WSU LOOKS TO BOUNCE BACK AS IT RETURNS HOME: After dropping two games on the road, Washington State men’s basketball (9-10, 3-4) looks to get back to its winning ways as it hosts California (11-9, 1-6), which is also in a slump, having lost its last six games, Thursday, Jan. 29 at Beasley Coliseum.
• Thursday’s game will be televised on the Pac-12 Networks as Rich Cellini (play-by-play) and Dan Dickau (color analyst) have the call.
• Following Thursday’s game, the Cougars will host the Cardinal of Stanford, Saturday, Jan. 31 at 5:30 p.m. at Beasley Coliseum.
• Saturday’s game will be televised on the Pac-12 Networks as Kevin Calabro (play-by-play) and Mike Montgomery (color analyst) have the call.
• Bud Nameck, in his 22nd year with Cougar Basketball, will have the call on the Cougar IMG Radio Network...please see the list of affiliates on page one of today’s notes.
• Live updates can be found on Twitter by following @WSUMensHoops, the official Twitter account of Washington State men’s basketball.
ERNIE KENT IN FIRST SEASON WITH THE COUGARS:
• Veteran head coach and former Fox Sports and Pac-12 Networks basketball analyst was named the 18th head coach in WSU men’s basketball history, March 31, 2014, replacing Ken Bone, who served as the Cougar head coach for five seasons.
• Kent came to Pullman with a 325-254 (.561) mark as a head coach, having spent six seasons at the helm for Saint Mary’s in Moraga, Calif., and 13 at Oregon.
• In his 13 years at Oregon, Kent compiled a 235-174 (.575) record and a 109-125 (.466) conference mark.
• His 109 conference wins rank 17th most in Pac-12 history (including Pacific-8 and Pacific-10 Conferences).
• While at Oregon, Kent led the Ducks to seven postseason appearances, including five NCAA Tournament Appearances (2000, 2002, 2003, 2007, 2008) as well as a Pac-10 regular-season (2002) and two conference tournament (2003, 2007) titles.
WSU VERSUS CALIFORNIA:
• Wednesday marks the 125th all-time meeting between Washington State and California as the Golden Bears hold a 75-49 advantage in the series and have won three of the last four meetings.
• WSU snapped its five-game losing streak at Cal with a 69-66 victory at Berkeley, Jan. 4 in WSU’s opening Pac-12 series of the season...the win marked the Cougars’ first at California since Feb. 28, 2008.
• The series is tied at 29 wins apiece at WSU, as one of Cal’s wins came in Spokane, giving the Cougars a 29-28 advantage at Pullman.
• Prior to earlier this season, WSU’s previous win in the series came Jan. 21, 2012 at Beasley Coliseum.
• WSU has won two of the last three home games in the series, as all three of those games were decided by 4 points or less, including an 80-76 overtime Cougar loss last season (Feb. 12, 2014).
• First-year WSU head coach Ernie Kent is 12-17 as a head coach against California, including his time as head coach at Saint Mary’s and Oregon.
COUGARS VERSUS CARDINAL :
• Saturday marks the 134th all-time meeting between Washington State and Stanford as the Cardinal hold a 74-59 advantage.
• WSU trails the series 22-42 on the road, and 1-5 at neutral sites, but leads 36-27 at home.
• Stanford won the first meeting this season, Jan. 2 at Stanford, and all three meetings last year as WSU’s last win in the series came Jan. 19, 2012.
• WSU last win in the series was also its last home win in the series as the Cougars have won three of the last five games at Pullman.
• First-year WSU head coach and former Stanford assistant coach, Ernie Kent is 6-21 all-time as a head coach against Stanford including his time as head coach at Saint Mary’s and Oregon.
ROAD WARRIORS:
• WSU opened up with a two-game road trip in the state of Texas, marking just the sixth time it has opened the season with a true road game outside the state of Washington and the first time since Nov. 19, 1999, an 80-55 loss at Nevada.
• Washington State was the only Pac-12 school to open the 2014-15 season on the road.
• In fact, in the first two weeks of the season (Friday, Nov. 14-Sun., Nov. 22), just five true road games were played by Pac-12 schools, two of those were WSU’s games.
• The five road games don’t include the seven neutral-site games.
• The Cougars had already played two road games before any other Pac-12 school had played on the road or at a neutral-site venue.
