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SEATTLE It was a defeat that hung in their throat. Sure, Gonzaga is the fourth-ranked team in the nation, but the way they played in Wednesday's home rout didn't sit well with the Washington State Cougars.
SEATTLE The weather has taken a turn toward winter. Final exams loom next week. And yet the Washington State basketball team boarded an airplane Friday and bounced across the mountains to play a home game here tonight against Montana State.
Sides have already been taken, and not only on reflex allegiances to what it might say on a uniform or a diploma.
PULLMAN There was a seen-it-before element to the Big 12/Pac-10 Hardwood Series game between the 24th-ranked Baylor Bears and the Washington State Cougars.
PULLMAN Every college football team has a "get back" coach. He's the guy who stands on the sideline, waving his arms and telling the players to "get back, get back," so the team isn't assessed a sideline infraction.
PULLMAN A cross-country trip Sunday that started before 3 a.m. PST. School back in session Monday. A sluggish practice.
NEWARK, N.J. Six games into the 2008-09 basketball season, the Washington State Cougars finally learned what defeat is like.
NEWARK, N.J. Washington State traveled here over Thanksgiving weekend to learn something.
PULLMAN Remember how much you had to learn your freshman year in college? Where's the library? Who sells Top Ramen the cheapest? Which professor should you avoid?
PULLMAN Washington State wasted little time Tuesday night showing Canisius College how big a gap there is between the two schools' basketball programs.
PULLMAN Before Friday night's non-conference basketball game at Friel Court, Sacramento State's first-year coach Brian Katz made a pilgrimage.
PULLMAN There came a time during Washington State's basketball opener Saturday night when coach Tony Bennett challenged his team to "play against the game."
PULLMAN Ben Johnson was just doing what he always did. He was headed into a local gym to lift weights.
PULLMAN Washington State basketball coach Tony Bennett looked over the list of the four high school seniors who signed letters of intent to attend his school Wednesday and one thing stood out.
Before June Daugherty ever coached a women's basketball game for Washington State, the veteran coach's arrival was heralded as "the new championship era."
PULLMAN It was an exhibition, after all. Which means, it seems, it was time for the Washington State Cougars to exhibit their talents.
PULLMAN Australian power forward Brock Motum on Wednesday became the fourth high school senior to commit to Washington State, confirming his intention to sign a letter of intent with the Cougars next week.
PULLMAN Probably the men's basketball team would have made it to the Sweet 16 anyway. But there are researchers at Washington State University who like to think that training like ducks helped boost the Cougars to their greatest success in more than 60 years.
PULLMAN β David Chadwick has known Washington State basketball coach Tony Bennett most of his life.
It was a little longer wait than he might have wanted, but Kyle Weaver finally heard his name called.
PULLMAN DeAngelo Casto, Washington's high school basketball player of the year from Ferris High, has signed a letter of intent to play next season at Washington State University.
Washington State freshman guard Stephen Sauls, following a concussion which ended his season early in January, has been granted a release from the men's basketball program and plans to transfer to a school that is closer to his hometown in Missouri City, Texas, head coach Tony Bennett announced Wednesday.
Tony Bennett had heard enough. Enough of the rumors about LSU, Cal, Marquette, wherever. Enough of the phone ringing at his San Antonio hotel room. Enough of the contacts with recruits, friends, assistants, asking if he was leaving.
It didn't take long. The rumors of the demise of the Tony Bennett era at Washington State started early Saturday morning, with a report on FOXSports.com that Indiana University had offered Bennett its head basketball coaching position.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. In what arguably was the best men's basketball season in Washington State's history, the Cougars had no shot to get past the No. 1-ranked Tar Heels of North Carolina.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. Is that all there is?Such a cruel and terrible question to ask, and even more so because the Washington State Cougars had to ask it of themselves, as well.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. By halftime of the NCAA East Regional semifinal, college basketball's likely Player of the Year had scored all of two points both on free throws. Certainly it seemed like a recipe for disaster for top-ranked North Carolina.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. Like every college athlete, they knew it had to end someday. But never did they imagine it would be like this.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. At times, the contrast is so obvious that to mention it almost seems redundant.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. Team Afterthought turned up at the North Carolina Invitational here Wednesday and took the place by shrug.
Guards
Since Ty Lawson has returned from a midseason ankle injury he said he's not 100 percent yet, but close enough the Carolina fast break has returned to warp speed. Lawson may be the pilot (with 154 assists), but Ellington is the engine. The sophomore averages 16.8 points and shoots 48 percent from the floor.
Washington State's Chad Arnold worked six strong innings Tuesday as the host Cougars defeated the Gonzaga Bulldogs 6-2 in non-conference baseball action at Bailey-Brayton Field in Pullman.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. The chant started even before the clock had ticked to double zeroes."Thanks for practice, thanks for practice," the Stillwater, Okla., crowd repeated, over and over.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. Not to poke a hole in the bottom of the boat, but these uncharted waters the Washington State Cougars are sailing? Well, they've been charted.
