WSU basketball heads back on the road

Coming off the loss to Gonzaga, the WSU men's basketball team will stay on the road for another contest against a WCC team, this time traveling to play Santa Clara on Saturday. The game will be the Cougars' last on the road until Pac-12 play begins.

Yesterday we discussed the fans giving the Cougars a bit of a pass and finding some positive in the loss to Gonzaga. While it's all well and good if that's your sort of thing, I did get a chuckle from the WSU media notes for the game on Saturday, emphasis mine:

Washington State University men's basketball (4-5) concludes its grueling nonconference road schedule as it travels to California to take on Santa Clara (4-4) at the Leavey Center, Saturday, Dec. 13 at 7 p.m.

WSU's true road non-conference games included tilts against UTEP (No. 73 KenPom), TCU (No. 62 KenPom) and Santa Clara (No. 159 KenPom). The Gonzaga (No. 10 KenPom) game at Spokane arena was a neutral site game masquerading as a road game, so we'll lump that in too. The Great Alaskan Shootout? Games against UC-Santa Barbara (No. 89 KenPom), Rice (No. 307 KenPom) and Missouri State (No. 182 KenPom) hardly qualifies as a murderers row.  Just because you lose the majority of them does not make a schedule grueling, especially when it's against one top 60 KenPom team.

Now that I have successfully finished picking some nits before the power goes out, let's get to the links.

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Men's basketball:

WSU Concludes Nonconference Road Schedule Saturday - Washington State University Official Athletic Site
COUGARS HEAD TO SANTA CLARA FOR FINAL ROAD TEST OF NONCONFERENCE SEASON: Washington State University men’s basketball (4-5) concludes its grueling nonconference road schedule as it travels to California to take on Santa Clara (4-4) at the Leavey Center, Saturday, Dec. 13 at 7 p.m.

Football:

Rethinking the 2014 Ultimate Road Trip - Pac-12 Blog - ESPN
Our pick: Arizona at Washington State Result: The 'Cats cruised to a 59-37 win -- their highest offensive output of the season. In retrospect: Travis Wilson leading a game-winning drive and a last-minute touchdown against USC? Sign us up. Utes complete the LA sweep.

Baseball:

Pac-12 Networks Announces 2015 Baseball Schedule - Washington State University Official Athletic Site
Washington State baseball was selected for 17 televised games in 2015, the Pac-12 Networks announced, Thursday.