 19 overall in the latest AVCA Coaches Poll,
tying Tennessee for the same spot in the poll as well. The Pac-12 remains
strong the the rankings with Stanford taking over the number one spot with 63
first place votes, followed by Oregon (14), USC (17), Washington (22), Arizona
(23), and Utah, and Colorado each receiving votes.
WSU Sees
Four Named to All-Pac-12 Teams
WSU saw
seniors Taylor Mims, and McKenna Woodford named to the All-Pac-12 Team after
fantastic regular seasons in 2018. Mims earned her second overall All-Pac-12
selection, while this was Woodford's first. Juniors Jocelyn Urias, and Ashley
Brown each notched All-Pac-12 Honorable Mention picks for the Cougars after
turning in stellar seasons as well this year.
Apple Cup
W
Washington
State took back the volleyball Apple Cup after falling to Washington in Seattle
earlier in the year, with a five-set victory inside Bohler Gym last Saturday.
The Cougars downed the Huskies in Pullman for the first time since 2009, and
the win over No. 19 ranked Washington, which surged WSU ahead in the final
rankings to lock down the No.16 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament.
Follow The
Cougs on Social Media
Get all
the info, photos, and videos a true Coug Fan could want by following the team
on Facebook (facebook.com/WSUVolleyball), Twitter (@WSUVolleyball) and
Instagram (washingtonstatevolleyball)
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WSU
football
Pac-12
power rankings: With Washington at No. 1 and Oregon State at No. 12, we’re back
to where we started
UPDATED:
Tue., Nov. 27, 2018, 3:45 p.m.
By Theo
Lawson S-R of Spokane
The
regular season of football is over for everyone but Stanford and Cal, and after
13 weeks of power rankings shuffling back at where we started. Washington at
No. 1 and Oregon State at No. 12.
Three
five-win teams in the Pac-12 squandered chances to get over the hump last
Saturday, leaving the conference with just seven bowl-eligible teams, as
opposed to 10. But as we learned last year after the league went just 1-9 in
the postseason, maybe quality is better than quantity anyway.
1. Washington (9-3, 7-2;
last week: No. 2) – The Huskies may not be what many of us thought they could
be this season – an undefeated Pac-12 North champ representing the conference
in the four-team College Football Playoff –but the consolation prize isn’t bad.
By beating Utah for the Pac-12 title, UW will have three consecutive 10-win
seasons for the first time in program history.
2.
Washington State (10-2, 7-2; last week: No. 1) – Who knows, had referees
ejected Porter Gustin for targeting in week four, perhaps the Cougars clinch
the North division before the Apple Cup. Given the last six results in the
rivalry game, that’s what they should be shooting for next season.
3. Utah
(9-3, 7-3; last week: No. 3) – Others may have given Utah the nod over the
Cougars, but I would’ve taken either of the Evergreen State schools to edge the
Utes in the Pac-12 championship game. Kyle Whittingham can prove me wrong this
Friday, though.
4.
Stanford (7-4, 5-3; last week: No. 4) – Through 11 games, Stanford wide
receiver JJ Arcega-Whiteside has 55 receptions and 14 touchdowns. That means
the senior is getting into the end zone every 3.9 catches. Three of his seven
receptions went for touchdowns against UCLA.
5. Oregon
(8-4, 5-4; last week: No. 6) – Justin Herbert threw only 12 passes in what
might have been his final game at Autzen Stadium, yet the Ducks still crushed
the Beavers by 40 points in the Civil War, courtesy of 386 rushing yards and
six touchdowns from Travis Dye and CJ Verdell.
6. Cal
(7-4, 4-4; last week: No. 5) –Tim DeRuyter’s defense accounted for as many
points as quarterback Chase Garbers in Saturday’s rout of Colorado, once again
illustrating how good the Golden Bears could be with a top-flight
signal-caller.
7. Arizona
State (7-5, 5-5; last week: No. 7) – A seven or eight-win season for Herm Edwards
his first year in charge? Not shabby, but now the Sun Devils lose Manny Wilkins
and N’Keal Harry. This is where the true rebuild starts.
8. Arizona
(5-7, 4-5; last week: No. 8) – The million dollar question: does Arizona get to
a bowl game if Rich Rodriguez is still calling the shots in Tucson? My gut
tells me yes.
9. USC
(5-7, 4-5; last week: No. 9) – If there is a USC fan who’s OK with one more
year of the Lynn Swann-Clay Helton arrangement, I haven’t seen them yet.