PULLMAN Washington State University has no more tickets available for Cougars fans wanting to catch their men's basketball team in the NCAA tournament Sweet 16 this week in Charlotte, N.C.
PULLMAN Washington State men's basketball coach Tony Bennett reached into his pocket and pulled out a piece of paper.
They had just finished off Notre Dame in dominating fashion, easing to a 61-41 win Saturday.The Washington State Cougars had just earned the school's first trip to the Sweet 16. The last time WSU won twice in an NCAA tournament was in 1941 when only eight schools played and the Cougars reached the finals.
DENVER They had unfinished business. So the three seniors who have taken the Cougars so far decided to take Washington State's basketball team further than it's been before.
DENVER If you were wondering, Bobby Knight can be just as polarizing a figure as a studio analyst as he was as a basketball coach.
DENVER A crowd of reporters clustered in a dim vomitorium in the Pepsi Center, waiting for Washington State's locker room to open after the Cougars' 61-41 rout of Notre Dame on Saturday, when they were joined by a man without a notebook, camera or NCAA tournament credentials.
DENVER Tony Bennett isn't above a psychological ploy. A motivational tool. An edge. In fact, he looks for them. Saturday, he found one from an unexpected source: his wife, Laurel.
DENVER You can see them at every game, sitting at the end of the bench, ties on, clipboards and folding stools at the ready.
DENVER When Tony Bennett looks at tape of Notre Dame, Washington State's opponent today in an NCAA East Regional second-round game, the WSU men's basketball coach sees a team in transition.
DENVER When Washington State basketball player Robbie Cowgill steps up to the free- throw line, he talks to God.
DENVER And now it's time.College basketball has produced no more compelling fable these last couple of years than the rise of Washington State, which you could define as a painstaking overnight sensation.
DENVER Through the course of the season, Washington State's players have heard some impressive halftime speeches from coach Tony Bennett.
DENVER On a day when the bracket bullies asserted their collective will on the huddled masses of the NCAA tournament and in a particularly tedious fashion for something billed as madness so did the Washington State Cougars.
DENVER It's easy to underestimate Taylor Rochestie.When he came out of Santa Barbara High he heard he was too short, too slow, just not good enough to play at the highest level of college basketball.
DENVER The Harmelings were at a TGIFriday's in Salt Lake City when the NCAA announced where their son Daven's basketball team would be playing this week. Mary Harmeling didn't expect Washington State University to come to her home state of Colorado.
DENVER When preparing for a game with an unknown foe, it helps to draw on past opponents.
DENVER One morning last March, the face of De'Andre Adams was all over Spokane. He owned the town.
PULLMAN When he saw his school's name appear on the NCAA tournament bracket Sunday, Winthrop coach Randy Peele quickly looked at the line immediately above the Eagles.
PULLMAN It was fast-paced, it was different and the Cougars had fun. It was the first day of spring ball for the Washington State football team under a new coaching staff.
The Washington State baseball team fell to Oklahoma 14-2 on Sunday to wrap up a non-conference four-game series with No. 25 Oklahoma at Dale Mitchell Park in Norman, Okla.
PULLMAN Last year everything was shiny and new. This year the luster is still there, but the novelty is not.
LOS ANGELES Washington State didn't get its opportunity to play for the Pac-10 tournament men's basketball title Saturday. Instead the Cougars will receive a consolation prize today: a second consecutive NCAA tournament berth.
LOS ANGELES Twice during the regular season Washington State played the Stanford Cardinal.
LOS ANGELES So whatever became of the dog-eat-dog, grindhouse, coach-killing, take-that-Billy-Packer, best college basketball conference in America?
LOS ANGELES This is, in a sense, a David vs. Goliath tale, told with some subtle subtext.
LOS ANGELES Had this one been any closer, the referees would have had to decide it.
LOS ANGELES There is a certain symmetry here. After years of frustration, the Washington State Cougars finally scratched the itch caused by loss after loss to the University of Oregon. Losses marked by the irritation of knowing a play here, a call there, and the annoyance would end.
LOS ANGELES The Pacific Life Pacific-10 Conference men's basketball tournament, which begins this evening at the Staples Center, is truly a case of the haves versus the have-nots.
PULLMAN It wasn't the best year to be an upperclassman in Pac-10 Conference men's basketball.
PULLMAN When it was finally done the game, the regular season and, for the three key players in Washington State's basketball renaissance, their games in Beasley Coliseum the Cougars didn't want to leave Friel Court.
PULLMAN It took Washington State's group of seniors a while to understand this University of Washington rivalry thing.
So here comes their last home game, and maybe it's true that you can't say enough about the seniors who changed the face of basketball at Washington State.
STANFORD, Calif. It was right there an upset victory over the nation's eighth-ranked men's basketball team before 7,329 at Maples Pavilion.
BERKELEY, Calif. Maybe short-handed is the way to go.The first time Washington State met California, the Golden Bears played without starting center DeVon Hardin and won.
