Cougar Baseball drops series-finale to No. 2 Stanford
From WSU
Sports Info
PULLMAN (March 31, 2019) – Washington State dropped
its series-finale to No. 2 Stanford 14-2 at Bailey-Brayton Field Sunday
afternoon.
The
Cougars received two hits from Danny Sinatro and Garrett Gouldsmith and owned a
1-0 lead after pushing a run across in the first but Stanford erupted for an
eight-run third inning and finished the day with 17 hits.
In the
first, Hayden Rosenkrantz struck out the side and the Cougar offense put
runners on second and third before a Collin Montez squibbed a single up the
third base line and beat the throw at first to allow a run to score for 1-0
lead.
In the
third, the Cardinal offense erupted for eight runs on 10 hits for an 8-1
advantage. Stanford added run on a Cougar error in the sixth and pushed three
more runs across in the seventh for a 12-1 advantage.
NEXT UP
The
Cougars return to Bailey-Brayton Field to host a nonconference game against
Gonzaga Tuesday at 5:05 p.m.
:::::
Part of
Vince Grippi’s blog at 4/1/2019 Spokane S-R website
Mon.,
April 1, 2019, 7:23 a.m.
By Vince
Grippi Spokane S-R
A GRIP ON
SPORTS blog
• Now that the college basketball season is
officially done in these parts – no one else is still playing, are they? – we
can focus our gaze across the state. At the first-place Seattle Mariners. Read
on.
• Before
we chip in some thoughts on the 5-1 M’s, we want to make sure you know about an
event happening in Pullman this morning.
The
Cougars are holding a party to introduce their new basketball coach Kyle Smith.
The media is invited. It will be a big deal.
When
George Raveling left for Iowa back in 1983, after having taken the Cougars to
the NCAA Tournament, Washington State hired Len Stevens to replace him.
The former
St. Martin’s coach was introduced to Coug Nation with a huge event in … no, no
he wasn’t.
In fact,
then-sports information director Rod Commons drove Len up to Spokane, where he
held a “press conference” at the airport before their flight to Seattle.
I was in
The Spokesman-Review offices at the time, having just completed my paperwork as
a new hire. It was my first day. And I was available. No one else was around.
So then-sports editor Jeff Jordan sent me out to cover the “event.”
I wasn’t
even a sports writer at the time. I was hired to fill one of two spots on the
sports copy desk. I edited copy, wrote headlines and designed pages – though we
didn’t call it that then.
But I was
available.
That’s how
big a deal it was. I drove out to the airport, talked with Stevens – I don’t
recall if any television folks were there, but probably – and wrote the top
story of the day. Or something like that.
Times have
changed.
::::::::::
State of Washington
could elevate razor clam to special status
UPDATED:
Mon., April 1, 2019, 7 a.m.
By Jim
Camden Spokane S-R
OLYMPIA –
When you think of Washington, do you think of Western hemlocks? In the
Evergreen State, that’s the state tree.
Do you
think of square dancing, which is the state dance? How about petrified wood,
the state gem? Not to be confused with the woolly mammoth, the state fossil?
Maybe you
hum a few bars of “Washington, My Home,” which is the state song, or “Roll On,
Columbia,” the state folk song. Don’t be breaking into the chorus of “Louie,
Louie,” though, because it never mustered the support to become the state rock
song despite a proposal that had strong support from then-Gov. Booth Gardner in
the 1980s.
In case
you’re wondering who decides such things as the willow goldfinch being the
state bird, the coast rhododendron the state flower, the steelhead trout the
state fish or the orca the state marine mammal, it’s the Legislature.
Along with
divvying up some $50 billion for the state operating budget – which is a
necessity, not a state symbol – and about $9 billion for highways, bridges and
mass transit so traffic congestion stops being the state headache, the
Legislature has the power to declare an item an official state symbol.
This
year’s offering is the razor clam, which seems well on its way to being
designated the state clam. Not to be confused with the state oyster, which is
the Olympia oyster, so designated in 2014. In a state with an extended
coastline, it’s apparently not outside the bounds of reason to have two
official bivalves.
