NFL mock
drafts predict WSU's Andre Dillard taken in Round 1
By COUGFAN.com
2/20/2019
FOUR OUT
OF FIVE DENTISTS prefer Washington State offensive tackle Andre Dillard. That’s the same percentage – 80 percent --
of these 20 mock drafts that have the
Cougar LT coming off the board in Round 1 of the NFL Draft on April 25. And the four that don't?
Dillard
(6-5, 310) will still make history if any of the following 20 mock drafts come
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.
Related:
Andre Dillard’s WSU career in 10 photos
Here are
the 20 latest mock drafts we found that mentioned Dillard:
Round 1,
Buffalo Bills, (9th pick); The Big Lead/USAToday, Henry McKenna
Round 1,
Denver Broncos, (10th pick); Houston Chronicle, John McClain
Round 1,
Jacksonville Jaguars, (16th pick);
NFL.com, Maurice Jones-Drew
Round 1,
Jacksonville Jaguars, (16th pick);
NFL.com, Lance Zierlein
Round 1,
Cleveland Browns, (17th pick);
CBSSports.com, R.J. White
Round 1,
Cleveland Browns, (17th pick); NFL.com,
Daniel Jeremiah
Round 1,
Minnesota Vikings, (18th pick); NFL.com,
Bucky Brooks
Round 1,
Minnesota Vikings, (18th pick);
CBSSports.com, Will Brinson
Round 1,
Minnesota Vikings, (18th pick); NFL.com,
Charley Casserly
Round 1,
Houston Texans, (23rd pick); ESPN, Mel Kiper Jr.
Round 1,
Houston Texans, (23rd pick); NFL.com, Chad Reuter
Round 1,
Houston Texans, (23rd pick); CBSSports.com, Chris Trapasso
Round 1,
Houston Texans, (23rd pick); CBSSports.com, Pete Prisco
Round 1,
Houston Texans, (23rd pick); CBSSports.com, Pete Jared Dubin
Round 1,
Philadelphia Eagles, (25th pick); Houston Chronicle, Aaron Wilson
Round 1,
Los Angeles Chargers, (28th pick); The Athletic, Dane Brugler
Round 2,
Arizona Cardinals, (33rd pick); San Diego Union-Tribune, Eddie Brown
Round 2,
Arizona Cardinals, (33rd pick); WalterFootball.com
Round 2,
Jacksonville Jaguars, (38th pick); NBCSports.com, Ben Standig
Round 2,
Buffalo Bills, (45th pick); Draftwire/USAToday, Luke Easterling
DILLARD
WILL BE JOINED at the NFL Combine next week in Indianapolis by a pair of WSU
teammates: QB Gardner Minshew and RB James Williams.
::::::::::::::::::
The
Huntsman Center has a lot of empty seats lately. What are the Utes doing to
change that?
By Kurt
Kragthorpe Salt Lake Trib 1/19/2019
Utah's
next men's basketball game comes in the middle of the NFL's conference
championship doubleheader, making attendance even more of a challenge than for
an ordinary Sunday event at the 15,000-seat Jon M. Huntsman Center.
How many
fans will be in the arena for Utah's game vs. Colorado? Not as many as the
announced number, that much is certain.
As is
standard practice in the industry, Utah's official figure is the number of tickets
distributed. That explains why the Utes could list attendance of nearly 11,000
for selected games in November, when black curtains were draped over the
Huntsman Center's 7,000-seat upper bowl.
The Utes
are fighting against the factors that all schools face these days, when every
game is televised, tipoff times are inconsistent and the NCAA Tournament
overshadows the regular season — especially non-conference games. Athletic
director Mark Harlan is trying to create more entertainment value through game-presentation
elements such as music and use of the video board, appealing to fans who
currently find it more convenient to stay home and students who have other
interests and demands on their time.
The Utes
have supportive, knowledgable fans and interest remained high in the program
going into 2018-19, judging by an increase in season-ticket sales to 6,896.
This season’s problem, not unique to Utah, is how many of those tickets are
going unused. For last weekend’s game vs. Washington State, only 5,943 tickets
were scanned — amid the announced attendance of 11,358. The actual number of
people in the building was somewhere in between.
“We would
like more butts in the seats,” said Ute deputy athletic director Scott Kull,
citing the enhanced atmosphere and home-court advantage. “Recruits don't care
what an arena seats; they just want it full.”
The number
of basketball games, compared with football, tends to devalue each of them.
Fans are far less deterred by late kickoff times in football than by inconvenient
tipoff times in basketball on weeknights, especially.
