ashington State Cougars
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  Ken Bone
Ken Bone
Hometown:
Seattle, Wash.

Position:
Head Coach

Experience:
Third Season

Alma Mater:
Seattle Pacific, 1983

02/10/2012

WSU Hosts Oregon Saturday For Cougs Wave Pink

The Cougars face the Ducks 8 p.m. Saturday in Beasley Coliseum

02/10/2012

WSU Looks for First Pac-12 Road Sweep of the Season

The Cougars will take on the Ducks of Oregon, Saturday, Feb. 11 at Matthew Knight Arena.

02/07/2012

Cougars Hit the Road to Face Oregon Schools

Junior Brock Motum has reached the 20-point plateau in his last three games.

02/07/2012

Cougars Host Oregon State Thursday in Beasley Coliseum

WSU faces the Oregon schools for the second time this season, hosts OSU Thursday at 7 p.m.

02/03/2012

Cougars Welcome UCLA to Pullman Saturday

Both teams' coaches will wear sneakers to support Coaches vs. Cancer.

01/26/2012

Washington State vs. Arizona - AP Photo Gallery

Washington State vs. Arizona - AP Photo Gallery

01/05/2012

Washington State vs. Utah - AP Photo Gallery

Washington State vs. Utah - AP Photo Gallery

12/31/2011

Oregon State vs. Washington State

Oregon State vs. Washington State - AP Photo Gallery

10/03/2011

Men's Basketball's Free Kids' Clinic

WSU men's basketball held a Free Kids' Clinic, Saturday, Oct. 1 at the team's practice gym.

06/23/2011

Men's Basketball day Camp

Photos from the Cougars' Day Camp held June 21-24.

After a trip to the National Invitation Tournament (NIT) Semifinals in 2010-11, Ken Bone returns for his third season as head coach of the Washington State University men's basketball program. Named the 17th head coach in Cougar basketball history April 6, 2009, Bone spent the previous four years resurrecting the program at Portland State where he led the Vikings to NCAA Tournament appearances his final two seasons.


As the Cougars' second-year head coach in 2010-11, Bone led his squad to a 22-13 overall mark and to the semifinals of the NIT at New York's Madison Square Garden. WSU's 22 wins tie for the 10th most in school history as it reached 20-plus wins for just the 18th time. Bone's Cougars went 3-1 in the NIT, marking their most wins in a single postseason.

Under Bone's tutelage, junior Klay Thompson earned All-Pac-10 First team honors for the second-straight year, becoming just the fourth Cougar to be named first team all-league in multiple seasons. Thompson went on to become the 11th pick of the 2011 NBA Draft, going to the Golden State Warriors as the highest NBA Draft pick in school history.

Fellow junior DeAngelo Casto went on to earn second-team all-conference honors and became the first Cougar to earn a spot on the Pac-10 All-Defensive Team twice, picking up his second-consecutive honor. In the classroom, junior Abe Lodwick was named to the Pac-10 All-Academic first team, picking up academic honors for the second-consecutive season.

In his first year at the helm for WSU in 2009-10, Bone led the Cougars to a 16-15 overall mark and 6-12 Pacific-10 Conference record. Under his leadership, Thompson earned All-Pac-10 First Team honors, while Casto was named honorable mention all-conference and to the Pac-10 All-Defensive team. Bone's very first recruit, Reggie Moore, whom he signed in the late signing period after being hired, was named to the conference's five-man all-freshman team.

Proving that academics hold an important part of his coaching philosophy, at the conclusion of the season, two Cougars were named to the Pac-10 All-Conference teams, Nikola Koprivica to the first squad and Lodwick to the second.

Prior to his stint at WSU, Bone spent the previous four years as the head coach at Portland State, leading the Vikings to back-to-back NCAA Tournament appearances in 2007-08 and 2008-09. The Vikings went 23-10 during each of the last two years, the two best seasons in the 48-year history of the program. In his four seasons with the Vikings, Bone posted a 77-49 record, the best winning percentage of any PSU coach since basketball was reinstated in 1996-97 (.611).