PULLMAN The question is simple, the answer complex. How do you stop Cal's Ryan Anderson?
PULLMAN One time can possibly be dismissed. But two times? That's a trend. A trend that is tough for Washington State's basketball team to stomach.
PULLMAN It was just more than four years ago that Tony Bennett walked down the tunnel into Beasley Coliseum for his first game at Washington State and pulled back the black curtain.
PULLMAN Near the top of any college basketball coach's motivational toolbox is a drawer labeled revenge. An early-season loss is always tucked just inside, waiting to be brought out when needed to ratchet up the intensity for a late-season meeting.
Sybil Dosty scored 14 points and Lauren Lacey added 12 as Arizona State beat Washington State 59-30 Thursday night at Tempe, Ariz., holding the Cougars to the lowest point total in Pac-10 women's basketball history.
PULLMAN So now we know. Tony Bennett is prescient. At least Washington State's basketball coach was Thursday night.
Fox Sports Network announced Thursday the Washington State at Stanford men's basketball game as the selection for the March 1 wild-card game.
PULLMAN οΏ½ By now, there is a general consensus as to what basketball at Washington State is.
EUGENE, Ore. Late in the first quarter of a 70-62 win over South Eugene High last Friday, South Medford's Michael Harthun attacked the middle of the Axemen's zone with the dribble.
EUGENE, Ore. It has been 66 years since Washington State's men's basketball team has won 20 games in back-to-back seasons.
EUGENE, Ore. Don't count Robbie Cowgill among those who will be sad to see Macarthur Court torn down. Or Kyle Weaver. Or any of the Washington State Cougar seniors.
CORVALLIS, Ore. There have been times this Pac-10 men's basketball season when Washington State has played pretty well and lost.
PULLMAN No blowups, no ranting, no outbursts. Despite a three-game losing streak, Washington State men's basketball coach Tony Bennett kept it under control. The Cougars fortunes, he felt, were about to change.
PULLMAN Enough of the cumulative bummer of the losing streak and the shooting guard's shooting hiccups. Enough of the slowly descending tournament seed, the big fella's foul habit, the out-of-character late-game breakdowns.
PULLMAN Ask WSU basketball player Chris Henry why he goes through the daily practice grind with little hope of seeing the court during games, and he doesn't hesitate with his answer.
PULLMAN Sometimes the recent matchups between Washington State and UCLA have been decided late. Sometimes they have been decided in the first few minutes.
PULLMAN As the Pac-10 basketball season moves into its second half tonight, the Washington State Cougars find themselves in a third-place logjam.
PULLMAN In a game of lost opportunities in a weekend of the same, Washington State's men's basketball team did a couple of things Saturday it hasn't done all year.
Hmm. Looks like Camelot could use a new coat of paint.That's one prescription, anyway.
PULLMAN In the year and a half Washington State's basketball program has thrust itself into the national spotlight, the Cougars have lost just 11 games.
PULLMAN Tony Bennett will tell anyone who will listen about the fine line the Washington State Cougars walk.
TEMPE, Ariz. First some context. Last season, Washington State survived a one-point decision against Arizona State here when then-freshman Christian Polk missed a 3-pointer as time expired.
TEMPE, Ariz. One thing about being in the sun: complexions change.Such is the case with tonight's Washington State basketball game here in the Valley of the Sun.
TUCSON, Ariz. Tony Bennett let the thought trail off."You play on the road in this league, if you don't come with a defensive mindset that holds you in there
" the Washington State basketball coach said before pausing, then shifting gears.
PULLMAN Growing up in Hawaii, Derrick Low wasn't a hunter. No, that had to wait until he got to the Palouse.
PULLMAN For the past four years, all Washington State coach Tony Bennett could do was watch.
PULLMAN Ask any Cougar fan about last year's 77-74 overtime home men's basketball loss to the University of Oregon and words usually start flowing that can't be printed here or uttered on Cinemax for that matter.
PULLMAN Needing to rebound from its first loss of the season, Washington State couldn't have asked for a better Pac-10 men's basketball opponent. Or a better place.
Four weeks ago Daven Harmeling was struggling with his outside shot, connecting on just 19 percent of his 3-point attempts.
PULLMAN Next time you see Washington State University's eighthranked basketball team play, check out Caleb Forrest's hair. Yes, his hair.
LOS ANGELES Since James Naismith hung the peach basket in the Springfield Y, rarely has a basketball game's final score held less significance.
LOS ANGELES In all the 50 times Washington State has met the UCLA Bruins here, none has met with as much hype as this morning's game.
LOS ANGELES οΏ½ Most of the time the Washington State men's basketball team wins games with its defense.
SEATTLE If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, the Washington State Cougars should consider themselves flattered. Because they almost got flattened a few times Saturday night by the new-look Washington Huskies.
PULLMAN The first time Washington State basketball coach Tony Bennett heard a report on Taylor Rochestie, it came back positive, in a fashion.
SEATTLE Tony Bennett walked into a silent locker room inside Sacramento's Arco Arena in March. He was about to cry.
