WSU SOCCER
WSU’s Morgan Weaver Called in to U-23
National Team Camp
3/20/2019 | Women's Soccer from WSU
Sports Info
CHICAGO - Coming off a stellar junior
campaign, star forward Morgan Weaver has been called back into U-23 Women's
National Team camp ahead of the Thorns Spring Invitational. The soon to be
senior spent time with the U-23 team last year, earning a spot on the roster
for the invitational in Portland. The 2019 edition of the tournament will take
place from March 24-30 with Team USA participating for the third-straight
season. USA Coach B.J. Snow called 24 players into camp for the invitational in
which Team USA will take on the Chicago Red Stars, Portland Thorns FC and Reign
FC.
Last season, Weaver made her mark in the
Red, White, and Blue, assisting on the game-tying goal in Team USA's 2-2 draw
with the Thorns to end the tournament. Weaver setup Stanford's Catarina
Macario, the 2018 MAC Hermann Trophy winner, who scored all four of the
American's goals in the tournament.
As a junior for the Cougars, Weaver
earned First Team All-Region and All-Pac-12 after putting together one of the
best offensive seasons in program history. The offensive leader for the
Cougars, Weaver finished the season with a career-best 13 goals, nearly
doubling her career total coming into the season. Her 12 goals during the
regular season were the second-most among all Pac-12 players before she added a
13th goal in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament against Montana. Making
the most of her goals, Weaver netted four game-winners including picking up the
winner against No.8 UCLA to begin Pac-12 play while also scoring a winning
hat-trick against Washington to close out the regular season. Finishing the
year, Weaver scored in four-straight games, prior to WSU's second round NCAA
exit against Georgetown, netting six total goals in the run. Weaver ended her
season with a career-high 30 points as the junior chipped in four assists to go
with her 13 goals, scoring or assisting on 41% of the Cougars' goals on the
year. In all, Weaver's season ranked among the best in program history as her
13 goals tied for fourth all-time while her 30 points were the sixth most in a
single season for the Cougars.
Team USA opens up against Reign FC on
Sunday, March 24 at 11:30 a.m. PT, while Portland will face Chicago at 5 p.m.
PT. The second matchday on Wednesday, March 27, features Chicago vs. Reign FC
at 1:30 p.m. PT and the USA taking on Portland at 7:30 p.m. PT. The U.S.
finishes against the Red Stars on Saturday, March 30 at 1:30 p.m. PT and
Portland wraps things up with rival Reign FC at 7:30 p.m. PT.
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March 20,
2019 / Baseball
From WSU
Sports Info
WSU Heads
to California to Face No. 22 UC Irvine, Loyola Marymount
WASHINGTON
STATE (6-13, 0-3 Pac-12) at No. 22 UC IRVINE (12-4, 0-0 Big West)
Irvine,
Calif. | Cicerone Field at Anteater Ballpark (3,408) | March 22-24, 2019
Friday, 6
p.m. | Saturday, 6 p.m. | Sunday, 1 p.m.
WASHINGTON
STATE at LOYOLA MARYMOUNT (West Coast Conference)
Los
Angeles, Calif. | March 25, 2019 |
Monday, 1 p.m.
PROBABLE
STARTERS
Brandon
White | Fr. | RHP | 2-1, 5.06 ERA, 19 K, 21.2 IP vs. Andre Pallante | Jr. | RHP
| 3-1, 2.51 ERA, 35 K, 28.2 IP
A.J. Block
| Jr. | LHP | 0-2, 5.21 ERA, 14 K, 19.0 IP vs. Tanner Brubaker | Jr. | RHP |
1-1, 2.37 ERA, 22 K, 30.1 IP
Hayden
Rosenkrantz | So. | RHP | 2-1, 3.24 ERA, 21 K, 25.0 IP vs. Trenton Denholm |
So. | RHP | 3-0, 1.54 ERA, 24 K, 23.1 IP
COUGARS
TRIP TO CALIFORNIA TO FACE No. 22 UC IRVINE, LOYOLA MARYMOUNT
Washington
State hits the road once against for a four-game road trip to southern
California, matching with No. 22 UC Irvine for a weekend series before facing
Loyola Marymount for a single game Monday.
