Washington State University Athletics
WSU Takes on Northern Iowa at Diamond Head Classic
December 23, 2015 | Men's Basketball
COUGARS LOOK TO BOUNCE BACK AGAINST PANTHERS AT DIAMOND HEAD CLASSIC: Washington State University men's basketball (7-3) will look to bounce back against Northern Iowa (7-4) in the second round of the 2015 Diamond Head Classic, Wednesday, Dec. 23 at 8:30 p.m. PT/6:30 p.m. HT at the Stan Sheriff Center at Honolulu, Hawaii.
• Tuesday's game will be televised on ESPNU as Roxy Bernstein (play-by-play) and Brad Daughtery (color analyst) have the call.
• Derek Deis will fill in for first-year voice of the Cougars, Matt Chazanow who will be with football for its bowl game, and 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 PANTHERS; MISSOURI VALLEY:
• Wednesday marks the first all-time meeting between Washington State and Northern Iowa.
• Northern Iowa is one of 10 members of the Missouri Valley Conference, joined by Bradley, Drake, Evansville, Illinois State, Indiana State, Loyola (Chicago), Missouri State, Southern Illinois and Wichita State.
• The Cougars are 7-4 all-time against current members of the Missouri Valley, having played all but four of the teams (Evansville, Loyola (Chicago), Northern Iowa, Southern Illinois).
• WSU has winning records against five of the six other schools, with the exception being Wichita State (0-2).
• Last season the Cougars defeated Missouri State in the Great Alaska Shootout.
AGAINST THE REST OF THE FIELD:
• The Cougars have faced three of the other six teams in the 2015 Diamond Head Classic.
• On the other side of the bracket are Auburn, BYU, Harvard and New Mexico.
• The Cougars have never faced Auburn or Harvard, but have met BYU 10 times and New Mexico four times.
• The series between the Cougars and the Cougars is tied at 5-5 as they last met Nov. 22, 2005 in a WSU home game at Spokane Arena...BYU won the last meeting, but Washington State has taken three of the last four matchups.
• New Mexico holds a 3-1 advantage in the series with Washington State, as the two teams last met Nov. 25, 2011 at the 76 Classic at Anaheim, one day after WSU fell to Oklahoma in the tournament.
• New Mexico won the last two meetings, but the two have split in neutral-site matchups.
• For complete series records, please see page one of today's notes.
COUGARS IN HAWAII:
• WSU is 11-8 all-time in games that take place in the state of Hawaii.
• The Cougars were last in Hawaii for the Diamond Head Classic during the 2010-11 season.
• WSU has never made a trip to Hawaii without a win and just once did it have more losses than wins in the state of Hawaii in one trip.
WSU IN REGULAR SEASON TOURNAMENTS:
• WSU has played in 64 regular season tournaments dating back to the 1954-55 season, holding an 82-82 all-time record in those tournaments.
• Five of them have taken place in Hawaii, all of the Hawaiian tournaments have taken place in Honolulu.
• The Cougars have struggled as of late in regular season tournaments, having gone just 4-8 in their last four tournaments, but went 2-1 last season at the Great Alaska Shootout (See page 4 of today's notes for more).
• Prior to that, WSU appeared in the championship game of its 2009 and 2010 tournaments, the Great Alaska Shootout and Diamond Head Classic.
• In 2009, then-sophomore Klay Thompson had a breakout performance as he led the Cougars to the championship at the Great Alaska Shootout.
• His junior year, Thompson led WSU to wins over Mississippi State and No. 15 Baylor in its first two games of the 2010 Diamond Head Classic, before falling to Butler in the championship game on Christmas Day.
• Butler went on to fall to UConn in the NCAA Title game that year.
LAST OUTING:
• WSU fell to No. 3/2 Oklahoma, Tuesday, Dec. 22 in the quarterfinals of the Diamond Head Classic, 88-60.
• Junior Josh Hawkinson had his seventh double-double of the season and 27th of his career with 16 points and 10 rebounds…he had 8 points and 8 rebounds in the first half.
• Hawkinson took sole possession of fourth on WSU's career double-double list, passing Carlos Daniel.
• Hawkinson also had 4 steals…a single-game, career high.
• Junior Ike Iroegbu had his eighth double-figure scoring game of the season with 16 points…he added 3 assists and 5 rebounds.
• Redshirt junior Valentine Izundu recorded 3 blocks, bringing his season total to 33…he is averaging 3.3 blocks per game.
• Senior Brett Boese scored a season high 7 points…he converted two free throws and converted twice from the field, including a 3-pointer.
• WSU's 60 points tied the team's season low (Gonzaga, Dec. 2).
• The Cougars snapped their four-game streak of shooting .500 or better, shooting .348 (24-for-69) from the field.
• WSU attempted a season-low 2 first-half free throws, converting both for a season-low 2 first-half free throws made.
• The Cougars fall to 48-225 all-time against opponents ranked in the Associated Press Top-25, 1-76 against top-5 teams and 0-54 against top-3 teams.
