WSU's new men's basketball coach Ernie Kent joined several coaches in both the men's and women's game this week by participating in a charity event hashtagged on Twitter as #Chillin4Charity. The #Chillin4Charity campaign involved coaches having cold water poured on them to raise money for the Kay Yow Cancer Fund.
Kay Yow is the former women's basketball coach at North Carolina State who passed away following a long bout with breast cancer in 2009. Similar to former North Carolina State men's coach Jim Valvano, Yow fought her cancer bravely by working to create awareness and raise money to fight the disease that eventually took her life. Every season, several teams across the nation in different sports wear pink on their game day attire in support of the Yow Fund.
The challenger that got Kent involved in the #Chillin4Charity campaign was Mike Yam from the Pac-12 Networks:
Is my guy @WSUCougars @WSUMensHoops @CoachKentWSU up for a #Chillin4Charity challenge? http://t.co/5TEVezmtWf cc: @KayYowFund
— Michael Yam (@Mike_Yam) June 20, 2014
Kent has been busy during the past week putting on the the first WSU Day Camp for kids. Seizing the opportunity to combine the two events, Kent allowed campers to throw 100 cold glasses of water on him while Davonte Lacy and Junior Longrus stood in the background with Ol' Crimson. Here is what it looked like:
Kent, who takes a backseat to few when it comes to charisma, endured his punishment as only he could. And when it was done, he passed the challenge on to his old and new rival Lorenzo Romar:
@Mike_Yam challenged me to the Cold Water Challenge, I'm challenging @CoachRomar of @UW_MBB !! http://t.co/7acgmaNoFM #Chillin4Charity
— Ernie Kent (@CoachKentWSU) June 20, 2014
Aron Baynes
With Aron Baynes winning an NBA championship as a San Antonio Spur, WSU fans have been spending the week reminiscing on the glory days when he played on two consecutive NCAA tournament qualifying teams and an NIT qualifying team as a Coug. The athletic department put together a pretty cool video of highlights to remind us of how much fun it was when Baynes was in Pullman. I just wish they would have made the soundtrack Barbra Streisand's "The Way We Were" so I could get the full-fledged, misty-eyed feeling.
Football
The Spokesman Review's Jacob Thorpe has been doing a "Flashback Friday" segment from the 2013 WSU football season for the past few weeks. This week, he looks back on the Southern Utah game.
Friday Flashback: Southern Utah - SportsLink - Spokesman.com - June 20, 2014
Where to start with this one? When Washington State upended USC a week before the Southern Utah game, it effectively guaranteed a 3-1 start to the season. Following tough road games at Auburn and USC, the Cougars finished out the first third of their schedule with gimmes against Southern Utah ...