PULLMAN WSU finished it's nonconference play Friday night with a dominating effort, limiting North Carolina A&T to 12 first-half points and breezing to a 67-34 win.
PULLMAN The last time we saw Ivory Clark, he was on the WSU bench, watching Vanderbilt finish out the Cougars' 78-74 NCAA tournament second-round defeat.
POCATELLO, Idaho It would have been perfectly understandable for the Washington State men's basketball team to bring a less than enthusiastic attitude into Holt Arena on Sunday.
Washington State will not only be facing Idaho State on the road today, they'll also be without 6-foot-7 junior Daven Harmeling, the Cougars' sixth man.
SEATTLE Even Tony Bennett was impressed. No, not by his team's defensive-fueled 67-45 rout of The Citadel on Thursday night, though he wasn't about to throw it back.
PULLMAN The Washington State men's basketball team is in the midst of its longest layoff in the Tony Bennett era.
PULLMAN With an 11-day layoff in the rear-view mirror, the Washington State Cougars take to the road once more to play a home game.
PULLMAN Sunday night was special for Washington State junior center Aron Baynes. Not only were the undefeated Cougars hosting Portland State in a non-conference game at Beasley Coliseum, it was also his 21st birthday.
Washington State kept it simple in its men's basketball showdown with Gonzaga on Wednesday night: Patiently work for quality shots and challenge every offensive look.
There was no making much sense of anything this week.Television. Ticket scalping. Tent cities. Everything was pretty much over the top or beyond making sense in advance of Washington State and Gonzaga meeting in the game that was going to rock Spokane, if not the country.
Find your game. It sounded a little like an old advertisement for a brand of golf clubs, which is somewhat appropriate since Tony Bennett has a formidable golf swing.
Has there ever been a more unlikely hero in a basketball game than Duane Ranniger?
WACO, Tex. They had, according to coach Tony Bennett, misplaced their identity somewhere between Eastern Washington and central Texas and couldn't find it in the first half.
WACO, Texas The road can be an unkind place. The only non-conference loss the Washington State men's basketball team suffered last season came in early December against Utah in Salt Lake City.
PULLMAN Every college basketball coach starts a season with a checklist filled with concerns. It's the nature of the profession.
A shooter who isn't going well will try just about anything to bust out. Washington State's Derrick Low is no different. Only his solution might have been.
It turned out Washington State's second game in the three-day Cougar Hispanic College Fund Challenge wasn't one.
There's been two areas in which the ninth-ranked Washington State Cougars have been consistent this season.
Like everyone else, Washington State basketball coach Tony Bennett has a wish list he hopes to fill by Christmas.
PULLMAN Three games into the basketball season, the Washington State Cougars figured it was time to announce their presence. To themselves.
BOISE Despite a sluggish start, despite not playing what guard Taylor Rochestie termed Washington State basketball for most of the first half, despite a defensive effort coach Tony Bennett criticized, despite all that ... WSU opened the road portion of the 2007-08 season with an 86-74 win over Boise State in front of 6,718 at the Taco Bell Arena.
PULLMAN At halftime Friday night, Eastern Washington coach Kirk Earlywine wasn't discouraged or disappointed in how his team was playing.
PULLMAN According to the score, the 10th-ranked WSU men's basketball team's exhibition win over Lewis-Clark State was the expected rout.
LOS ANGELES Arizona State coach Herb Sendek stepped up to the podium at Thursday's Pac-10 basketball media day and began to speak.
LOS ANGELES The Washington State Cougars were picked to finish second in the Pac-10 on Thursday by the media members who cover the conference.
WSU unveiled the nation's 10th-ranked men's basketball team Saturday in an scrimmage and there were about 3,000 stars the 3,000 or so who showed up at Bohler Gym.
Washington State University seniors Derrick Low and Kyle Weaver are among the 50 preseason candidates for the John R. Wooden Award, the nation's most coveted college basketball award, the Los Angeles Athletic Club's Wooden Award Committee announced Wednesday.
PULLMAN Nikola Koprivica drove the lane, something the 18-year-old had done many, many times before. But this time the landing was different.
PULLMAN When Washington State's men's basketball team takes the practice floor tonight at 7 to officially begin the 2007-08 season, there will be plenty of familiar faces.
The Washington State Cougars were out of basketball scholarships to offer recruits next season.
Basketball is supposed to be a winter sport. But for four Washington State Cougars, summer turned to winter and stayed that way for a couple of months.
Washington State University guard Thomas Abercrombie and his native New Zealand lost 78-57 to Korea in a men's basketball game at the World University Games Monday in Bangkok, Thailand.
Washington State University center Aron Baynes scored in double figures for the fourth straight game Sunday, but his native Australia lost 69-53 to the Czech Republic in a men's basketball second-phase game at the World University Games in Bangkok.
Washington State University sophomore Aron Baynes hit all nine of his shots from the floor and finished with 21 points to lead his home country of Australia to a 96-52 romp over Angola in men's basketball action at the World University Games early this morning at Bangkok, Thailand.