• Five of WSU’s first six games were away from Pullman, including three games at the Great Alaska Shootout, Nov. 27-29.
• WSU played seven games away from Pullman before it hosted its fourth home game of the season against San Jose State, Sunday, Dec. 21.
• The Cougars opened Pac-12 play with three-straight road games, including a second trip to the Bay Area to take on Stanford (Jan. 2) and California (Jan. 4), followed by a trip to Seattle to take on Washington (Jan. 10).
• WSU’s experience on the road paid off as it got the first Pac-12 conference road win this season and the only road win in the first 12 Pac-12 games.
• With its victory at Cal, Jan. 4, WSU won its first Pac-12 road game since the 2012-13 season, breaking a 15-game conference road losing streak.
• With the Jan. 10 win at Washington, the Cougars guaranteed their first two-win Pac-12 road season since 2011-12 and marked the first time they won back-to-back Pac-12 road games since 2008-09.
• The Cougars have not won three total conference road games since the 2010-11 season when it won three Pac-10 road contests.
CALIFORNIA DREAMING:
• Washington State plays California and Stanford for the second time this weekend Jan. 29 and Jan. 31, respectively, both schools from the state of California.
• WSU will play a total of eight schools from the state of California this season in 10 total games, meaning 35 percent of the Cougars’ opponents this season come from the state of California.
• With WSU’s game at Cal, Jan. 4, WSU finished its fifth game of a five-game stretch of consecutive games against opponents from Northern California.
• WSU started the five-game streak at Santa Clara Dec. 13, hosted San Jose State Dec. 21, hosted UC Davis Dec. 28 and opened Pac-12 play Stanford, followed by a trip to California, Jan. 2 and 4, respectively.
• The Cougars went 3-2 in those five-straight games against California opponents.
WSU’S HOT STREAK:
• Earlier this season WSU won three-straight games with victories at Cal (Jan. 4) and Washington (Jan. 10) and at home against Oregon (Jan. 15).
• With the win Jan. 4, the Cougars won their first Pac-12 road game in 15 tries and first since the 2012-13 season.
• With its win Jan. 10 at Washington, WSU won two Pac-12 road games in a season for the first time since the 2011-12 season.
• The win Jan. 10 also gave WSU it’s first two-game conference winning streak since the 2011-12 season.
• WSU’s win against Oregon, Jan. 15, gave WSU its first 3-1 Pac-12 start since the 2007-08 season...it is also the first time since the 2008-09 season that WSU has won three-straight conference games.
• The Cougars’ 108 points in their overtime win over Oregon marked the most since scoring 114 against Grambling State, Dec. 29, 1998...it was the second-most in conference play, second to 111 points against Arizona in double overtime, March 2, 1995 and the first time WSU reached the 100-point plateau since scoring 104 in overtime against Gonzaga, Dec. 7, 2002.
• WSU has already won as many Pac-12 games in five league games this season as it did all of 2013-14.
• The Cougars need just one more win to match last year’s win total (10).
ABOUT THE COUGARS:
• The Cougars are currently 9-10 overall and 3-4 in Pac-12 play, in a four-way tie for sixth with Washington, UCLA and Colorado.
• WSU is 2-7 on the road, 2-1 at neutral sites and 5-2 at home...WSU’s game against Gonzaga counted as a road game, although played at Spokane Arena.
• Last season WSU finished 10-21 overall and 3-15 in Pac-12 play, finishing 11th.
• Nine letterwinners returned for the Cougs, including three starters in seniors DaVonté Lacy, Dexter Kernich-Drew and Jordan Railey.
• Lacy and sophomore Ike Iroegbu are the only two Cougars to start all 19 games so far this season.
• Lacy leads the team and ranks fourth in the Pac-12 in scoring with 16.9 points per game, just over 2.0 points below his 19.4 ppg average last season.
• Lacy is tied for fourth in the league with 2.3 made 3-pointers per game.
• Lacy ranks 14th in the conference for free throw percentage with a .772 (95-for-123) clip...he has the most free throws made by a Pac-12 student-athlete this season.
• Sophomore Josh Hawkinson is averaging a double-double per game as he leads the Pac-12 with 10.7 rebounds per game and ranks ninth in scoring with 15.1 points per game.
• He’s first in the league with 11 double-doubles and leads the league with 8.9 defensive rebounds per game.
• Hawkinson is sixth in the league with 1.4 blocked shots a game and ranks eighth in free throw percentage with an .802 (69-for-86) clip.