Bone led Portland State to its finest season in school history in 2007-08, winning a school-record 23 games en route to the Big Sky Conference regular season and tournament titles and making the school's first appearance in the NCAA Division I Tournament. As a result, Bone earned Big Sky Conference Coach of the Year honors, becoming the first Viking basketball coach to do so.

His encore performance in 2008-09 was equally impressive. The Vikings again won 23 games on their way to a second-place regular season finish in the Big Sky and second-straight conference tournament title. The automatic berth in the NCAA Tournament meant PSU was going dancing for the second time in program history, and the second year in a row, this time as a No. 13 seed. The season included PSU's first win over a ranked opponent when the Vikings upended No. 7 Gonzaga 77-70 in Spokane (Dec. 23, 2008). The Vikings also gave Washington a scare with a one-point, 84-83 loss in Seattle (Dec. 14, 2008).

During his final two seasons at PSU, Bone coached a Big Sky Conference Player and Newcomer of the Year, the Big Sky Defensive Player of the Year and six All-Big Sky selections. In his four years, the Vikings had 10 All-Big Sky selections.

No stranger to the Pacific Northwest, Bone holds a 351-181 record in 18 years as a head coach, including 12 seasons at his alma mater, Seattle Pacific University. He registered a 253-97 (.723) record with the Falcons between 1990 and 2002. Bone's SPU teams claimed six outright or shared Pacific West Conference championships and earned eight NCAA playoff appearances. The Falcons made five trips to the NCAA Division II Sweet 16 over a span of eight years, including a semifinal appearance in 2000 that capped a 27-5 season. In 2000, Bone was recognized as both NABC District 8 Coach of the Year and PacWest Conference Co-Coach of the Year.

During Bone's final season at Seattle Pacific, the Falcons posted a 24-5 record, advanced to the second round of the NCAA playoffs and were ranked ninth in the final 2002 poll.

Between his stints at SPU and PSU, Bone spent the 2002-05 seasons as an assistant coach at the University of Washington, playing a major role as the program returned to national prominence.

In 2005 Bone helped direct Washington to the Pacific-10 Conference title as the Huskies earned a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament and advanced to the Sweet 16. The previous year, Washington had a runner-up finish in the Pac-10 regular-season standings. In 2004 the Huskies advanced to the championship game of the Pac-10 Tournament and competed in the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 1999. That season UW swept the three meetings with highly-ranked Arizona and capped the regular season with a win over No. 1 and undefeated Stanford.

Bone's time spent in Seattle and around the Northwest has made him a seasoned, and renowned, recruiter of the area. During his stint at Washington he helped lure five in-state signees, including All-American Jon Brockman. At PSU, Bone reeled in seven players from Oregon, Washington and British Columbia.

His abilities are already paying dividends for the WSU as four of his first five recruited scholarship student-athletes are in-state players (Reggie Moore, Steven Bjornstad, Patrick Simon and Andre Winston, Jr.).

A Seattle native, Bone graduated from Seattle Pacific in 1983 and received his master's in athletic administration in 1993. He played two seasons (1980-82) at SPU after one-year stints at Shoreline and Edmonds (Wash.) Community Colleges. He is a Shorecrest (Wash.) High School graduate.

Ken and his wife Connie have three daughters, Kendra, Jenae and Chelsea.

The Ken Bone File
Education:
Seattle Pacific, 1983; Seattle Pacific, 1993 (Master's in Athletic Administration)

Coaching Experience:
1982-83Shorewood (Wash.) High School - Assistant Coach
1983-84Cal State Stanislaus - Assistant Coach
1984-85Cal State Stanislaus - Head Coach
1985-86Olympic Junior College - Head Coach
1986-90Seattle Pacific - Assistant Coach
1990-2002Seattle Pacific - Head Coach
2002-05University of Washington - Assistant Coach
2005-09Portland State - Head Coach
2009-presentWashington State - Head Coach

Playing Experience:
1979-80Edmonds Community College
1978-79Shoreline Community College
1980-82Seattle Pacific

Family:
Wife - Connie; daughters Kendra (18), Jenae (15) and Chelsea (11)


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