Washington State University's Aron Baynes totaled 14 points, six rebounds and four blocked shots Friday, but his native Australia lost to Israel 74-62 in basketball at the World University Games in Bangkok, Thailand.
Tony Bennett will receive the largest contract in Washington State University coaching history after leading the Cougars to their best season in decades.
After five trial sessions and four practices spread over five days, Washington State seniors-to-be Derrick Low and Kyle Weaver are finally able to relax.
Mark McLaughlin, a 6-foot-5 wing from Inglemoor High in Kenmore, Wash., has given an oral commitment to play basketball at Washington State University.
If you think March is a barometer of how far the basketball program at Washington State has come, well, of course you're right. But June, July and August are closing fast.
PULLMAN Aron Baynes and Thomas Abercrombie are likely to register some telling minutes for the Cougars in the coming weeks.
EVERETT, Wash. Washington State women's basketball coach June Daugherty was released from a hospital Tuesday.
PULLMAN Washington State has secured its second oral commitment for the recruiting class of 2008.
June Daugherty is expected to be released from Providence Everett Medical Center within the next 48 hours after having a defibrillator surgically implanted Thursday.
Only two members of Washington State University's women's basketball team are in Pullman, but their situation is no different than that of their teammates scattered about the nation.
So Washington State, by way of shedding a potential and extraneous game with Gonzaga, is ceding the territory of Alaska to the Zags and playing a tournament in
Spokane?
Washington State finished off its recruiting class in advance of the 2007-08 season Monday, signing a Houston native to a letter of intent.
PULLMAN Step one in June Daugherty's rebuilding process of the Washington State women's basketball program has nothing to do with the game itself.
PULLMAN In one of her first acts as the new head coach of the Washington State women's basketball team, June Daugherty knocked a tape recorder off of the lectern.
Let's start with the premise that the Huskies screwed up. Every Cougar wants to believe that, right?
PULLMAN Washington State will introduce former Washington coach June Daugherty as its new women's basketball coach this afternoon.
PULLMAN Washington State has received a letter of intent from German high schooler Fabian Boeke, who is set to join the basketball team this fall as a freshman.
PULLMAN Washington State would like to hire a new women's basketball coach soon, possibly by the end of the upcoming week, according to members of the school's search committee.
PULLMAN Two players on the Washington State basketball team, seeing little playing time for themselves in the future, have asked to be released from their scholarships.
Sherri Murrell shocked the Cougars family Thursday afternoon by abruptly resigning as the Washington State head women's basketball coach.
Washington State University men's basketball is on the rebound, and its coach has been rewarded handsomely.
Tony Bennett moved into a new house in Pullman within the last year, but he and his family may have to do a little rearranging already a trophy room is probably in order.
PULLMAN There are many details left to be hammered out, but Washington State was in no mood to wait for someone to pluck its coach with a plum offer.
PULLMAN Washington State hopes to come to a contract agreement or something close to it with men's basketball coach Tony Bennett in the next week.
PULLMAN It took George Raveling more than three seasons to win 26 games as head coach at Washington State, proof that even for the best and most beloved of Cougars coaches winning on the Palouse isn't easy.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. No time to stop now. Not after this turnaround, not after this season, not after these thrills.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. Kyle Weaver has the rebounds, the assists, the blocks and the steals to justify his All-Pac-10 status this season.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. You know that Washington State University logo? The one that spells out WSU and seemed to be everywhere in the Inland Northwest recently?
SACRAMENTO, Calif. Washington State University loses just one scholarship player to graduation this season, forward Ivory Clark.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. Southeastern Conference most valuable player Derrick Byars was missing 3-pointers all over the place.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. Vanderbilt has relied on 3-pointers throughout the season and it finally got untracked from long distance in the second half of Saturday's second-round NCAA tournament game.
Vanderbilt 78, WSU 74 (2OT)
SACRAMENTO, Calif. The Cougars could taste the Sweet 16. They just couldn't hang onto their place in it.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. Daven Harmeling and the Washington State Cougars commanded the public's attention at pretty much the same time.
SACRAMENTO So you've climbed aboard this Cougar basketball bandwagon, have you?
SACRAMENTO, Calif. The only one who has had much success stopping Vanderbilt's Derrick Byars this season is a gentleman named Byars.
Region: East, No. 6 seedCoach: Kevin Stallings
SACRAMENTO, Calif. The mantra is heard constantly this time of year, probably because it holds true more often than not.
SACRAMENTO The prestige is obvious. The financial return might be as well.But winning an NCAA Division I basketball tournament game, to Pete Isakson at least, is pretty much priceless.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. What is it in a smile that can offend? Ivory Clark can't explain it, exactly. But he is a serious man, not outwardly light of heart.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. Washington State forward Ivory Clark hadn't heard his nickname for a while: Sky-vory.
