Washington State University Athletics
Cougars Host Bengals Friday
November 18, 2015 | Men's Basketball
COUGARS CONTINUE HOMESTAND WITH BENGALS: Washington State University men's basketball will play its second game of the 2015-16 season as it hosts Idaho State, Friday, Nov. 20 at 8 p.m. at Beasley Coliseum.
• Friday's game will be televised on the Pac-12 Networks as Greg Heister (play-by-play) and Dan Dickau (color analyst) have the call.
• Matt Chazanow, in his first season with Cougar basketball, will have the call on the Cougar IMG Radio Network...please see the list of affiliates on page one of today's notes.
• Live updates can be found on Twitter by following @WSUMensHoops, the official Twitter account of Washington State men's basketball.
COUGARS VERSUS BENGALS:
• The Cougars face the Bengals of Idaho State for the ninth time in the two schools' histories, as WSU holds a 7-1 advantage in the series.
• WSU has won the last five meetings with its only loss in the series coming Dec. 17, 1983.
• Washington State has won each of those games over Idaho State by an average of 19 points per game.
• The Cougars' haven't lost to the Bengals at home, their only loss coming on ISU's home court at Pocatello, Idaho.
WSU VERSUS THE BIG SKY:
• Idaho State is the second school from the Big Sky conference that Washington State will face this season, as it will take on four teams from the league.
• WSU defeated Northern Arizona, 82-70, Nov. 13 and will take on Portland State, Dec. 6 and Idaho, Dec. 10.
• WSU is 276-157 all-time against current members of the Big Sky.
• The Cougars have faced the Vandals of Idaho the most, holding a 162-108 record against the border rival, while they haven't faced North Dakota or Northern Colorado.
HAWKINSON PICKS UP WHERE HE LEFT OFF:
• Junior Josh Hawkinson picked up right where he left off at the end of the 2014-15 season, notching his 21st career double-double in the season opener.
• Hawkinson finished with 15 points, tying the game high, and a game-high 11 rebounds.
• He added 3 assists, a blocked shot and a steal.
• Hawkinson now has three-straight games with a double-double after notching double-doubles in WSU's final two games of the season last year against Colorado (March 7) and California (March 11).
VIONT'E DANIELS' BIG DEBUTS:
• The new season brought seven new faces to the court for the Cougars, as all seven saw action in the season opener against Northern Arizona, Nov. 13.
• Although none of the newcomers started, freshman Viont'e Daniels played the second-most minutes on the team with 23 and tied the game high with 15 points.
• The 6-2 guard was a perfect 5-for-5 from 3-point range, becoming the first freshman to do so.
• A freshman was perfect from 3-point range when making 3 or more eight other times in WSU history, but none of those freshmen made more than 4 3-pointers.
• The last time a freshman was perfect from 3-point range when making 3 or more was Feb. 9, 2012 when DaVonté Lacy went 3-for-3 at Oregon State.
SIX OTHERS MAKE WSU DEBUTS:
• Of the six others to make their WSU debut Nov. 13, five scored.
• Junior guard Renard Suggs scored 11 points and added 5 rebounds, 3 assists and a steal in 16 minutes of action.
• Redshirt junior Valentine Izundu scored 7 points, adding 4 blocks and a steal in 14 minutes, while classmate and position-mate, Conor Clifford scored 4 points and grabbed 4 boards in 10 minutes.
• Junior point guard Charles Callison scored 3 points and dished out four assists.
ABOUT THE 2015-16 COUGARS:
• WSU head coach Ernie Kent is in his second season after leading the Cougars to their most Pac-12 wins since 2011-12 with a 7-11 league mark in 2014-15.
• The Cougars return three starters in junior guard Ike Iroegbu, his classmate, forward, Josh Hawkinson and sophomore guard Ny Redding.
• WSU loses leading scorer DaVonté Lacy to graduation, but Hawkinson returns as the leading scorer and rebounder after averaging 14.7 points and 10.8 rebounds per game a year ago.
• Hawkinson made his mark on WSU history as he led the nation with 8.7 defensive rebounds per game and was fourth in the NCAA with 20 double-doubles.
• He broke WSU single season records for double-doubles as well as rebounds, marks that had stood for 48 and 51 years, respectively.
• He needs just 156 rebounds to break into WSU's career top-20 and is on pace to set a WSU career rebounding record held by Steve Puidokas (1974-77) with 992.
