MEN’S Basketball: WASHINGTON STATE AT CALIFORNIA
SATURDAY, MARCH 2, 2019 – 4 P.M.– HAAS PAVILION (BERKELEY,
CALIF.)
FINAL SCORE:
CALIFORNIA 76, WSU 69
POSTGAME NOTES from WSU Sports Info
Senior Robert Franks had his seventh double-double of the
season and 10th of his career with 18 points and 12 rebounds…he tied his career
high with 5 assists.
With 12 first-half points, Franks had his 15th double-figure
scoring first half of the season.
Freshman CJ Elleby had his third double-double of the season
with 20 points and a personal Pac-12 high 10 rebounds…he was 3 assists shy of a
triple-double with 7.
Elleby had 9 of his points in the first half.
Elleby and Franks mark the first WSU duo with double-doubles
in the same game since Josh Hawkinson and Ike Iroegbu each had double-doubles
against New Mexico, Dec. 15, 2015.
Senior Davante Cooper had his second start of the season and
second-straight start.
WSU had a season-high 20 turnovers.
With the loss, the Cougars clinch the No. 11 seed in the
Pac-12 Tournament.
The Cougars return home to close out the Pac-12 season
hosting Oregon, Wednesday, March 6 and Oregon State, Saturday, March 9, both at
Beasley Coliseum.
………….
Info from WSU Sports Information:
WSU WOMEN’S BASKETBALL
Cal (17-11, 8-9) at WASHINGTON STATE (9-19, 4-13)
Sun., Mar. 3 | Noon
Live Stats |
WSUCougars.com
Watch | Pac-12
Network (Elise Woodward & Thad Anderson)
Listen | WSU IMG
Radio Network
OPENING FIVE
> The Cougs play their final game of the regular season
against Cal Sunday. The game marks the first of two-straight against the Bears
as the two are locked into the 7/10 game in the first round of the Pac-12
Tournament Thursday in Vegas.
> WSU fell 67-42 to Stanford Friday night as the Cardinal
took advantage of a rough offensive night out of the WSU's vets who combined
for just 16 points.
> Borislava Hristova, a Cheryl Miller Watch top-10
nominee, enters the game 20th in the country in scoring and third in the Pac-12
at 20.2 ppg. She has amassed 566 points on the season as she is in reach of a
600 pt season for WSU.
> The Cougars have put together one of the best shooting
campaigns in program history as WSU enters the game making 43.7% of their
shots, 2nd best in WSU history (record is 44.5% in 1991-92). The last time WSU
shot over 40% from the field was in 2013-14 when the Cougs shot exactly 40.0%.
Behind the arc WSU has posted a 35.4 shooting%.
> Chanelle Molina set the program record for minutes
played with 1,061 after Friday's game. She is seventh in the nation in mpg at
37.9, a program record by nearly two minutes per contest.
GAME INFORMATION - VS CAL
The Cougs enter the final game of the regular season with a
matchup against Cal. The game on Sunday will mark the first of two-straight
matchups between the two teams who will meet in the first round of the Pac-12
Tournament Thursday in Vegas as the 7/10 seeds. Cal took the first meeting
between the two sides in January in Berkeley, 77-63, pulling away in the fourth
quarter. Kristine Anigwe led the way with 29 points and 23 rebounds while the
Cougs Borislava Hristova finished with 21 points. Cal has won the last three
games against the Cougars including a 67-54 win in Pullman last year. WSU's
last victory came in Pullman, 84-79, two seasons ago. Cal is coming off a 71-65
win at Washington Friday night.
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COUGAR BASEBALL Cougars clinch series with 3-1 win over
Nevada in Reno
RENO, Nev. (Saturday March 2, 2019) –Washington State
clinched its series at Nevada with a 3-1 victory at Don Weir Field at Pecolle
Park Saturday afternoon. The Cougars (4-7) scored twice in the fourth and once
in the seventh to take two of three from a Nevada (7-3) team that swept a
three-game series at Long Beach State last weekend.
WSU saw Danny Sinatro drive in a run with a sacrifice fly
and later tripled and scored. Cougar starter Hayden Rosenkrantz fired five
shutout innings, allowing just five hits and matched a career-high with five
strikeouts, earning his first career win. Junior reliever Davis Baillie worked
the final 2.2 innings, struck a career-high four and earned his first career save.
In the fourth, the Cougars loaded the bases with nobody out
after a leadoff single from Andres Alvarez, Kyle Manzardo was hit by a pitch
and Collin Montez dropped down a perfectly placed bunt for a single. Rob Teel
brought home Alvarez on a RBI-fielder’s choice groundout to shortstop and Danny
Sinatro followed with a sacrifice fly to centerfield that scored Manzardo for a
2-0 lead.
In the bottom of the inning, Rosenkrantz ran into some
trouble after allowing a pair of singles to start the inning. Both runners
moved up to second and third on a wild pitch but the righthander buckled down
to get a pair of strikeouts before ending the threat with a popout to Dillon
Plew at first.
