COUGARS RETURN HOME TO HOST CAL POLY: The Washington State University men's basketball team (1-1) returns to Beasley Coliseum to host Cal Poly (1-1) Monday, Nov. 19 at 6 p.m. at Beasley Coliseum. 
• The game will be televised on the Pac-12 Network as Barry Tompkins (play-by-play) and Ben Braun (analyst) have the call. 
• All season long, Cougar basketball can be heard on the Cougar IMG Sports Radio Network with the Voice of the Cougars, Matt Chazanow on the call. 
• Please see page one of today's notes for the list of affiliates. 
• Live stats are also available at www.wsucougars.com. 

ABOUT THE MUSTANGS: 
• Cal Poly is a member of the Big West Conference located in San Luis Obispo, Calif.
• Head coach Joe Callero is in his 10th season with the Mustangs, with a 121-162 record at the school.
• The Mustangs opened the season with an 82-75 victory over Menlo College, Nov. 7 before falling at Arizona, 82-61, Nov. 11.
•Senior guard Donovan Fields leads the team averaging 18.0 points per game, including a career-high 30 points against Menlo, Nov. 7.

COUGARS VERSUS MUSTANGS; BIG WEST:
• Monday marks just the second all-time meeting between Washington State and Cal Poly, as the Cougars hold a 1-0 advantage in the series.
• The only previous meeting occurred Feb. 10, 1976, an 87-61 WSU victory. 
• Cal Poly is joined in the Big West by UC Davis, UC Irvine, UC Riverside, UC Santa Barbara, Cal State Fullerton, CSUN, Hawaii and Long Beach State. 
• The Cougars are 15-6 all-time against current members of the Big West, having played Hawaii the most at 5-1.
• Most recently WSU played UC Davis of the Big West, resulting in a loss, Dec. 2, 2017 at Beasley.
• WSU has one other Big West school on its schedule as it hosts CSUN, Tuesday, Nov. 27 at Beasley Coliseum. 

RARE MONDAY GAME:
• WSU hosts Cal Poly on Monday, Nov. 19, a rare Monday night game for the Cougars.
• Over the last five seasons, the Cougars have played just two games on a Monday, going 0-2.
• The last time the Cougars played on a Monday was the 2016-17 season and the previous time was 2014-15.

ABOUT THE COUGARS: 
• WSU is 1-1 after winning its season opener over Nicholls, 89-72, Nov. 11 and falling at Seattle U, 78-69, Nov. 14.
• Senior forward Robert Franks missed WSU's game at Seattle U after putting up 31 points against Nicholls in the opener. 
• Junior Isaiah Wade is averaging 12.5 points after putting up a double-double of 17 points and 10 rebounds at Seattle U in just his second game as a Cougar. 
• Washington State men's basketball returns three starters, including three of its four top scorers from the 2017-18 squad, as head coach Ernie Kent enters his fifth season at the helm for the 2018-19 basketball season.
• Seniors Robert Franks and Viont'e Daniels look to lead the team, which features seven newcomers after putting up their best seasons in 2018-19, averaging 17.4 and 9.0 points, respectively. 
• Franks' big season was capped by being named the Pac-12's Most Improved Player of the Year, which led to him to declare for the NBA Draft, only to withdraw his name prior to the deadline. 
• Daniels was second on the team with 71 made 3-pointers and he, along with Franks and fellow-starter Carter Skaggs, combined for 206 of the team's school-record 341 3-pointers in 2017-18. 
• Senior Davante Cooper, junior Jeff Pollard and redshirt sophomore Arinze Chidom also return for Washington State in 2018-19.
• The Cougars look to fill the void at point guard with two junior college transfers in juniors Ahmed Ali and Jervae Robinson. 
• Ali joins WSU after putting up big numbers, most recently at Eastern Florida State College, where he averaged 16.9 points and 4.8 assists per game in two seasons, while shooting .426 (230-for-540) from 3-point range on route to earning NJCAA Division I All-America second team honors as a sophomore. 
• Robinson comes to the Palouse from Otero Junior College.
• With just six returnees for the Cougs, WSU is looking for immediate impacts from several newcomers, including Iowa Western CC-transfer, Isaiah Wade, who was an NJCAA All-America nominee as a sophomore after averaging 12.1 points and 9.5 rebounds per game. 
• Freshman and Washington-native, CJ Elleby also joins the Cougars after picking up all-State honors each of his final three years at Cleveland HS in Seattle. 
• Freshman Aljaž Kunc and junior college transfers, sophomore Marvin Cannon and walk-on junior James Streeter also join the 2018-19 squad.

FRANKS NAMED TO JULIUS ERVING WATCH LIST:
• Senior Robert Franks is one of five Pac-12 student-athletes named to the 20-member 2019 Julius Erving Small Forward of the Year Watch List.
• The list will be cut down to 10 in February and the five finalists will be narrowed down in March, with the winner being announced April 12, 2019.

