This Week In Cougar Athletics History

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Men's Basketball
March 6, 1980

Not since the memorable 1941 national runner-up season had the Cougars played in the NCAA Tournament, but that streak was put to an end when WSU took the floor against Penn in a NCAA first round game at West Lafayette, Ind.

WSU was established as the No. 5 seed in the Mideast Region, but Ivy League Champ Penn, a Final Four participant the previous year, crashed the Cougars’ postseason party with a 62-55 upset win.

With the score tied at 51, a pivotal point of the game occurred when WSU All-American Don Collins, who finished with 20 points, fouled out with 3:57 left. Penn outscored WSU 11-4 the rest of the way.

Women’s & Men’s Basketball
March 10, 1991

After an 18-10 season and a fourth place finish in the Pac-10, the Cougars earned the women’s basketball program’s first NCAA Tournament berth.

WSU was placed as the No. 11 seed in the Midwest Region and would play at No. 6 seed Northwestern, March 13.

“It’s a great reward,” said WSU Head Coach Harold Rhodes, who was named Pac-10 Coach of the year the same day, as was his men’s basketball counterpart Kelvin Sampson. “When it is all said and done, good things happen to people who work hard and didn’t give up.”

The Cougars would fall to Northwestern, 82-62, in the NCAA first round game. Darci Wellsandt led WSU with 17 points and 10 rebounds.

After a 7-22 campaign in 1990, Sampson led the men’s basketball team to a 16-12 record during the 1991 season.