A bill to
bestow state symbol status on the razor clam already passed the House on a 98-0
vote. Take that, you puny manila clams; tough darts, you frequently misspelled
or mispronounced geoducks.
Some
Spokane residents might think this is just another example of Pugetopolis
residents lording it over East Side drylanders. But hearings on the state clam
bill – yes, this requires a formal committee hearing in each chamber, as well
as recorded floor votes – revealed there aren’t any razor clams on the beaches
around Seattle, Tacoma or Everett. They only grow wild on the Pacific Coast,
causing one Puget Sound lawmaker to ask where might she find them. David
Berger, a razor clam expert and author lobbying for the designation, offered to
tell her about a few spots after the hearing.
Another
lawmaker asked how she might open one without injuring herself. She was
probably confusing them with oysters, which can be tricky to shuck, Berger
said. Razor clam shells usually have a small space between them, and are
relatively easy to open.
Some state
symbols are suggested to the Legislature by grade school classes which, when
learning a bit of civics about how a bill becomes law, decide to put that
knowledge to use by leaning on their local legislators. Palouse Falls became
the state waterfall at the urging of Washtucna Elementary School students.
Some are
pushed by local boosters, but founder on the rocks of statewide rivalries.
Washington has no state candy. Almond Roca, which is produced in Tacoma, was
proposed for the honor in 2001; Cashmere-produced Aplets & Cotlets in 2009.
Neither bill made it to a floor vote, protecting lawmakers from having to
choose sides.
The razor
clam legislation is backed by lawmakers who have cities and towns in their
districts that benefit from the bivalves’ economic impact.
Razor
clams are no longer harvested commercially, except in some limited areas off
the coast. But they are a huge draw for visitors to Pacific Coast towns during
the spring clamming season. While there are other mollusks called razor clams
in other parts of the world, Washington would bestow this designation solely on
the Northwest species, Siliqua patula.
“Razor
clams are very important to our district,” said Sen. Dean Takko, D-Longview.
They’re part of the draw that brings between 30,000 and 40,000 people each year
to the Long Beach peninsula alone.
Jim
Franzel, a retired U.S. Fish and Wildlife biologist who said he has dug clams
since 1958, all up and down the Northwest coast, said they draw 400,000 “digger
trips” to Washington beaches a year.
There’s
one other element that could weigh heavily in favor of naming this state clam
if the bill makes it to the Senate floor in the coming days. Lawmakers will be
struggling with some contentious budget issues, and may need a chance to insert
a bit of levity.
Along with
the economic factors, “it’s sure to be a great source of puns,” Berger said.
Which
isn’t quite the same as a source of great puns, but in the Legislature, sometimes
you take what you can get.
One might
think that if the Legislature passes – and Gov. Jay Inslee signs – the state
clam bill into law, Washington’s state icons will be all used up. But probably
not.
For
instance, Washington has a state amphibian, the Pacific chorus frog, but unlike
24 other states, no designated reptile. It has a state fruit, the apple, and
state vegetable, the Walla Walla sweet onion. But efforts in recent years by
students at The Evergreen State College to award iconic status to the pine
mushroom have fallen flat, so the honor of state fungus is also open.
Also up
for grabs is the state cryptid, or animal that may or may not exist. A bill to
award that status to Sasquatch was introduced last year, but Bigfoot didn’t
show up to testify either for or against it.
::::
Pullman
ranked as one of Washington’s safest cities
From
Pullman Radio News
Pullman is
ranked as one of the safest cities in Washington State. The website safewise.com has ranked
Washington’s 20 safest cities of 2019 based on crime statistics. Pullman ranks 8th.
::::
Federal
Judge dismisses suit against WSU regarding institution’s response to racist
incidents from 2015
From Pullman
Radio News
A judge
has thrown out a federal lawsuit against Washington State University which
challenged its handling of racist incidents that occurred over 4 years
ago. Dominique Stewart filed the suit in
U.S. District Court in April of last year just before she graduated from
WSU. The suit stemmed from WSU’s
response to racist incidents that began in February of 2015.
