Cougar center makes national watch list

It’s apparently never too early for award season as it’s May and the Rimington Trophy has already released it’s watch list for next season. Cougar center Fred Mauigoa is on the early list of 57 centers nationwide that the trophy committee will be paying attention to. Mauigoa started all 13 games for the Cougars last year as a Sophomore.

The 6-foot-3 310 pound center has been a name WSU fans have been following since his recruitment when he chose WSU over Oregon State in a spirited battle. He saw time at the pivot as true freshman and continued to improve last season as he took over for the graduated Riley Sorenson. According to the Spokesman-Review’s Theo Lawson, Mauigoa spent most of this Spring working on his snapping, which was probably his biggest weakness last year and is very key in the Air Raid offense. Expect big things for the Junior if he can get that shaped up.

The Rimington Award was named after Nebraska center Dave Rimington who was a two-time Outland trophy award winner for the nation’s top interior lineman in the early 1980’s. The seventeen year old award has raised over 3.6 million for the Boomer Esiason Foundation which battles Cystic Fibrosis.

Football

Washington State center Fred Mauigoa added to Rimington Trophy watch list | The Spokesman-Review
Mauigoa was one of 57 Division I centers named Wednesday to the watch list and one of 10 from the Pac-12 to receive recognition. Colorado and UCLA were the only schools that didn’t place centers on the list.

Basketball

Leading scorer Robert Franks returning to Washington State to finish out college career | The Spokesman-Review
As a junior, Franks’ numbers ballooned and the Vancouver, Washington, native posted the Pac-12’s seventh-best scoring average at 17.4 points per game – from 6.4 ppg as a sophomore – and nearly doubled his rebounding average, with 6.3 boards per game.