ON DECK
The
Cougars will face Loyola Marymount Monday in Los Angeles before returning to
Bailey-Brayton Field to host No. 2 Stanford next weekend.
FOLLOW
ALONG
Cougar
baseball fans can follow all the season's action on the Washington State
baseball official twitter page @CougBaseball, instagram page @Coug_Baseball and
wsucougars.com. Links to live stats and radio streams will be available at
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SEL to introduce engineering to local
8th graders Thursday
From WSU Sports Info
Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories in
Pullman will host over 70 local 8th graders on Thursday for its annual GREAT
Day Conference. GREAT Day stands for
Getting Ready for Engineering and Technology Day. The students will attend a workshop, tour the
manufacturing floor, learn about electricity and have lunch with
engineers. SEL based in Pullman designs
and manufactures digital relays and control systems for the power industry
around the globe.
:::::::::
Coug track & field Outdoor Season
Continues at Whitworth
From WSU Sports Info
Cougs prepped to compete at the Sam
Adams Invitational
SAM ADAMS INVITE
Thursday-Friday, March 21-22, 2019 | Spokane, Wash. | Pine Bowl
Thursday Event Start - Noon (PST)
Friday Event Start – Noon (PST)
WSU SET TO CONTINUE OUTDOOR SEASON AT
SPOKANE
>> The Washington State Track and
Field program gears up to continue the 2019 outdoor season, heading to Spokane,
Wash. to compete in the 14th Sam Adams Classic Scoring Invite. The meet will be
held from Thursday, March 21, and run through Friday, March 22 as the Cougars
will look to build of the success at the USC Trojan Invitational last weekend.
COUGARS START 2019 OUTDOOR SEASON ON
HIGH NOTE
>> Leading the way for the WSU
women at the USC Trojan Invitational was Molly Scharmann who took home first in
the pole vault event after recording a 12-feet 8 1/4 inches (3.87m) mark for
the Cougars. Emily Coombs followed up behind Scharmann, taking second in the
event at 12-feet 2 1/2 inches (3.72m). Chrisshnay Brown picked up where she
left off during the indoor season, winning the shot put event at USC after a
throw of 48-feet 8 3/4 inches (14.85m) overall. Regyn Gaffney provided a second
place effort in the 100m at 11.83 seconds, and Natalie Ackerley saw a solid performance
in the 800m with a PR of 2:08.57 for a second place finish as well. Suzy Pace
added an impressive run in the high jump event at 5-feet 6 inches (1.68m) to
take second in the event also.
>> The Cougar men saw an
impressive meet themselves as Alex Cielo, Justin Janke, and Peyton Fredrickson
all placed first overall in their respective events. Cielo in the javelin event
posted a mark of 188-feet 11 inches (57.60m) to secure the victory. Janke raced
ahead in the 1500m at 3:51.52 to claim the top spot, and Fredrickson soared
above all in the high jump with a mark of 6-feet 10 3/4 inches (2.10m) to claim
first as well. Washington State continued to finish near the top in multiple
events throughout the weekend which in include second place finishes from Kyler
Little in the 1500m at 3:51.80, Keelan Halligan in the high jump at 6-feet 8
3/4 inches (2.05m), and Jake Ulrich in
the 400
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WSU men’s basketball: Carter Skaggs
enters transfer portal
By Dylan Haugh Cougfan.com
WASHINGTON STATE GUARD Carter Skaggs has
entered his name into the NCAA transfer portal, he announced on Twitter. Even if Ernie Kent would have returned for a
sixth season as WSU’s basketball coach, Skaggs was a prime candidate to
transfer from the program after the 3-point specialist’s minutes declined
drastically once Pac-12 play began.
The 6-5, 215-pound Skaggs is on track to
graduate in May, making him eligible to play right away as a graduate transfer,
as is Jeff Pollard who has also entered his name into the portal.
The Indiana native averaged 21.3 minutes
during the non-conference slate, but saw his time chopped to 11.5 minutes in
the Pac-12 games he played in. The decrease was due to two things, Kent said:
better defenders at his position and the increased contributions from Marvin
Cannon and C.J. Elleby.