FRANKS AND DANIELS EYE RECORD BOOKS:
• With 797 career points, Robert Franks needs just 203 points to become the 37th WSU men's basketball student-athlete to score 1,000-career points.
• Franks scored 521 points by averaging 17.4 points per game as a junior...if he can continue at that pace, he will finish with 1,287 points which would put him 16th on WSU's all-time scoring list. 
• Viont'e Daniels has made 105 career 3-pointers which ranks 21st on WSU's career list...if he can repeat his 71 made 3-pointers from his junior campaign, Daniels would finish his Cougar career with 172 3s, ranking ninth all-time.

COUGARS SIGN TWO:
• Daron (Duh-ron) Henson and Ryan Murphy each signed an NLI to join WSU men's basketball next season. 
• Daron Henson (6-7, 210, Small Forward, Pasadena, Calif./Salt Lake CC) is in his first season with Salt Lake Community College after two seasons at Utah State. Henson redshirted his freshman season in 2016-17 before appearing in 33 games, including one start in 2017-18. 
• He averaged 4.3 points and 1.9 rebounds a game for the Aggies as a redshirt freshman. • Four games into the 2018-19 season, Henson is averaging 14.0 points while shooting .429 (1-for-42) from the field and adding 6.3 rebounds per game. Henson will enter the WSU program as a redshirt junior.
• Ryan Murphy (6-2, 190, Guard, Calabasas, Calif./New Mexico Junior College) is in his first season at New Mexico Junior College where he's averaging 17.2 points per game in six games in the 2018-19 season. 
• Murphy transferred to NMJC from Charlotte where he redshirted as a freshman in 2016-17. He averaged 6.7 points per game in 19 games as a redshirt freshman in 2017-18 before an injury cut his season short at 19 games. 
• He shot .400 (32-for-80) from beyond the arc in 2017-18.

WASHINGTON STATE WINS SEASON OPENER:
• Led by a double-double of 31 points and 11 rebounds from senior Robert Franks, WSU defeated Nicholls, 89-72, in its season opener, Nov. 11 at Beasley Coliseum.
• Freshman CJ Elleby added 12 points and 8 assists, while redshirt-sophomore Arinze Chidom added 10 points and 4 steals. 
• The Cougars improved to  96-22 all-time in season openers and 56-8 when opening the season at home. 
• WSU has won every season opener when opening at Beasley Coliseum and its last 23 season openers at home.
• Its last home loss in the first game of the season came Dec. 1, 1972 against Houston, the final year the Cougars played in Bohler Gym.
• The Cougars have won 29-consecutive Beasley Coliseum openers (not necessarily the first game of the season, but the first at home), with their last loss coming to BYU, Dec. 3, 1987.

COUGARS ROLL IN EXHIBITION GAME: 
• Eight of WSU's 13 players scored in double, including five newcomers, as Washington State defeated New Hope Christian, 138-63, Nov. 4 in exhibition action at Beasley Coliseum.
• Freshman Aljaž Kunc led the way in scoring with 24 points, while his classmate and WSU's only other freshman had a double-double with 14 points and 10 rebounds. 
• Kunc was 10-for-11 from the field, as WSU shot at a .691 (56-for-81) clip from the field as a team. 
• Junior college transfers, Jervae Robinson (16 points), Isaiah Wade (15) and Ahmed Ali (15) also reached double figure scoring in their Cougar uniform debuts. 
• The Cougars assisted on 35 of their 56 baskets and had 41 points on NHCC's 23 turnovers. 
• WSU had 12 dunks on the night...last season in regular season action it had 28 dunks in 31 games.  
• For more, please see the boxscore on page 25. 

KENT ENTERS FIFTH YEAR: 
• 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 127 conference wins rank him 15th-best in Pac-12 history (including Pacific-8 and Pacific-10 Conferences)....needing just five (132) to catch Howard Dallmar of Stanford (1955-75) for 14th. 
• His win, Feb. 18, 2017, against Arizona State moved him out of a tie for 15th with former UCLA coach Ben Howland.
• 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.
• WSU's 13 wins in his first season tied him for third-best in Washington State history for wins by a men's basketball coach in his first season…he's tied with Kelvin Sampson (1987-88) and Dick Bennett (2003-04), as both of those were also improvements from the previous season. 
• Kent has 378 career wins as a head coach.

MARRION PROMOTED TO ASSISTANT COACH: 
• Fifth-year head coach, Ernie Kent, elevated Tim Marrion from coordinator of operations to assistant coach for the 2018-19 season.
• Marrion is currently in his third full-time stint with the WSU men's basketball program, as he returned to his alma mater in September of 2016 to assume the role of coordinator of basketball operations. 
• He previously served on the WSU men's basketball staff as the team's director of player development under then-head coach Ken Bone, during the 2013-14 season. 
• Prior to that, he was the coordinator of operations for Cougar basketball from spring of 2009 until the summer of 2012.
• Kenny Tripp joined the staff as coordinator of operations after one year as an assistant coach for Division II Metropolitan State University of Denver in 2017-18. 
• Prior to his stint with the Roadrunners, Tripp served as a graduate assistant for the men's basketball program at Division II Regis University at Denver, Colo., for two years (2015-17).

NEXT UP:
• The Cougars continue their three-game homestand hosting Delaware State (Nov. 24) and CSUN (Nov. 27).