COUGARS HOST COLONELS TO OPEN 2018-19 SEASON: The Washington State University men's basketball team opens the 2018-19 season hosting Nicholls out of Thibodaux, La., Sunday, Nov. 11 at 4 p.m., in the second game of a doubleheader with the WSU women's basketball team.
• The women host Saint Mary's at 1 p.m. on Sunday, Nov. 11 at Beasley Coliseum.
• The WSU men's game will be televised on the Pac-12 Network as Guy Haberman (play-by-play) and Dan Belluomini (analyst) will 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 COLONELS: 
• Located in Thibodaux, La., Nicholls State University is a member of the Southland Conference.
• The Colonels are 1-0 after defeating Mississippi College, 86-58, Nov. 6...they travel to Louisville, Ky., to take on Louisville, Thursday, Nov. 8 before arriving in Pullman.
• Nicholls is joined in the Southland by; A&M-Corpus Christi, Abilene Christian, Lamar, New Orleans, Northwestern State, Sam Houston State, Stephen F. Austin, Central Arkansas, Houston Baptist, Incarnate Word, McNeese and Southeastern Louisiana.
• WSU is 1-0 all time against Nicholls as the two teams met in the second round of the Great Alaska Shootout, Nov. 27, 2009.
• The Cougar team that eventually captured the tournament championship led by then-sophomore Klay Thompson, defeated the Colonels, 78-69.
• The Cougars are 2-2 all-time against current members of the Southland, having defeated Lamar and Nicholls and having lost to New Orleans and Stephen F. Austin...the last time WSU played a current member of the Southland was New Orleans, Dec. 3, 2016.

WASHINGTON STATE IN SEASON OPENERS:
• The Cougars are 95-22 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 22 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 28-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 3. 

ABOUT THE COUGARS: 
• 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. 
• Although small in stature, 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 766 career points, Robert Franks needs just 234 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 101 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.

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 head to Kent, Wash. to take on Seattle U at the ShoWare Center, followed by three-straight home games at Beasley Coliseum with Cal Poly (Nov. 19), Delaware State (Nov. 24) and Cal State Northridge (Nov. 27).