Skaggs did not play in the final seven
Pac-12 regular seasons games, a combination of injury and coach’s decisions.
This past season Skaggs averaged 6.0
points and 1.7 rebounds per game while shooting 35.8 percent from 3-point land.
Skaggs’ two top shooting displays at
Wazzu came during his first season on campus in the 2017-18 season, a 26-point
performance in a win against Seattle U and a 24-point performance in a loss to
Kansas State.
::::
WSU Cougars Men’s Basketball
Pat Chun says WSU basketball was
‘eroding’ under Ernie Kent
‘The cost of inaction was going to be higher
than the cost of action.’
By Jeff Nusser Cougfan.com Mar 19, 2019
Washington State Cougars athletics
director Pat Chun made his weekly radio show appearance on “Cougs in 60,” and
when asked about the decision to fire men’s basketball coach Ernie Kent, Chun
offered a level of candor that can really only be interpreted as a fairly
scathing indictment of the Cougars’ previous coach.
“The reality is that our program has
been eroding,” Chun said. “This dates back to before Ernie got here, but I know
under Ernie we’re averaging 11.5 wins overall and 4.5 wins in the conference.
And transfers are a part of Division I men’s basketball, and the volatility of
that marketplace does affect us — almost 60 percent of our recruits have
transferred. ...
“The reality is that if we kept status
quo, based on the numbers, we would probably be around 11 wins next year and
around 4 in conference play and 60 percent of our recruits would have ended up
transferring. And looking down the pike in recruiting, you have to wonder where
the next CJ (Elleby) or the next Robo (Robert Franks) is coming from.”
One thing Chun lamented was that the
Cougars couldn’t win more with a superlative talent such as Franks, and he
clearly laid the failure to win more games at the feet of Kent, pushing back
against the notion that there is a talent deficit on the team.
“This isn’t a traditional rebuild,
because you have a really talented group of young men that do things the right
way,” he said. “We just gotta figure out ... how do you get five guys to play
as one on the court? But a lot of that happens on how you team build, how you
leadership develop, how you care for each other, and those are the things I
think we gotta fix in the culture and foundation of the program. ...
“Our guys want to win. For whatever
reason we’re underperforming on the court. It’s not a talent issue at
Washington State, so right now it was just time for a new voice and new leadership.”
Host Derek Deis asked Chun fairly
directly about the decision to fire Kent with so much money left on his
contract — three years and $4.2 million — and Chun had a pretty
matter-of-fact-answer.
“There’s always a cost. And there’s a
cost with action, and there’s a cost with inaction. And we made the decision
the cost of inaction was going to be higher than the cost of action,” he said,
going on to say that ticket sales are down approximately 60 percent from the
peak of the Tony Bennett days and 50 percent from the peak of the Ken Bone
days.
He also said WSU has a responsibility to
the Pac-12 to field a strong basketball program because the strength of the
conference comes back to benefit WSU financially in terms of NCAA tournament
win shares.
“Look at the big picture — if the Pac-12
has seven or eight teams in the NCAA tournament, there’s bigger distribution
for every team, including us,” he said. “If we’re selling more tickets at the
gate, that affects us at home. So, there are other things absolutely that go
into it.”
An interesting part of the interview was
the implication by Chun that he maybe had made up his mind a long time ago.
“Even after last year, after four years,
that’s a long enough sample size that you knew that the program was not trending
in the right direction,” Chun said. “You also had hope, because you knew the
quality of recruits that were coming in, specifically with CJ, and you knew
once Robo was coming back, you knew, all right, there’s some talent here. But
after going through the season, the erosion of the program, when I talked to
President (Kirk) Schulz, I just decided this was going to be the time to make
the move.”
Chun prefaced the previous quote by
saying, “It was never a matter of if, it was only a matter of when,” but it
wasn’t clear if he meant he had made up his mind a year ago to fire Kent, or if
he was talking about how quickly after the season to fire Kent.
Chun said he believes this move is also
about setting expectations for the athletic department.
“This is a different Washington State. I
mean, you look at football, volleyball, soccer, tennis, cross country — the
expectation here is to win, win the right way and compete at the highest
levels,” he said. “Football is enhancing the brand, and we have to make sure men’s
basketball is doing what it needs to do.”