In the fifth, Rosenkrantz allowed a pair of two-out singles
but ended the threat and his day with his fifth strike out, matching a career
high.
In the sixth, freshman lefthander Tyson Guerrero took over for
Rosenkrantz and retired the first two batters before allowing a double off the
left field wall. The next batter bounced a ball back up the middle that Alvarez
fielded deep up the middle, faked a throw to first and fired home to get the
baserunner at home who was trying to score from second on the infield single,
preserving a 2-1 lead.
In the seventh, Sinatro led off the inning by pulling a ball
down the right field line for a triple. Sinatro came home on the next play
after Brody Barnum’s ground ball to third base was thrown low and away from
first base, allowing Sinatro to score for a 3-0 advantage.
In the bottom of the frame, Nevada put a runner on second
with two outs and was able to score a run after leftfielder Collin Montez
nearly made a diving catch on a sinking line drive but the ball shortstopped
his glove and the runner came around to score, cutting the Cougar lead to 3-1.
In the ninth, Nevada led off the inning with a double just
inside the third base bag and down the left field line. Baillie got the next
batter to chop a ball to Kodie Kolden at third base who caught the runner at
second base who had strayed too far off the bag and Kolden fired to Garrett
Gouldsmith at second who made the tag for the first out. The next batter chopped
a ball in front home plate that catcher Rob Teel pounced on and threw to first
and Baillie clinched things with a ground out to Alvarez at shortstop.
INSIDE THE BOX SCORE
Dillon Plew walked in the 3rd, has reached base in all 11
games in 2019
Rosenkrantz matched a career high with 5 strikeouts, set
opening weekend at Saint Mary’s
Tyson Guerrero worked 1.1 innings, allowed 1 run on 2 hits
and struck out 2
Davis Baillie recorded a career high 4 strikeouts, recorded
1st career save
NEXT UP
Washington State returns to Pullman to host a three-game
series with Cal State Northridge beginning Friday.
::::
NCAA proposes college football replay tweak to targeting,
2-pt OT shootouts
By Ralph D. Russo AP
The NCAA football rules committee announced several proposed
changes Friday, including giving replay officials more leeway to overturn
targeting penalties and requiring games reaching a fifth overtime to be decided
by alternating 2-point conversion tries.
The committee met in Indianapolis this week and the proposed
changes also include tweaks to kickoff and blind-side block rules. The
proposals must be approved by the football oversight committee in April. They
would go into effect next season.
Two changes to targeting were proposed.
The first would allow replay officials to examine all
aspects of the play and confirm the foul when all elements of targeting are
present. If targeting cannot be confirmed, the call would be overturned,
eliminating the option for the call on the field to stand. Targeting would
still result in a 15-yard penalty and ejection of the player who committed the
foul. Players ejected in the second half would still be required to sit out the
first half of the following game.
The goal of the proposal is to call targeting more
accurately and have fewer players ejected for borderline calls. LSU lost
All-America linebacker Devin White for the first half of a game last season
against No. 1 Alabama after he was ejected on a questionable targeting call in
the second half of the previous game against Mississippi State.
The American Football Coaches Association had endorsed
changing targeting to a two-tiered foul, with only the most egregious and
intentional hits to the head being penalized with an ejection.
Steve Shaw, the NCAA’s national coordinator of football
officials, said the replay change will be a “surrogate for Targeting 1,
Targeting 2.”
Stanford coach David Shaw, the rules committee chairman,
said he didn’t see the proposal as a compromise, but as “another way to get the
same goal.”
“We want the discipline to be severe for helmet-to-helmet
contact, but we also want it to be right,” David Shaw said. “’’That was kind of
the idea of the two-tiered system. What we’re saying with this rule is we’re
going to make sure of the ejection to make sure that it’s right. The goal is
the same, to make sure we are ejecting players properly for the right reasons
and if they don’t commit the foul then we’re not going to eject them. I don’t
see it as necessarily backing down.”
Under the second proposal, players who receive a second
targeting foul during the season would be suspended for the entire next game,
not just the first half. Steve Shaw said in the two conferences he oversees as
coordinator of officials — the Southeastern Conference and Sun Belt — he can
recall only one player in each league receiving multiple targeting penalties in
a season.
The overtime rule change was proposed after LSU and Texas
A&M matched a record by playing seven overtimes in their regular-season
finale last year. The Tigers and Aggies combined to run 207 offensive plays.
On average, 37 Bowl Subdivision games have gone to overtime
over the past four seasons. Most end after one round of possessions. Only six
games per season have gone past two overtimes, but the concern was those rare
marathons came with increased injury risk for players.
“We wanted to have something where we don’t change the
integrity of our system, which we all love,” David Shaw said. “You pass four
overtimes, you pass five overtimes and now you’re worried about player safety.”
Current overtime rules give teams alternating possessions
starting at the opponent’s 25-yard line. If still tied after each team has two
possessions, teams must attempt a 2-point conversion after scoring a touchdown
instead of kicking an extra point.