Rodger
Burge, a longtime Utah fan, has bought season tickets since coach Larry
Krystkowiak took over the basketball program in 2011. If he's unable to attend
a football game, Burge said, “Even in a worst-case scenario where I can't sell
the tickets and recover the cost, there will always be family or friends that
will take the tickets. Basketball? Entirely different story.”
Basketball
fans are more conditional than in football, where Utah has sold out every game
of the school’s Pac-12 era. Utah’s support in men’s basketball this decade
peaked in 2015-16, when a senior-driven team was was coming off an NCAA Sweet
16 appearance and earned a No. 3 seed in the tournament.
Pac-12
schools' basketball attendance averages:
Arizona –
13,588.
Utah –
11,168.
Arizona
State – 9,697.
Oregon –
8,166.
UCLA –
7,810.
Colorado –
6,567.
Washington
– 6,563.
California
– 4,654.
Oregon
State – 4,535.
Stanford –
3,488.
USC –
3,145.
Washington
State – 2,003.
With a
young team in 2018-19, Utah is lagging behind last season’s average of 11,710.
Sunday’s marketing challenges aside, though, Utah has a good chance of
increasing its published average of 11,168 in the six Pac-12 home games that
will follow. All of those games are scheduled in Thursday-Saturday sequences,
although tipoff times vary.
“If the
team was more competitive, like in a position to win the conference or make the
[NCAA] tournament, I'd be more motivated to work around the weird times,” Ute
fan Aaron Vessel said.
In
November and December, unfamiliar opponents are a tough sell. “Your fans don't
recognize Mississippi Valley State and Florida A&M, they just don't,” Kull
acknowledged.
That's why
the curtains were pulled down for those games, as for women's basketball and
volleyball. Fans responded well to a visit from then-No. 6 Nevada in late
December (announced attendance: 12,835), even with many football backers having
traveled to San Diego for the Holiday Bowl.
In advance
of Utah's Pac-12 home opener this month, Krystkowiak said he was “not overly
concerned” about Utah's crowds, explaining, “You can look around the country
and attendance is diminishing in almost every place. Hopefully, the product is
up to snuff for a lot of people to come and watch. You look at our conference,
[comparatively] we're in a good spot. This is a place that's the envy of a lot
of other coaches.”
That's
true. Arizona is the only Pac-12 campus where college basketball remains a high
priority for fans, partly because most other schools are in NBA markets.
Colorado is trending toward the lowest attendance of coach Tad Boyle's nine
seasons, according to the Boulder Daily Camera. The crowd of 6,184 for a Jan.
10 win over Washington State was Colorado's smallest for any Pac-12 game since
the Buffaloes joined the conference in 2011-12. Student interest is dwindling
at CU and elsewhere,with the likes of USC and Washington State drawing
ridiculously low numbers.
The Mighty
Utah Student Section is a football phenomenon, but students tend to show
interest in only the biggest Pac-12 basketball games. Krystkowiak has engaged
with MUSS leaders and tries to increase student involvement. He awards $100 in
a drawing and provides apparel to a row of students at every home game. “He’s
been awesome,” Kull said. “He’s the best coach that I’ve ever been around, in
that regard. He’s committed to it.”
The Ute
administration is doing some creative things itself. With a women's basketball
team that's on the verge of a Top 25 ranking, Utah this week offered a $10,
lower-bowl package for both Friday's women's game and Sunday's men's game. And
federal government employees were offered up to six free tickets to Sunday's
game.
The only
condition? That the tickets actually get used.
:::::
WSU,
Pac-12 college basketball attendance a real eye-opener
ByCOUGFAN.com
2/20/2019
LOS
ANGELES AND PULLMAN aren’t exactly similar in terms of market size. But in the Pac-12, Washington State and USC
are closest to one another in terms of college basketball attendance this
season.
According
to the Salt Lake Tribune, WSU is at the bottom of the conference in attendance,
with Southern Cal one spot above at No. 11.
This
season’s attendance figures for college basketball in the Pac-12, according to
the Trib:
Arizona –
13,588.
Utah –
11,168.
Arizona
State – 9,697.
Oregon –
8,166.
UCLA –
7,810.
Colorado –
6,567.
Washington
– 6,563.
California
– 4,654.
Oregon
State – 4,535.
Stanford –
3,488.
USC –
3,145.
Washington
State – 2,003.
Interestingly,
the article in the Tribune laments Utah’s declining attendance as part of a
nationwide trend in college basketball, with the Utes averaging 11,000-plus
fans this season.
