WSU WELCOMES CAL STATE L.A. TO TOWN: Washington State University men's basketball (2-0) will play its third game of the season as it hosts Division II Cal State Los Angeles (0-4), Tuesday, Nov. 24 at 8 p.m. at Beasley Coliseum.
• Tuesday's game will be televised on the Pac-12 Networks as JB Long (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 Washington State 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 GOLDEN EAGLES:
• Tuesday marks the first all-time meeting between Washington State and California State Los Angeles.
• CSULA is a Division II school and member of the California Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) along with Cal State San Bernardino, Chico State, Cal Poly Pomona, Cal State East Bay, Cal State Stanislaus, UC San Diego, Cal State Dominguez Hills, Cal State San Marcos, Humboldt State, Cal State Monterey Bay, San Francisco State and Sonoma State.
• Although WSU has never played against Cal State L.A., the Cougars have played against three of the 13 current basketball members of the CCAA.
• The Cougars are 5-0 all-time against those schools, having played San Francisco State the most (3-0) and most recently as the two teams met Dec. 18, 2013 at Kennewick, Wash.
• Current WSU head coach Ernie Kent had the call for that game on the Pac-12 Networks.
• Former Washington State men's basketball manager, Alex Schilter, is an assistant coach for the Golden Eagles.
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, followed by his 22nd double-double in the second game of the season.
• Hawkinson finished with 15 points, tying the game high, and a game-high 11 rebounds in the opener.
• In WSU's game against Idaho State, Nov. 20, Hawkinson had 19 points and 14 rebounds, his most rebounds since also grabbing 14 at UCLA, March 1, 2014.
• Hawkinson now has four-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).
WINNING EARLY:
• WSU's 2-0 start is it's best since starting 2-0 in 2013-14...WSU has not won three-straight games to open the season since the 2012-13 season.
• It has not won its first four games of the season since 2010-11 when WSU started 5-0 before falling to No. 5 Kansas State.
VIONT'E DANIELS' BIG DEBUT:
• 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.
• Through two games, Daniels is third on the team with 11.0 points per game while shooting .615 (8-for-13) from the field and .600 (6-for-10) from 3-point range.
• He started against Idaho State, Nov. 20.
SUGGS MAKING A DIFFERENT TOO:
• Junior college transfer, junior Renard Suggs, has had an immediate impact for the Cougars too as he's one of just two WSU players to reach double-figure scoring in both games this season.
• Suggs ranks fourth on the team with 10.5 points per game, after scoring 11 in the season opener and 10 against Idaho State, Nov. 20.
• On top of that, the 6-2 guard is second on the team with 5.5 rebounds an outing while shooting .474 (9-for-19) from the field.
BLOCK PARTY:
• Through just two games the Cougars have blocked 15 shots, averaging 7.5 blocks per game.
• Although just two games in, as of Nov. 20, WSU was 11th in the nation as a team in blocks per game.
• Heading up the block party is junior transfer Valentine Izundu who is averaging 5.0 blocks per game (which leads the nation).
• The school record for blocks average in a season is 3.0 set by James Donaldson in 1978...he had a school-record 82 blocks that season.
• To put that in perspective, if Izundu can continue to average 5.0 blocks per game and plays 31 games, he'd finish with 155 blocked shots, nearly doubling the school record.
• Izundu had 4 blocks in the first game of the season against NAU and 6 in the Nov. 20 meeting with Idaho State...the school record for blocks in a game is 10, also set by Donaldson, Dec. 6, 1977.
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.