If the proposal passes, after the fourth possession, games
would come down to a 2-point play shootout, with the first team to get a score
and a stop winning.
“It still feels like football,” David Shaw said.
The committee also proposed eliminating the two-man wedge
formation on kickoffs that result in sprinting players running into double-team
blocks. A proposal regarding blind-side blocks would make it illegal to attack
an opponent with forcible contact from the blind side.
:::::::::::::::::
UW’s Jake Browning shows off arm at NFL combine while WSU’s
Gardner Minshew gives ‘all I’ve got’
By Bob Condotta
Seattle Times
Originally published March 2, 2019 at 4:54 pm Updated March
2, 2019 at 7:10 pm
A few draft analysts thought Browning helped his stock in
Saturday's passing drills.
Washington quarterback Jake Browning and his Washington
State counterpart, Gardner Minshew, each vowed to try to enjoy the somewhat
surreal ride that is the NFL combine as much as they could — Minshew by being
himself, Browning by letting the public see more of what he says is his real
self.
As for impressing NFL scouts, they hoped to do that, too,
though each has a long way to go — each is regarded as either a late-round pick
or a possible undrafted free agent.
Whether and how much they helped themselves the past four
days is — as is always the case in these things, but especially with
quarterbacks — somewhat of a matter of interpretation.
Minshew displayed some decent athleticism by turning in a
33.5-inch vertical leap and a nine feet, six inch broad jump, each among the
top five of the 17 quarterbacks at the combine. He also measured at
10-1/8-inches in hand size, second among all QBs.
But in the throwing drills, all three of his deep passes
were incomplete, though one appeared to be a clear drop. Whether Minshew has
the arm to complete deep passes consistently will be the big question facing
him when the draft is held April 25-27.
Minshew, though, did what he could to keep things loose,
embracing the moment in the same manner he so often did during his one season
at Washington State when he his mustache became a subject of school folklore
forever.
After running a 4.97 in the 40-yard dash Saturday morning,
Minshew laughed and said “that’s all I’ve got.’’ It apparently was as he then
turned in the exact same time in his second 40.
Later, after a cut to commercial following one of the
passing drills, Minshew looked into the camera and winked.
Minshew understood better than anybody that simply being at
the combine was an unexpected gift in a year of them after he had been planning
to basically end his football career and transfer from East Carolina to Alabama
with designs on learning to coach. Tyler Hilinski’s tragic suicide then set off
a domino effect that led to Minshew changing paths and ultimately becoming
WSU’s starter and leading all FBS schools in passing yards per game (367.6).
“It makes me extremely grateful,’’ Minshew said on Friday.
“I had a lot of people help me get to where I’m at. Washington State giving me
the chance, coach (Mike) Leach believing in me, all those guys letting me step
in and lead on short notice. It has been an incredible year. And it’s not done,
the ride’s only getting better and I’m excited to see what’s going to happen in
this next year.’’
Browning predicted Friday that some recent work he has been
doing to refine the mechanics in his throwing motion would result in better
velocity on this throws and help answer what he thinks is the biggest question
about his game — arm strength — the same one dogging Minshew.
The work may well have worked as longtime Tacoma-based NFL
draft analyst Rob Rang wrote on NFLDraftScout.com that Browning turned in one
of the best performances of the day.
“From a pure accuracy
perspective, Browning was as good as any passer on the field during Saturday’s
first quarterback session,’’ Rang wrote. “He threw the ball confidently and it
came off his hand with as much velocity as at any point I’ve seen it during his
four years as Washington’s starting quarterback. A team looking for a quick
distributor at quarterback will no doubt be intrigued by the smarts, accuracy
and apparently improved arm strength from Browning.’’
Could that be the Seahawks? Seattle is at least intrigued
enough by Browning to have new offensive assistant Austin Davis — who was the
team’s backup QB in 2017 — meet with Browning at the Combine.
Browning revealed that during a 15-minute meeting with the
media Friday that might have somewhat betrayed an image he readily admitted he
has willingly cultivated is for being a little button-downed.
A writer from Oregon who covers the Ducks peppered Browning
with questions about the UW-Oregon rivalry and which away stadium was his
favorite — questions the same reporter also asked other UW players here.
Browning, quickly figuring it out, asked the reporter if he was from Oregon
after the question about the stadiums. Told yes, he then responded, “Not Oregon.
Utah is pretty tough.’’
Such moments, Browning said, may be closer to the real him
than he let on during his UW career.
Asked his goal when meeting with teams here, Browning said:
“Be authentic. I don’t want to sound too scripted. And (show) that I’ve got
nothing to hide kind of give them a taste of my personality and that I may come
across pretty straight forward in media stuff but that I actually have somewhat
of a personality. And then just football stuff. I think my strength is that I
know football and I’m a smart guy so I go in and confirm that with them and be
able to talk through a bunch of different stuff.’’
Now for each comes Pro Days (UW’s is April 1 and WSU’s April
3) and, likely, visits to some interested teams.
“After this, stop training for 40s and stuff like that and
get ready for football,’’ Browning said.
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