Other factors Chun cited included a
responsibility to the players already on campus (“they only have four years,
and it’s our job to help transform them”) and the general apathy on campus
regarding basketball attendance (“we have the largest freshman class in WSU
history and we didn’t program them to want to come to WSU basketball games”),
particularly when compared to the standard set by other programs.
“You see it at football, you see it at
volleyball, you see it at soccer,” Chun said, referencing student attendance.
“We’ve got to get our students to want to come to basketball games.”
It seems like the center of Chun’s pitch
to any prospective new coach is going to be that this is a turnkey operation,
particularly with the presence of Elleby. He also described what WSU needed in
a way that, again, can really only be interpreted as another indictment of
Kent.
“The most important thing for me is when
you look at the history of our place, whether it’s George Raveling, Dick and
Tony Bennett, Mike Price ... and currently Mike Leach, Jen Greeny, Todd
Schulenberger — our coaches that have been the most successful here have a
belief system of what their program needs to look like,” he said, “and a
conviction that no matter what the adversity comes, no matter what the world is
telling you, we are going to do it our way and we’re going to be happy with the
results. But we are not going to blink, and we are not going to waver, because
this is how we do things.”
Chun said he’s not going to put a
timeline on naming a replacement, and did say one nice thing about the coach he
recently fired.
“Ernie has done a great job off the
court,” he said. “I r
eally enjoyed what he did to try and
develop young people, but the challenge was what was going on wasn’t showing
dividends on the basketball court and our guys want to win.”
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WSU football
Will somebody take the lead at
quarterback … and four other questions for Washington State heading into spring
camp
UPDATED: Wed., March 20, 2019, 4:11 p.m.
By Theo Lawson Spokane S-R
In the market for a new starting
quarterback, Washington State coach Mike Leach will take the first steps toward
discovering who’ll lead his huddles and throw his passes in 2019 on Thursday
when the Cougars open spring camp with a 3 p.m. practice at Martin
Stadium/Rogers Field.
Well, maybe.
A reported injury to graduate transfer
Gage Gubrud muddies the competition at the most important position on the field
and it’s unlikely these 13 practices in late March and early April determine
who’ll be under center when WSU welcomes New Mexico State for the Aug. 31
season opener.
We examine the quandary at QB and four
other questions for WSU as the Cougars regroup this week for spring workouts.
ONE
1. Can Trey Tinsley, Anthony Gordon or
someone else establish a lead at QB while Gubrud heals?
The Eastern Washington graduate transfer
is supposedly spending his spring on the mend due to what Cougfan.com reported
– and The Spokesman-Review later confirmed – was an injury to his left foot or
ankle, sustained during Midnight Manuevers. The presumption is that Gubrud’s
experience gives him a major edge in the quarterback competition, even if his
time with Mike Leach’s Air Raid playbook – and WSU’s wide receivers – may be
abbreviated. Gardner Minshew won the job despite the same handicap last year,
but Gubrud’s challengers have the same window of opportunity they had last year
before Minshew arrived in Pullman.
Trey Tinsley and Anthony Gordon once
again are expected to make a push for the job. In December, Mike Leach said the
redshirt seniors were still well ahead of redshirt freshman Cammon Cooper, but
this spring will offer a glimpse of Cooper’s development between then and now,
and also how freshman early enrollee Gunner Cruz has capitalized on his first
few months on campus.
“It’s similar to last year,” Leach said
Wednesday during a pre-camp conference call. “We’ve got three guys with some
experience or that have been around, so they’ll fight it out. Then split the
reps up and we’ll take a peak at where the young guys are.
“The thing is, is we’ve got to get a
starter so we’re going to invest most of the reps into those older guys unless
one of those younger guys is able to really pick things up quickly and really
kind of show something out there quickly.”
Tinsley carries a thicker, more durable
frame and was more of a vocal presence than Gordon was when both were taking
first team reps last fall, but Gordon throws a tighter, stronger spiral and his
ability to squeeze footballs through small windows is something Leach has
praised time and time again.
