Good morning, Cougar fans. Let's start with the good news. The Cougar baseball team won its second straight game in impressive fashion Saturday. The Cougs hung two touchdowns on Prarie View A&M, and all the Panthers could muster was a field goal. The 14-3 score was such a boatrace that the game was called after seven innings. The Cougars eased out to a 5-2 lead, then exploded in the seventh inning, pushing across eight (!!!) runs and erasing all doubt.
Trek Stemp led the way once again, collecting another four hits. He has at least one hit in every game this season. Stemp also drove in four, scored three runs and stole two bases. That's what I call a nice little Saturday. The Cougs conclude their stay at the Al Ogletree Classic on Sunday with a 10 a.m. game against Houston Baptist. If you were wondering, Al Ogletree coached at UT-Pan American for nearly 30 years, winning 1,217 games and leading the Broncs to the 1971 College World Series.
Now for the bad news. Your Washington State Cougar Men's Basketball team heads into Corvallis Sunday afternoon riding a 14-game losing streak. In case you were wondering, that's bad. Luckily we don't have to worry about the Cougs setting a record for conference futility, as Oregon State went 0-18 in 2008. Since 1989-1990, five teams have finished conference play with one or fewer victories. WSU has done it three times, with aforementioned OSU doing it once, along with USC.
In other words, if WSU loses its final two games, as expected, the Cougs will own four of the six worst conference records in the past 27 years. Meanwhile, Oregon State, which hired Wayne Tinkle 49 days after WSU hired Ernie Kent, has gone from last place in the conference to long-shot bubble team in a matter of three seasons. Game time is 3:30, and the Beavers are favored by 11.5 points.
Let's end on a happy note today. WSU held one of its Night With Cougar Football events Saturday, and by all accounts, it was quite a good time. Here are a few photos from the evening.
Any time I get with the legend Bob Robertson is more than I've ever deserved #GoCougs pic.twitter.com/KCZJhOFdcH
— Jessamyn McIntyre (@JessamynMcIntyr) February 28, 2016
Great to see these Coug Legends Tonight! #GoCougs @deonebucannon20 @XavierCooper_96 @bratliff82 pic.twitter.com/U11ImAotVa
— CoachKen Wilson WSU! (@CoachKWils) February 28, 2016
Gotta get a pic of WSU grad Jaymee Sire in here because, well...
Awesome night celebrating Cougar Football! Especially when u get to see @jaymee!
— Roy Manning (@CoachRoyM) February 28, 2016
GoCougs! pic.twitter.com/4TQWSPo3sU
My favorite pic is actually one that was taken after the event, and summed up the night better than any words could. We'll save it for another day. Go Cougs
Football
Podcast (2/25) – Washington State’s Mike Leach on Press Row | WALV
The crab legs discussion is fitting, given the picture of a bibbed Mike Leach we saw a couple days ago. The interview drags on in spots, but the hosts seem to think it was the greatest thing they've done in ages.
Pac-12 Revenue (or lack thereof)
Pac-12 Networks: AT&T's shift to DirecTV away from U-verse and what it means for the conference - College Hotline
We’ll start with the bottom line: The situation isn’t awful for the Pac-12 in the near term, but it’s not good.
Pac-12 affairs: Conference losing ground (rapidly) in the revenue game - College Hotline
The Pac-12’s biggest problem is no secret: The conference’s TV network is lagging its SEC and B1G counterparts in subscriber base and annual revenue, generating a mere $1 million (approx) per school per year.
Beer
Best beer I had this week: I decided to go old school and have a bottle of one of my all-time favorites, Chimay Blue. It's potent, but man is it good. I also had a Cigar City cedar-aged pale ale, which was tremendous. Unfortunately, they don't sell it in stores. This makes me sad.
How Big Beer, Anheuser-Busch InBev, Invades a Craft Beer Stronghold - Fortune
Hey San Diegoans (San Diegans?), if you don't want this place in your neighborhood, don't go there.
Non-Sports
The Digital Dirt - The New Yorker
Nicholas Schmidle on how the celebrity-gossip site gets its stories, including videos of Ray Rice and Michael Richards.