10. UCLA
(3-9, 3-6; last week: No. 10) – The first year of Chip Kelly’s rebuild doesn’t
look great on paper, but consider that the Bruins beat Cal by 30 points and
only lost home games to Washington and Stanford by seven points. Kelly still
has a good beat on the Pac-12 North and next year I bet he figures out the
South.
11.
Colorado (5-7, 2-7; last week: No. 11) – It’s basketball season in Boulder now.
Phew.
12. Oregon
State (2-10, 1-8; last week: No. 12) – Senior quarterback Jake Luton is
graduating and sophomore quarterback Conor Blount is transferring. Sorting out
who’ll be under center for the Beavers next season immediately becomes the top
priority for Jonathan Smith.
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FOOTBALL Washington
State quarterback Gardner Minshew, left tackle Andre Dillard receive invites to
Reese’s Senior Bowl
UPDATED:
Tue., Nov. 27, 2018, 3:42 p.m.
By Theo
Lawson
Spokane
Spokesman-Review
PULLMAN –
For the second straight year, Washington State will send a quarterback and an
offensive tackle to the Reese’s Senior Bowl in Mobile, Alabama.
Gardner
Minshew will have the same opportunity as WSU predecessor Luke Falk to wow a
large gathering of professional scouts with his arm, and left tackle Andre
Dillard will join him at Ladd-Peebles Stadium on Jan. 26, 2019, giving the
Cougars their second O-line participant in as many years after right tackle
Cole Madison made the trip in 2018.
Minshew
announced on Twitter Tuesday afternoon he’d accepted an invitation to compete
in the game, which will take place less than 200 miles away from his hometown of
Brandon, Mississippi. WSU later confirmed that Dillard, a three-year starter on
the offensive line who’s protected Minshew’s blind side this season, had also
received an invitation.
Minshew, a
fifth-year graduate transfer from East Carolina, is the fourth quarterback to
accept an invitation to the game, joining Penn State’s Trace McSorley, North
Carolina State’s Ryan Finley and Northwestern’s Clayton Thorson.
Charlotte’s
Nate Davis, Boston College’s Chris Lindstrom, NC State’s Garrett Bradbury and
Mississippi State’s Elgton Jenkins were the only offensive linemen who’d
accepted invites, according to the Senior Bowl’s website, which had yet to list
Minshew or Dillard.
Other
Pac-12 players who’d accepted invites, per the website, were Utah’s Marquise Blair
and Chase Hansen.
The
Reese’s Senior Bowl is regarded as the most prestigious postseason all-star
game for college seniors and divides its participants into two teams, the North
and the South.
The game
itself is a showcase, but the practices and interviews held the week leading up
to it are just as valuable for players, with a handful of NFL general managers,
coaches and scouts in attendance.
Falk and
Madison represented WSU in 2018 and both were selected in the NFL Draft – Falk
in the seventh round by the Tennessee Titans and Madison in the fifth round by
the Green Bay Packers. Falk practiced in Mobile throughout the week leading up
to the game and met with NFL scouts, but elected to withdraw from the game
because it fell on the same day as the funeral for teammate and fellow QB Tyler
Hilinski.
Even after
a subpar Apple Cup performance, Minshew still leads the country in passing
yards by a wide margin, with 4,477 through 12 games. Dwayne Haskins of Ohio
State is next on the list with 4,081 yards. Minshew, a Heisman Trophy
candidate, is also tied for fourth in the country with 36 passing touchdowns.
The WSU
senior only needs 238 yards to break Jared Goff’s single-season Pac-12 record
and can accomplish the feat in the Cougars’ bowl game, which will be announced
this Sunday. Minshew’s 373.1 passing yards per game also lead the country.
Dillard
has started in all 38 games for WSU since the beginning of his sophomore season
and was named All-Pac-12 Conference honorable mention as a junior. The
Woodinville native has anchored an offensive line that’s conceded just 11 sacks
this season – a number that ranks ninth nationally.
:::::::::
Uh oh!
AT&T will no longer carry the Pac-12 Networks on its U-verse service
Originally
published November 27, 2018 at 2:13 pm Updated November 27, 2018 at 2:22 pm
By Jon
Wilner Pac-12 Hotline, San Jose Mercury News
The Pac-12
has been trying to make a deal with DirecTV for years, but that's even more
unlikely to happen now, with AT&T deciding that its U-verse cable lineup
will no longer carry the Pac-12 Networks.
