Washington State University Athletics
WSU Crosses the Border for First Road Game
December 09, 2015 | Men's Basketball
COUGARS CROSS THE BORDER FOR FIRST ROAD GAME OF THE SEASON: Washington State University men's basketball (5-1) takes to the road for the first time this season as it travels across the border to take on Idaho (5-5), Thursday, Dec. 10 at 6 p.m. at Cowan Spectrum.
• Thursday's game will be televised on SWX as Bud Nameck (play-by-play) and Craig Ehlo (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 VANDALS; OLD RIVALS:
• Washington State and Idaho are meeting for the 110th-consecutive men's basketball season.
• The two schools have the oldest continuous rivalry west of the Mississippi River.
• It is the sixth-longest continuous rivalry nationally behind Columbia/Yale (116th season), Princeton/Yale (116th season), Pennsylvania/Princeton (115th season), Columbia/Pennsylvania (114th season) and Cornell/Pennsylvania (114th season).
• The Cougars also hold the eighth-oldest continuous rivalry, as they will face Oregon State for the 107th-straight basketball season this year.
• For more on the rivalries, please see page three of today's notes.
MORE ON THE SERIES:
• The Cougars hold a 162-108 advantage in the all-time series and have won 11 of the last 12 and 16 of the last 18 games after falling in last season's meeting in Pullman, 77-71.
• WSU has won the last five meetings in the series at Moscow.
• For more on the series, please see page four of today's notes.
• Thursday marks the second time that second-year WSU head coach Ernie Kent will face Idaho.
WSU AGAINST THE BIG SKY:
• Idaho is the fourth and final school from the Big Sky conference that Washington State will face this season.
• WSU defeated Northern Arizona, 82-70, Nov. 13, defeated Idaho State, 85-67, Nov. 20, and defeated Portland State, 91-67 Dec. 6.
• WSU is 278-157 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.
WINNING EARLY:
• WSU's 5-1 start in its first five games is its best start since going 5-0 in 2010-11 before falling to then-No. 5 Kansas State to also start 5-1 in its first 6 games.
• The Cougars went on to go 10-1 to start the season and finished nonconference action with a 10-2 record, as that was the last time WSU played in the Diamond Head Classic at Honolulu.
BLOCK PARTY:
• Through just six games the Cougars have blocked 41 shots, averaging 6.8 blocks per game.
• Although just six games in, as of Dec. 7, WSU was second in the nation as a team, and led the Pac-12 in blocks per game.
• Heading up the block party is junior transfer Valentine Izundu who is averaging 3.5 blocks per game which is ranked fifth in the nation and second in the Pac-12.
• 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 3.5 blocks per game and plays 31 games, he'd finish with 108 blocked shots, which is 26 more than the record.
• Izundu had a career-high 6 blocked shots 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.
LEADER OF THE PAC:
• Washington State leads the Pac-12 in two categories, blocked shots (6.8 bpg) and field goal percentage (178-for-362, .492).
• WSU is also in the top-five in eighth other categories, including second in scoring margin (+12.3) and steals (8.0 steals per game).
• In the individual rankings, juniors Josh Hawkinson and Ike Iroegbu rank sixth and 17th, respectively, in scoring.
• Hawkinson is also fifth in rebounding, first in free throw percentage, 15th in steals, and first for defensive rebounds.
• Iroegbu leads the league in 3-point percentage, is third in free throw percentage, for 13th in assist/turnover ratio and tied for 10th for assists.
• Senior Junior Longrus ranks tied for 11th for steals.
• Junior Valentine Izundu is second in the league for blocked shots, while his classmate, Charles Callison is tied for 11th for steals.
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 returned three starters in junior guard Ike Iroegbu, his classmate, forward, Josh Hawkinson and sophomore guard Ny Redding.
• WSU lost 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.
• Heading into the season he needed 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.
• 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 made 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.
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.
• He started against Idaho State, Nov. 20.
HAWKINSON NAMED TO KAREEM ABDUL-JABBAR WATCH LIST:
• Junior Josh Hawkinson has been named to the 20-member 2016 Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Center of the Year Award watch list.
• Hawkinson is one of four Pac-12 student-athletes to be named to the list, as he's joined by Kaleb Tarczewski of Arizona, Josh Scott of Colorado and Jakob Poeltl of Utah.
• Named after Hall of Famer and three-time NCAA Champion Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, the annual honor in its second year recognizes the top centers in men's college basketball.
• A national committee comprised of top college basketball personnel determined the watch list of 20 candidates and by mid-February, the list will be narrowed down to just 10.
• In March, five finalists will be presented to Abdul-Jabbar and the Hall of Fame's selection committee and the winner of the 2016 Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Award will be presented at the ESPN College Basketball Awards presented by Wendy's from Club Nokia in Los Angeles, Calif., on Friday, April 8, 2016.
LAST OUTING:
• WSU bounced back with a big 91-67 win over Portland State, Sunday, Dec. 6 at Beasley Coliseum.
• Junior Josh Hawkinson returned to his double-figure scoring with his third double-double of the season and 23rd of his career with 24 points and 10 rebounds.
• He was 10-for-11 from the field after going 8-for-8 in the first half…the WSU record for field goal percentage is 10-for-10 set by Aron Baynes in 2006-07.
• Junior Charles Callison was in double-figure points for the second-straight game as he finished with 12 points.
• Callison tied his career high with 4 assists.
• Junior Ike Iroegbu was in double-figure points for the fifth-straight game with 10 points…he added a game-high 5 assists.
• WSU's 24-point margin of victory is its largest of the season...the Cougars led by 32 at one point, marking their largest lead of the season.
• Eleven of the 12 Cougars to see action scored.
• WSU improved to 8-0 all-time against Portland State.