Washington St. 70, Oral Roberts 54
Six Shots, out of 25 attempts, that Washington State made at the beginning of Thursday's game.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. All it took for 24 years of history to turn on its head was three seconds.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. The Cougars sported more than smiles while walking out onto the Arco Arena floor for the school's first NCAA tournament practice in 13 years.
When Spokane last hosted an NCAA tournament subregional four years ago, the most important game in town may have been played off the court.
Region: EastCoach: Scott SuttonRecord: 23-10
For Thursday, March 15, 2007.
PULLMAN Tony Bennett watched his jersey rise to the rafters at Wisconsin-Green Bay and then he fell down on a knee to propose to his girlfriend of 3 1/2 months.
LOS ANGELES Beating a team for a third time this season was no problem for Washington State in this year's Pac-10 men's basketball tournament. But doing so on back-to-back nights?
LOS ANGELES Tony Bennett rattled them off the other day all the plusses he could see stacking up around the Washington State Cougars.
PULLMAN It should have been nearly impossible for Washington State to send its fans away with a suitable home finale after this incredible regular season.
PULLMAN This history-making season for Washington State could get a lot more interesting in the coming days.
PULLMAN Leave it to the most powerful dunker on the team to know that it's not about how you start, but all about how you finish.
PULLMAN Imagine two race cars just laps from the finish line, with the fuel light shining brightly from the dashboard of each.
Ben Howland walked out onto the floor on Dec. 28 for his radio interview. His UCLA Bruins had just defeated WSU 55-52, and he had words of praise for his opponent.
PULLMAN Maybe the greatest irony of this Washington State season is that the week everything has pointed toward for months may end up meaning virtually nothing.
Washington State has received a verbal commitment from Fabian Boeke, a basketball player from Germany, to join the Cougars, according to a source close to the situation.
PULLMAN Down by seven points and down for the entire game to that point, Washington State turned to the least likely guy on the court to bail the team out. And bail it out he did.
CORVALLIS, Ore. The sight was so surprising it was almost laughable.Here was the No. 9 team in the country, lined up across the Gill Coliseum floor, working on defensive slides and stances as assistant coach Ben Johnson held a ball in the direction he wanted the players to move.
EUGENE, Ore. Washington State can set a school record for wins this season. It can finish near the top of the Pac-10 standings for the first time in more than a decade. It could even make a run deep into the NCAA tournament.
Washington State is rested. It can only hope that it's ready.The 22-4 Cougars, having been off since a Feb. 14 win at Washington, probably will have to call on every reserve of newfound strength to slay the one dragon that has haunted them above all others in recent seasons.
PULLMAN Belief is something that's getting easier and easier to come by these days around the Washington State basketball program.
PULLMAN Washington State plans to send out ticket information for the NCAA men's basketball tournament to its season-ticket holders Wednesday.
PULLMAN Washington State's success on the basketball floor has translated into a success on the recruiting trail. The 2010 recruiting trail.
PULLMAN All the hands went into the center and in unison the voices called out "Pac-10 champs!" as Washington State's basketball team closed its practice Monday.
Tony Bennett is considered a favorite to win national coach of the year honors for his work as a first-year coach in turning the Cougars into the 22-4 team that they are.
Tony Bennett is considered a favorite to win national coach of the year honors for his work as a first-year coach in turning the Cougars into a 22-4 team.
SEATTLE A full half-hour after the end of Wednesday night's basketball game between Washington State and Washington, nearly half of the Cougars coaches and players milled about on the floor of Bank of America Arena.
SEATTLE So it is no longer surprising. Only incredible.At least in some circles. Those smart guys in Vegas, for instance, installed Washington State as three-point underdogs Wednesday night against Washington, and even if it was only to ire up all the Cougars with money burning a hole in their pockets, it did have that slap-of-disrespect feeling to it.
Had this been said two years ago, it most certainly would have been as a punch line to a bizarre basketball joke. But a lot can happen in two years, and a lot has happened.
PULLMAN On the same day that Washington State secured a top-10 ranking for the first time in school history, the Cougars were also secure in the knowledge that a Pac-10 championship, with five games left in the season, goes through Friel Court.
PULLMAN Teams have tried to run on Washington State, only to slam into a brick wall. On Saturday, California walked onto Friel Court before 8,762 fans and tried to be the brick wall.
PULLMAN It's been 13 years since Washington State last slid into an NCAA tournament bracket.
PULLMAN The phone rang at Dick Bennett's house on Sunday and the retired basketball coach's 9-year-old grandson had a question.
PULLMAN The 20th win, as it turned out, didn't look too much like a lot of the ones that came before it this season.
PULLMAN When you capture a spider in a mayonnaise jar, the humane thing to do is punch some holes in the lid for air.
PULLMAN It's not hard to find something to be concerned about if you're a Washington State fan tonight.
There seems to be some worries out there among Cougars fans that their beloved team still isn't a lock to make the NCAA tournament.
TEMPE, Ariz. Somehow, what transpired Saturday evening in Wells Fargo Arena counts just as much as each of Washington State's other seven Pac-10 basketball wins.