The black
student and several of her friends were leaving a Phi Delta Theta off-campus
fraternity party when a white member of the house shouted racist slurs at
them. The man was quickly identified and
was kicked out of the house the next day and eventually expelled from WSU. 2 days after the incident WSU administrators
assembled a team to investigate.
A month
later Stewart reported to Pullman Police that a passing car full of men threw a
chicken nugget at her and called her a racist slur while she was walking off
campus.
Stewart met
with then WSU President Elson Floyd in April of 2015. She claimed in her suit that Floyd shamed her
for socializing with whites at fraternities.
Her suit also alleged that Floyd told Stewart and her friends that WSU
was building a “cool” new student center with an African-American section where
they could belong.
Stewart’s
suit claimed that WSU was negligent in its response to the incidents arguing
that the institution didn’t act fast enough, failed to protect her, failed to
support her academically and failed to adequately investigate the second
alleged incident.
Federal
Judge Ricardo Martinez in Seattle issued his summary judgement last week at
WSU’s request. He found in part that
even though the institution’s response wasn’t perfect it didn’t rise to the
level of deliberate indifference and thus was insufficient to create liability
for WSU. Judge Martinez dismissed all of
Stewart’s claims and declared the case closed.
::::::::::::::::
WSU MEN BASKETBALL
‘Hard
work. Tough. Defense.’ The Kyle Smith era has officially begun at Washington
State
Mon.,
April 1, 2019, 5:14 p.m.
By Theo
Lawson Spokane S-R
PULLMAN –
With no less than five television cameras pointed at Marvin Cannon, and a few
more voice recorders sprinkled in, the beads of sweat started forming on the
Washington State sophomore’s hairline, rolling onto his forehead and all the
way down to his cheeks.
It’s hard
to blame Cannon. Not since the small forward’s been in Pullman since
transferring from junior college has there been this much attention surrounding
the men’s basketball program. Hence the perspiration.
But Cannon
could’ve also been mistaken for someone who’d just come from one of Kyle
Smith’s basketball practices.
The
Cougars are still getting acquainted to their new coach – a stage of this
process that’s sure to carry over to the 2019-20 basketball season – but two
practices have already given them a good sense of the culture shift Smith is
setting in motion at Beasley Coliseum.
“First few
practices, I’m not going to lie to you, were hard,” Cannon said. “You can tell
he’s really into defense, so he’s just been pushing us with defense, rebounds
and toughness.”
And,
almost in lockstep with his teammate, point guard Jervae Robinson shared a
similar account.
“Hard
work. Tough. Defense. Just getting after it, really,” Robinson said. “He’s been
pushing us and that’s helped us push each other, and we’re just getting
better.”
Smith has
already shared his vision with the eight players he’s inherited – and sold it
to athletic director Pat Chun when the two spoke on the phone for the first
time a few weeks ago – but WSU’s new basketball coach gave approximately 100
school officials, media members and fans a glimpse of how he intends to to
resurrect the Cougars’ basketball program during an introductory press
conference, held Monday afternoon at the Rankich Club Room inside Martin
Stadium.
Last
Wednesday, WSU officially hired Smith away from the University of San Francisco
after three years, signing the 49-year-old to a six-year contract that’ll pay
him $1.4 million per year – the same sum the school is paying Ernie Kent each
of the next three years while buying out the former coach’s contract.
The
impression Smith makes on the court, where the Cougars haven’t produced a
winning season since 2011-12, will be the only one that matters in the long
run, but the numbers guru who’s renowned for his analytics-driven approach to
the game graded out as well as he could’ve during his first formal
introduction.
“A lot of
people say Disneyland is the happiest place on Earth,” Smith said. “Let me tell
you, Pullman is the friendliest place on Earth.”
Smith will
eventually break down more than 50 statistical categories with each of his
players, but the coach was only concerned with one or two numbers on Monday.
“We’ve got
to make a 20 percent improvement this year, whatever it is,” Smith said.
