Cougar basketball caps off an eventful Friday

Good morning Coug fans. Yesterday tuned out to be quite a newsworthy day for Washington State Athletics.

First, Max Borghi signed his LOI, giving WSU an early Christmas present. Then, reports surfaced saying Alex Grinch will be on his way to Ohio State. Meanwhile, the WSU women's basketball team dispatched Nebraska in Lincoln. In the nightcap, the men's basketball team used a big second half to down Bethune-Cookman.

Whew. Let's take it one by one, leading with basketball:

Basketball goes 2-0 on the day

Both the men and women came away with victories prior to Pac-12 play starting. The women took down Nebraska 73-61 on the road in a matinee and the men used a big second half to put away Bethune-Cookman, 86-58.

The men had five players score in double figures with Robert Franks leading the way with 28 points. Both Franks and Drick Berstine had a double-double—Franks had 11 rebounds while Bernstine had 10 points and 15 rebounds.

The Cougs made 15 of 33 from beyond the arc. Franks, Viont'e Daniels and Carter Skaggs each had four.

Believe it or not, the game was tied at 40 at halftime after the Wildcats erased an early deficit. The Wildcats led 42-40 after the first 30 seconds of the second half before WSU turned up the heat.

Max Borghi signs

When you were a kid, did your parents let you open one present on Christmas Eve? That's kind of what this felt like.

Max Borghi, the three-star running back from Colorado, put pen to paper and locked himself in with the Cougs. Borghi did not sign on Wednesday, leaving Mike Leach to tell reporters, "We’ll recruit a running back. We need one running back."

Stanford made a push to get him to flip, but Borghi decided today WSU is where he wanted to be.

With James Williams and Keith Harrington the only returning running backs with any playing time, Borghi could possibly be in competition for some early playing time, depending on how fall camp goes. Last year's signee—Caleb Perry—is the only scholarship running back between Borghi and Harrington. We all know how WSU enjoyed using three running backs the past two seasons. We could see Borghi sooner than later.

"Weirder things have happened but I’d say there’s a zero percent chance he redshirts next year,” Jim Mastro told The Spokesman-Review. "He’s too talented, too physically gifted and he’s going to have spring ball under his belt, so that’s huge."

Mastro also said they'll "probably" use Borghi as a rugby punter. Discuss!

Borghi plans on enrolling in January.

Alex Grinch farewell tour starts now (probably)

In unsurprising news, it looks like Alex Grinch will take his talents back home to Ohio. Bucknuts reported yesterday that Grinch will head to Ohio State to take the 10th assistant coach position under Urban Meyer. What that position is specifically is still unknown.

We may know more, because apparently Grinch will talk next week:

So who will be WSU's next defensive coordinator?

$$$

Links

Football

Washington State became ‘dream school’ for three-star running back Max Borghi | The Spokesman-Review
The running back from Arvada, Colorado, won the Denver Post’s 2017 Gold Helmet Award after leading Pomona to the first 5A state championship in school history.

Christmas comes early for the Cougars: How and why coveted RB Max Borghi chose WSU over Stanford | The Seattle Times
WSU beats Stanford for the signature of Max Borghi, and its a huge coup for the Cougars. Here's the inside story on how the last three days unfolded for Borghi and WSU running backs coach Jim Mastro.

Three Washington State players accept invites from NFLPA Collegiate Bowl | The Spokesman-Review
The Collegiate Bowl is an all-star game for college football’s top seniors and will give the trio of Cougars an opportunity to showcase their skills in front of a large collection of NFL scouts. The 2018 game is scheduled to air on FS1.

Anderson High School player signs with Washington State
Anderson High School football player Jarrett Kingston signed his national letter of intent Wednesday to play for the Washington State Cougars.

Sources: Grinch will leave WSU for Ohio State
Cougar DC is headed home to Ohio, Bucknuts reports and CF.C confirms

Basketball

Washington State rolls past Bethune-Cookman with strong second half | The Spokesman-Review
By the time it really mattered Washington State proved to be the superior team as the Cougars pulled away in the second half to defeat Bethune-Cookman 86-58 on Friday night at Beasley Coliseum.

WSU Finishes Non-Conference With a Wire-To-Wire Win at Nebraska - WSUCougars.com | Washington State University Athletics
WSU Finishes Non-Conference With a Wire-To-Wire Win at Nebraska