TEMPE, Ariz. The high fives came with extra vigor and the smiles with an extra few teeth visible for all to see.
In a season filled with history-making wins, Washington State will go for one more this evening.
PULLMAN Some days are filled with good news and some days are filled with bad news.The Washington State men's basketball team got both Monday while taking the day off.
PULLMAN Since the Bennetts arrived on the Palouse, one streak after another has fallen by the wayside as the Cougars have taken care of their Pac-10 basketball opponents.
PULLMAN Oregon and Washington State played each other three times last season.
For Friday, January 26, 2007.
PULLMAN Six days ago, Washington State played its best game and beat Washington. Last night, the Cougars played anything but its best game and still beat Oregon State.
STANFORD, Calif. Washington State proved once again on Saturday how tough it will be to beat this season, but on this day Stanford had the Goods.
Is it just me or does it seem wrong that
It took so long for the nation to realize how well this Washington State men's basketball team is playing? The Cougars may have one bad loss on their resume though after seeing what Virginia did to Gonzaga, the WSU loss to Utah didn't look as bad but wins against the Zags, at USC and a close loss to UCLA should have triggered some type of alarm around the nation.
PULLMAN A Monday afternoon practice is usually a quiet affair for the Washington State men's basketball team.
PULLMAN Not that everyone wasn't already thinking it, but Washington State public address announcer Glenn Johnson felt the need to state the obvious on Saturday night.
PULLMAN Potential? Sure, this day has lots of it for Washington State. "It's huge. It's bigger than a basketball game," senior forward Ivory Clark said.
PULLMAN Some nights it just looks easy, but it's been a long time since things looked this simple for Washington State.
All those who had Washington State at 11-1 heading into the Pac-10 men's basketball season may now fill out their Mensa applications.
PULLMAN Both Washington State and Idaho are taking a couple of days off from practice to allow their players to focus on finals this week, but the break comes with the two teams in wholly different conditions.
MOSCOW, Idaho The excitement level wasn't the same, the level of play wasn't the same, but the result was good enough for Washington State.
So Washington State has beaten Gonzaga and is riding high after thrilling its biggest home crowd in more than a decade. Tonight, we'll find out what happens next.
For the most part, Washington State played well and shot well in its first five games. On Saturday in the Spokane Arena, the Cougars did neither.
Washington State looks to extend its men's basketball record to 5-0 at 7 p.m. tonight against Idaho State in the Cougars' second home game of the season.
MILWAUKEE Washington State Cougars guard Derrick Low helped make Tony Bennett's debut a smooth one. Low scored 17 of his career-high 28 points in the first half as the Cougars never trailed in Bennett's first game as head basketball coach for a 71-60 victory over the University of Alabama-Birmingham in the John Thompson Foundation Classic.
PULLMAN A redshirt sophomore leads the Cougars through stretches before practice.
Keep an eye on these three once the season tips off:Derrick Low, Guard:Now in his junior season, the Cougars are moving Low away from his former point guard duties, hoping to get the Hawaii native to shoot the ball more.
PULLMAN The sweater vest was gone from the Washington State bench, replaced by a more youthful-looking suit no tie, unbuttoned collar but the Cougars on the court looked just like the Pac-10 team you'd expect in Tony Bennett's debut on the sidelines Sunday afternoon.
PULLMAN Washington State has undergone a last-minute roster switch, with one current player ruled academically ineligible and first-year head coach Tony Bennett bringing in another new recruit.
Rodney Edgerson will not return to the Washington State men's basketball team, and he has been released from his scholarship. Edgerson arrived at WSU last year as a junior college transfer from Illinois, but a pre-existing back injury kept him out for most of the season.
Washington State and Idaho both announced official signings as the spring letter of intent period for men's basketball opened Wednesday. The Cougars signed point guard Mac Hopson, who had once orally committed to Idaho before changing course after the firing of coach Leonard Perry.
PULLMAN Washington State has hired Matt Woodley, an assistant coach at Middle Tennessee State, to serve in the same role on the men's basketball staff.
PULLMAN Josh Akognon, who led Washington State University's men's basketball team in scoring as a sophomore this season, has decided to transfer. "It just wasn't a good fit here," Akognon said Tuesday evening.
LOS ANGELES Whatever slim hope still left for a fairy-tale ending to Dick Bennett's coaching career is gone. The Cougars lost 66-55 to Oregon Wednesday night at the Pac-10 basketball tournament, Washington State University's seventh straight loss to finish a season that the team and its coach might rather forget.
LOS ANGELES Chamberlain Oguchi scored all but five of his career-high 26 points in the first half, and Oregon beat Washington State 66-55 Wednesday night in the first round of the Pac-10 men's basketball tournament.
LOS ANGELES As a high school senior on his way to becoming Wisconsin's Mr. Basketball, Tony Bennett couldn't believe he was getting the cold shoulder, and getting it from the most unexpected person.