“When you consider Tinsley and Gordon,
for example, Gardner beat them out by an eyelash last camp and I think we
could’ve won with either one of them,” Leach said. “So there’s an emphasis on
getting as many reps into those guys as we can.
TWO
2. Will the Cougars reconfigure their
offensive line in an attempt to replace Andre Dillard?
One way or another, WSU will have to
locate a replacement for Andre Dillard, the left tackle who could be the most
coveted offensive lineman in the upcoming NFL Draft. It’s not quite as simple
as filling a hole, though. The Cougars return four of five full-time starters
on the line and another starting-caliber player in Robert Valencia. But Dillard
and Abraham Lucas were the only tackles that started last year and one theory
that’s been floated is that the Cougars would move Lucas, the right tackle and
top returning O-lineman, into Dillard’s role to better shield the quarterback’s
blind side.
Valencia probably won’t unseat either of
WSU’s returning guards – Liam Ryan or Josh Watson, who he started for in the
Alamo Bowl – but he has experience at right tackle and could be a natural
replacement if Lucas shifts over to the other side of the line.
“Several guys have kind of elevated and
done some good things,” said Leach, asked to evaluate the left tackle position.
“Well you try to just find out who are the best five linemen and put them in
the best positions for them, really. But we’ve got a number of linemen that I
don’t know for sure what’s going to happen.”
THREE
3. With all the depth at “X” and “Z,”
will one of the outside wide receivers make a move inside?
The Cougars return 208 receptions, 2,442
yards and 23 touchdowns from the “X” and “Z” outside receiver positions. Both
Z’s, Dezmon Patmon and Easop Winston, are back, as are the X’s, Tay Martin and
Calvin Jackson Jr. Kassidy Woods and Brandon Gray, receivers who stand at 6-4
and 6-5 respectively, are coming off redshirt seasons and another wideout,
Rodrick Fisher, is back in the mix after suffering a season-ending injury. Even
in an offense that distributes the football as frequently – and as evenly – as
the Air Raid, there won’t be room for more than four outside targets in Leach’s
rotation.
Kyle Sweeet’s graduation means the
Cougars do have a vacancy at inside receiver, however, which could prompt Leach
to move some pieces around. Jackson Jr. played in the slot briefly at
Independence Community College and Winston, at 5-11, 190 pounds, has the body
type that could allow him to play inside.
FOUR
4. Just how good can Lamonte McDougle be
at nose tackle?
The best player on WSU’s defensive line
this spring could be the one that didn’t record a single stat last fall. Now
that his grace period is over, West Virginia transfer Lamonte McDougle will
take his first meaningful reps in a crimson jersey and he’ll be the frontrunner
to replace Taylor Comfort at starting nose tackle. The former ESPN Freshman
All-American supposedly left the Mountaineers because he wanted to find a
scheme that would utilize him more as a pass-rusher, rather than someone who’d
consume blockers to free up teammates. The 6-foot, 305-pound McDougle found
that in Pullman and even if the sample size is small, he’s already produced a
few head-turning highlights during positional drills and team periods that
would leave one to believe he could have a big impact – and an immediate one –
in his first season with the Cougars.
“He played really well last year in
practice,” Leach said, “so I think he’ll continue. I think he’s going to have a
great career here and I do expect him to have a really good spring. He’s had a
good offseason, he’s a real enthusiastic guy.”
FIVE
5. What changes at inside linebacker
without Peyton Pelluer and Ken Wilson?
Two fixtures of the inside linebacker
position over the last half-decade will be nowhere in sight when the Cougars
begin spring workouts. Pelluer, the most capped player in program history, and
his longtime position coach, Wilson, were only in Pullman for six years, though
it felt like much longer than that. Pelluer’s now pursuing his NFL dream and
Wilson’s joined Mario Cristobal’s staff at Oregon, so for the first time since
2014, neither will be in the position room. Roc Bellantoni, who has almost 30
years of experience under his belt, steps into Wilson’s position and redshirt
junior Jahad Woods becomes the team’s most experienced – and talented – inside
linebacker. But whether Woods or someone else – Dillon Sherman or Justus
Rogers, perhaps – assumes Pelluer’s leadership role is still to be determine
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