Washington
State AD Patrick Chun would throw a week-long celebration in the streets if the
Cougs could draw that many fans to a college basketball game in Beasley (11,671
capacity).
WAZZU
HOSTS COLORADO THIS EVENING in a rare Wednesday game at 7 p.m. and the
attendance isn’t likely to match this past Saturday’s rivalry game to UW. The Cougs, on a two-game winning streak over
the Arizona schools, drew 4,233 for the game against the Huskies.
::::
Visitor Wi‑Fi access expanded,
simplified on Pullman campus
Feb 7,
2019 from WSU News
WSU Wi-Fi
access through ClearPass will begin on the Pullman campus on Feb. 15, with
other campuses to follow.
By
Jacqueline Southwick, Information Technology Services
Guests on
the Pullman campus will enjoy easier WSU Wi‑Fi access through the expansion of ClearPass, a
service providing self‑registration directly on
an individual’s cellphone, tablet, laptop or other wireless capable
device, beginning Feb. 15.
In
partnership with Residence Life, Information Technology Services is now able to
replace two current methods of obtaining access to Pullman’s WSU Wi‑Fi, including
registration via a sponsored friend ID (FID), or visiting certain locations
such as the CUB Information Desk to obtain a temporary guest account. Visiting
faculty, staff, and students from other institutions will still be able to
obtain Wifi access via their existing eduroam accounts.
The
process of obtaining wireless access when visiting WSU Pullman can often be
cumbersome and time consuming.
Prior
implementation on the Spokane campus has shown this new mobile resource
provides a simpler WSU Wi‑Fi solution with easy‑access Web registration
and login page.
Plans for
future deployment of ClearPass across Vancouver, Everett and Tri‑Cities campuses are in
development and will include standardization of the ClearPass user experience
throughout the WSU system when complete.
ClearPass
is a product of Aruba, a division of Hewlett Packard.
::::
BASEBALL Gaels
sweep Cougs in first series of season
WSU drops
final two contests of four-game road trip to Saint Mary's on Sunday
By KATIE
ARCHER, Evergreen
February
17, 2019
Saint
Mary’s swept WSU baseball team in a four-game series over the weekend in
Moraga, California.
The
Cougars (0-4) finished the series third game Sunday morning after play was
suspended Saturday night due to darkness. The Gaels (4-0) led 6-2 when play was
stopped in the eighth inning and Saint Mary’s ended up winning the game 6-3.
The Cougars dropped the series finale 9-1 Sunday afternoon.
WSU opened
the eighth inning of the third game with back to back singles from junior first
baseman Dillon Plew and junior center fielder Danny Sinatro, but the team was
unable to bring them home.
In the top
of the ninth, WSU had the bases loaded with one out and Plew up to bat. Saint
Mary’s walked him and the Cougars scored for the last time as WSU lost 6-3.
Heading
into the series finale, the Cougars were looking for their first win to prevent
the Gaels’ sweep.
In the
first and second inning, neither team scored a run and the Cougars remained
scoreless in the third. Saint Mary’s junior left fielder Joe Vranesh connected
for an RBI single to score the first run of the game in the bottom of the
third. Gaels junior designated hitter Kevin Milam doubled to score Vranesh from
first and give Saint Mary’s a 2-0 lead.
Sinatro
led off for the Cougars in the fourth inning and sent the ball to the outfield
between the first and second baseman for WSU’s first hit of the game. With two
outs, the Cougars had runners at the corners and could not bring them home.
Both teams
failed to score any runs in the fourth and fifth inning as the score remained
2-0 Saint Mary’s.
In the
sixth inning, sophomore outfielder Collin Montez ripped a ball to the outfield
for a sacrifice fly and scored Sinatro to put the Cougars on the board.
Starting
sophomore right-handed pitcher Hayden Rosenkrantz followed that up by getting
three outs in six pitches as the Cougars trailed 2-1 after six innings.
Rosenkrantz
pitched six innings striking out a career high five batters and allowed six
hits and two runs.
The Gaels’
offense exploded in the seventh inning as the team scored six runs to take a
commanding 8-1 lead.
Saint
Mary’s tacked on another run in the eighth inning on an RBI single and the
Gaels held WSU scoreless for the rest of the game to secure a 9-1 victory.
The
Cougars were only able to muster two hits in the series finale. Saint Mary’s
outscored WSU 37-13 in the four-game series.
WSU will
look to pickup its first win of the season 6 p.m. Thursday when they travel to
California to face Santa Clara for a four-game series.