• Iroegbu and senior forward Junior Longrus are looking to move up in WSU's career record books as well, as Longrus is tied for 18th on WSU's blocked shots list with 55 and Iroegbu needs just 75 more assists to break into the WSU career top-20.
• Also returning for the Cougars are senior Brett Boese and redshirt junior Que Johnson.
• Boese had his best output of his career last season as a junior, averaging 4.3 points per game, while shooting .361 from beyond the 3-point arc.
• Johnson put up 6.1 points a game, while shooting the highest mark from the charity stripe with a .854 clip.
• Redshirt junior Valentine Izundu will make his game debut for the Cougars this season after sitting out the 2014-15 season due to NCAA rules after transferring from Houston.
• Izundu averaged 2.0 points and 1.1 blocks in just 8.0 minutes per game at Houston as a freshman in 2012-13.
• Joining the Cougars are four junior college transfers and two true freshmen.
• Juniors Conor Clifford, Charles Callison and Renard Suggs and sophomore Derrien King make up the group of transfers.
• A 7-foot-center, Clifford was named the Southern California (SoCal) and Orange Empire Conference MVPs at Saddleback College last season.
• A 6-foot-point guard, Callison was named the Foothill Conference's MVP, as well as the 2014 Press-Enterprise Area College Men's Athlete of the Year following his sophomore Year at San Bernardino Valley College.
• A 6-2 guard, Suggs led Gillette College to JUCO Nationals last season, averaging 13.5 points per game.
• King, a 6-6 guard, averaged 11.8 points, 3.3 rebounds and shot .417 from the field at Santa Monica College last season.
• Guard Viont'e Daniels and forward Robert Franks make up the freshman class.
• The Washington 4A State Player of the Year, Daniels averaged 24.0 points, 6.0 rebounds and 4.0 assists as a senior at Federal Way High School.
• Franks was named an Associated Press All-State honorable mention honoree at Vancouver's Evergreen High School last season.
ERNIE KENT ENTERS SECOND SEASON WITH THE COUGARS:
• Veteran head coach and former Fox Sports and Pac-12 Networks basketball analyst was named the 18th head coach in WSU men's basketball history, March 31, 2014.
• Kent came to Pullman with a 325-254 (.561) mark as a head coach, having spent six seasons at the helm for Saint Mary's in Moraga, Calif., and 13 at Oregon.
• In his 13 years at Oregon, Kent compiled a 235-174 (.575) record and a 109-125 (.466) conference mark.
• His 109 conference wins rank 17th most in Pac-12 history (including Pacific-8 and Pacific-10 Conferences).
• While at Oregon, Kent led the Ducks to seven postseason appearances, including five NCAA Tournament Appearances (2000, 2002, 2003, 2007, 2008) as well as a Pac-10 regular-season (2002) and two conference tournament (2003, 2007) titles.
• Kent's first season with the Cougars wasn't much different than his first with the Ducks, as he led Oregon to a 13-14 overall record and 8-10 league mark as Oregon finished sixth in the then-Pacific-10 Conference...he led WSU to a 13-18 overall record and 7-11 league mark.
HAWKINSON SOARS IN SOPHOMORE YEAR:
• Sophomore Josh Hawkinson averaged 14.7 points, 10.8 rebounds and 1.1 blockers per game as a sophomore in 2014-15, while playing 32.7 minutes per outing.
• Hawkinson had his first double-double of his career in WSU's second game of the season at TCU and finished the season with 20.
• With his double-double March 1, he set the school record for double-doubles in a season, with 18, passing Jim McKean (1967).
• Last season Hawkinson averaged just 1.2 points and 1.6 rebounds a game in 6.4 minutes an outing, while compiling just 4 blocks the entire season.
• He is scored 13.5 more points and grabbed 9.2 more rebounds this year than last year and played 835 more minutes than he did all of last year, nearly five times more than the 180 he played his freshman year.
• Hawkinson had the second-biggest scoring improvement in the NCAA from last season to this season, and the largest rebounding improvement.
• On top of the season double-double record, Hawkinson also holds the WSU record for rebounds in a season with 334, as he passed Ted Werner who had 323 rebounds in 1964.
• Hawkinson also ranks eighth on WSU's single-season list for free throw percentage after shooting .853 (116-136) from the charity stripe in 2014-15.