• Nationally, Hawkinson ranks in the top-11 in the following categories; he’s second the nation in defensive rebounds per game, is 10th in rebounds per game, 10th for double-doubles and 11th in total rebounds (as of games Jan. 26).
• Freshman point guard Ny Redding has been a surprise for the Cougars, moving into the starting lineup.
• He leads the team and ranks sixth in the Pac-12 with 3.9 assists per game, ranking second-highest among all Pac-12 freshman for assists per game.
• Redding ranks eighth in the league with a 1.7 assist/turnover ratio...he’s second amongst all Pac-12 freshmen.
• He is also ranked fifth in free throw percentage with an .830 mark (39-for-47)...he’s second-highest amongst all freshman in that category.
•Senior Jordan Railey is eighth in the league with 1.3 blocked shots per game and currently ranks 18th in WSU’s career blocks record book with 54 blocks in just one and a half seasons.
LACY MARKING UP RECORD BOOKS:
• Senior DaVonté Lacy is making his mark on the WSU record books.
• In the first round of the 2014 Pac-12 Tournament, Lacy became the 34th Cougar to reach 1,000 career points, ending the season in 32nd with 1,023 points.
• He is the ninth-fastest Cougar to reach the milestone as he accomplished the feat in 85 games.
• Lacy has since moved into 12th on the list with 1,345 points and is 22 points away from Joe Wallace (1984-87) in 11th.
• If Lacy were to average the same amount of points as last season (19.4) and stays healthy and plays at least 31 games, he would finish his career with at least 1,624 points, which would put him fourth in WSU’s record books.
• If he sticks with his career average of 12.9 ppg, he will finish with 1,417 points which would put him at ninth in the WSU career record books.
• If Lacy stays at 16.9 ppg, he would finish with 1,546 points, which would put him at fifth in WSU’s record books.
• Lacy is also climbing up the record books for career 3-pointers made and is on pace for the record, currently in sole possession of fifth with 224.
• He is currently 6 away from Bennie Seltzer (1990-93) in fourth with 230 made 3’s.
• Lacy is just 18 3-pointers away from tying Klay Thompson for the school record...if he were to stay healthy during his senior season, Lacy would need to average just under 2 made 3-pointers per game to reach the record...he’s averaging 2.3 right now.
HAWKINSON’S SOARING IN SECOND YEAR:
• Sophomore Josh Hawkinson is averaging 15.1 points, 10.7 rebounds and 1.4 blocks per game in WSU’s 19 games this season...he’s playing 31.8 minutes per outing.
• Hawkinson had his first double-double of his career in WSU’s second game of the season at TCU and now has 11 double-doubles.
• Last season Hawkinson averaged just 1.2 points and 1.6 rebounds a game in 6.4 minutes an outing, while compiling just 4 blocks the entire season.
• He is scoring 13.9 more points and grabbing 9.1 more rebounds this year than last year and has already played 425 more minutes than he did all of last year, more than double the 180 he played last year.
IROEGBU MAKING STRIDES IN YEAR TWO TOO:
• Sophomore Ike Iroegbu is having a breakout sophomore year as well, as he’s averaging 3.2 more points this year than his freshman year while starting all 19 games this season.
• He is 4 points shy of last year’s total of 170 points and has surpassed his assists total from his freshman year (45) with 54 this year.
• Iroegbu has made four more baskets this year (59) as he did all of last season (55).
• Iroegbu is tied for 14th in the league in assists per game with 2.8.
ALL ABOUT THAT BOESE:
• Junior Brett Boese (pronounced Base) has moved into a bigger role as well, his coming in his third season with the Cougars.
• In his first two seasons, Boese played a total of 194 minutes in 36 games for 5.4 minutes of action per game...this year he’s played just 19 games (all 19 of WSU’s games), a total of 371 minutes, for an average of 19.5 minutes per game.
• On top of that, Boese has already scored 68 more points this season than the last two combined (51 last two years) for an improvement of points per game of 4.9 from 1.4 his first two seasons to 6.3 this season.
• From beyond the 3-point arc, Boese has more than doubled his 3-pointers made from 14 his first two seasons to 32, halfway through this season.
• His 3-point field goal percentage has also improved by seven percent, going from .359 as a freshman and sophomore to .432 his junior season.
• Boese played 57% of the team’s games last season and 100% so far this season.