Section
Sponsor
The Pac-12
announced a gut-punch today that was months in the making:
AT&T
will no longer carry the Pac-12 Networks on its U-verse service, effective
Sunday.
Yep, the
conference’s wholly-owned networks have been dropped by a distribution partner
that just happens to be one of the largest telecommunications brands in the
world.
Not. Good.
At. All.
“We are of
course disappointed by AT&T’s decision to no longer carry Pac-12 Networks
on AT&T U-verse; we made every effort to extend our agreement,’’ Alden
Budill, the networks’ SVP/head of distribution, said in a statement released to
the Hotline.
“Even so,
we’ve known this was a possibility for some time, and we have planned
accordingly.
“We’re
staying focused on maximizing the strong value we deliver to our long-term
partners, and we’re proud that Pac-12 fans anywhere in the country have
multiple ways to access our networks and the sports they love.”
Quick
background before we assess the situation:
The
conference’s contract with AT&T, which included U-verse and a wireless
sponsorship deal — but not carriage on DirecTV — expired this summer.
In late
July, Pac-12 Networks president Mark Shuken told the Hotline that he was
working on an extension of the deal.
That
extension, which remained in place through the football season, has expired.
U-verse is
gone.
So is any
chance of a DirecTV deal with it, at least for the near future. (What happens
when the Pac-12 renegotiates its media rights in four years is anyone’s guess.)
And so,
too, is the wireless sponsorship component.
(Going
forward, the Pac-12 will partner with wireless companies that are also fully
committed to distribution. AT&T wasn’t all-in on carriage. Comcast and Cox,
on the other hand, are committed, and the conference recently announced
sponsorship deals with both. Shuken alluded to this approach in an interview in
March.)
Reaction
to the news:
1) To a
certain degree, the decision to drop the Pac-12 Networks reflects AT&T’s
view of the landscape.
In August,
the company cut ties with beIN Sports, a global, soccer-heavy network.
In
October, AT&T missed earnings estimates, revealed that DirecTV is bleeding
subscribers, and got hammered by investors.
(The
Dodgers still aren’t on DirecTV, by the way.)
2) The
Hotline has been tracking the situation closely since the late spring, knowing
the Pac-12’s contract with AT&T was coming to an end.
Multiple
industry sources expressed deep skepticism that AT&T would re-up with the
conference for the 2018-19 sports cycle.
Based on
that, it’s not unreasonable to conclude the Pac-12 Networks did well to extend
the deal through the football season.
3) Losing
AT&T cannot be framed as anything other than a blow to the conference and
commissioner Larry Scott — the networks are his brainchild; he is their chief
executive.
But that’s
due as much to the awful optics — to getting dropped by a partner of AT&T’s
stature — as to the real-world impact.
The Pac-12
Networks are in approximately 20 million homes nationwide, with Comcast, Cox
and DISH collectively occupying a significant share of the subscribers.
Our best
guess is that approximately 400,000 – 500,000 subs watch the Pac-12 Networks on
U-verse.
If we
estimate a price point of approximately 85 cents per subscriber per month, that
equates to roughly $5 million per year, or about $400,000 per school per year.
That’s 1.5
percent of the annual distribution paid by the conference to each campus
(approximately $30 million per school).
(Please
note: The other facets of the deal, such as wireless rights, make the net
dollars involved difficult to assess. The Hotline’s estimate is extremely
rough.)
Key point:
As Budill mentioned in her statement, networks leadership knew this outcome was
a distinct possibility.
It stands
to reason Shuken and Budill were conservative with financial projections for
FY19 and factored the potential loss of distribution into the networks’ budget
in advance.
In other
words, I’d be surprised if we see a round of Pac-12 Network layoffs or an
unexpected drop in the revenue projections to the campuses.
What’s
next for the networks? The Hotline is not aware of a looming distribution deal
to offset the loss of U-verse.
What next
for U-verse subscribers scrambling for access to the Pac-12 Networks?
Here’s
where this column morphs into a PSA.
*
Obviously, Comcast, Charter, Cox and DISH are options, depending on your
location and needs.
* There
are two streaming deals in place, as well: Sling and fuboTV. (Sling is more for
general entertainment, fubo for sports. Both are month-to-month subscriptions.)
I’d urge
fans to visit getpac12networks.com, which has a FAQ page and channel finder.
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