TEMPE, Ariz. Not the knowledge that this was Dick Bennett's final regular-season game as a head coach, not the sparse and docile road crowd, not even the struggling Arizona State team on the other bench could change one simple fact Saturday night.
TUCSON, Ariz. Hours before Thursday night's road game against an Arizona squad looking to solidify an NCAA Tournament berth, Washington State basketball coach Dick Bennett told his team he was scared.
PULLMAN Maybe it was a sign of just how unsurprising Dick Bennett's retirement was that the head coach didn't appear at the news conference for it.
You've been promised a job, a good one. OK, well, a good one if you thrive on challenge and adrenaline. The pay is handsome, too.
PULLMAN Washington State men's basketball coach Dick Bennett will announce his retirement this morning, effective at season's end. Bennett informed his players after Monday's practice of the coming announcement, and now the two remaining regular-season games plus the Pac-10 tournament will be his final contests as head coach.
PULLMAN In the final two home games of this season, Washington State University allowed a total of 82 points and lost both games.
PULLMAN It's become less a matter of what the Cougars do and more an issue of how they do it. That Washington State lost another Pacific-10 basketball game this one to first-place California is no surprise.
PULLMAN Today could well be the start of Dick Bennett's final homestand as head coach at Washington State University.
EUGENE, Ore. Tony Bennett, Washington State's head coach designate, arrived at Saturday's game more than 10 minutes in because a flight from a recruiting trip had been delayed.
CORVALLIS, Ore. The movement was fluid, the screens were solid and the shots were there. They just wouldn't go down for Washington State.
The ladder sits near the half-court line of Washington State's practice gym. Its bottom three rungs are empty. The fourth and highest rung is host to a picture of the NIT logo.
PULLMAN After meeting with athletic director Jim Sterk last week, Washington State University basketball coach Dick Bennett has confirmed that he will not announce his official decision on retirement until the end of the season.
PULLMAN For a while, it looked like the worst was happening all over again. Washington State University, on the heels of a 30-point effort Thursday night against UCLA, had just 20 in the first half Saturday afternoon in their Pac-10 basketball game against USC and had failed again to shoot better than 28 percent from the floor.
PULLMAN Dick Bennett sat down to talk to the media following Thursday's night's loss to UCLA and apologized. The apology was for his tardy arrival about a half-hour of ranting directed at his team preceded it but it might as well have been for the game his team turned in against the No. 13 team in the nation.
PULLMAN When he first arrived at Washington State in the fall Aron Baynes immediately became one of his coaching staff's favorite targets in practice.
PULLMAN Washington State University point guard Derrick Low participated in some half-court drills during Tuesday's practice, but he appears unlikely to play Thursday night against UCLA.
PULLMAN With good reason, the Super Bowl is the can't-miss event for the state of Washington this week. But for the 8,770 fans who walked through the turnstiles at Beasley Coliseum Saturday afternoon, today's football game might end up being No.
PULLMAN In the joyous celebration outside the visiting locker room in Seattle almost a month ago, Dick Bennett said that his team's just-completed upset at Washington might help spark a rivalry that had been suffering under the weight of one-sidedness.
BERKELEY, Calif. Want to know how badly things are going for Washington State University? Dick Bennett, one of the least likely coaches to sound a positive note after games, is trying to massage his team's feelings.
PALO ALTO, Calif. There's no sense of panic, even with their last win now 20 days in the rear-view mirror. But with every game the Cougars lose, they find themselves falling far behind in the Pacific-10 Conference men's basketball standings.
PULLMAN Washington State University point guard Derrick Low's rehabilitation is proceeding well, according to head coach Dick Bennett.
PULLMAN What looked so good just two weeks ago has now gone terribly wrong. The high of winning at Washington has been fully erased, as Washington State dropped a fourth consecutive game Saturday.
PULLMAN The crowd at Friel Court was ready for a big win. So were the Cougars and their head coach, Dick Bennett. As was Malik Hairston on the other side.
LOS ANGELES For a team that takes pride in discipline and toughness, this was not the game Washington State was looking for. Pick the words to describe Saturday's 71-66 basketball loss at USC confused, lethargic, defeated and you get everything a Dick Bennett team usually is not.
LOS ANGELES When this Washington State basketball season is over, the team's record will show a road loss at UCLA, no more or less meaningful than an earlier loss to Arizona or any other on the Pacific-10 Conference schedule.
A shooter's judgment has to be quick. The shooter can't often take the time to measure things carefully. Catch the ball. Shoot the ball.
SEATTLE It's difficult to celebrate much when you're on crutches, but Derrick Low was going to give it is best shot. The boot protecting his broken right foot, an injury suffered on Tuesday in practice, supposedly also contained Washington State's chances to pull an upset in basketball's Apple Cup on Saturday night.
Not too many people would have picked the Cougars a week ago to pull an upset tonight in Seattle against the archrival Huskies. Not when Washington State is 0-52 all-time on the road against Top 10 teams, and not with Washington riding the nation's longest home winning streak.
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