The one
area Smith wants to see instant improvement is the same one Cannon and Robinson
alluded to: defense. The coach hinted at WSU’s defensive ineptitude under the
last regime, pointing out that the Cougars ranked 291st nationally.
“We don’t
need to go much deeper than that, but that’s such an egregious (number),” he
said. “We have to get better, just to get in the conversation. All hands on
deck, let’s get better here.”
Chun
didn’t offer much detail about the school’s search process, but it’s clear
Smith’s name was in the pot from the jump.
“One of my
junior college coaches, the day coach Kent was fired, they called me and told
me about (Smith),” Robinson said.
Smith won
at least 20 games in each of his three seasons at USF, but it’s been nearly a
decade since the Cougars have cracked that same total. Smith said he
understands the risk/reward of the WSU job – “I like to compete” – and said
he’s “not naïve to what the history’s been.”
“I just
think geographically it’s tricky,” Smith said.
But for at
least one day, Smith’s enthusiasm and willingness to take on one of college
basketball’s most challenging gigs seemed to set everyone at ease.
“In our
first phone call, Kyle Smith made it clear to me he was going to be our next
head coach,” Chun said, “and he was actually going to take over the job before
we got off the phone.”
:::
WSU MEN’S
HOOPS
New
Cougars coach Kyle Smith has winning pedigree
By
Nicholas K. Geranios | AP April 1 at 5:45 PM
PULLMAN,
Wash. — Kyle Smith has gotten right to work as the new head coach at Washington
State. He’s already held a couple of practices with his Cougars since being
hired last week and is working to keep veteran players from leaving.
“All hands
on deck,” Smith said at his introductory news conference Monday. “Let’s get
better here.”
The
Cougars haven’t had a winning season since 2012, and coach Ernie Kent was fired
after going 58-98 over the past five seasons.
But Smith
brings a winning pedigree to Pullman. He comes to Washington State after a
successful three-year run at San Francisco during which he went 63-40 and
became the first head coach in school history to win at least 20 games in each
of his first three seasons.
Before
landing the job at San Francisco, Smith went 102-81 in six seasons at Columbia,
capping his run in New York by leading the Lions to the CIT title in 2016. He
also has strong West Coast ties with his time as an assistant at Saint Mary’s
for nearly a decade.
Since
arriving in Pullman, he’s held practices for the returning players. He’s also
reached out to C.J. Elleby, one of the team’s top players, who has declared for
the NBA draft, and Jeff Pollard, who is seeking a transfer.
Elleby,
who averaged better than 14 points per game last year, has shown up at the
practices, Smith said.
“He is welcome
back,” Smith said.
As for
Pollard: “You are welcome here brother,” Smith said. “You are a Coug.”
The
49-year-old Smith is highly regarded for his extensive use of analytics. “We
stat everything we do,” Smith said. “It makes you hard to beat.”
While the
Cougars have languished near the bottom of the conference in the past decade,
Smith said that doesn’t have to be the case. He said Washington State has
adequate facilities to compete with other Pac-12 schools.
Forward
Marvin Cannon said Smith has already made an impact. “He’s a great coach, very
knowledgeable about the game,” Cannon said. “He’s got a lot of energy.”
Smith is
excited to be part of the Pac-12 and could name the best coaches among the 18
who preceded him at Washington State, including George Raveling, Kelvin Sampson
and Tony Bennett.
“I am
humbled and honored to have a chance,” Smith said.
He did not
promise an immediate fix to the basketball program.
“There
will be some rough patches,” he said.
Washington
State President Kirk Schulz said Smith will be given time to build the program.
He was given a six-year contract worth $1.4 million annually.
Smith
declined to identify who will be his assistant coaches, although he said he has
commitments from two of them.
::::::::
Review
about a book about the late Adolph Rupp, long-time head men’s basketball coach
at University of Kentucky, in March 30, 2019, Wall Street Journal includes two
WSU mentions:
--“In 1941,
for example, Wisconsin beat Washington State for the title. The score, 39-34.”
--“George
Raveling became the head coach at Washington State in 1972.”
#
