Hello Followers.  Hope you had a great weekend of March Madness.

As I watched a slew of basketball this weekend, my brain quickly became filled with a host of tidbits for today's write up.

For instance, when I heard that UCLA was a ridiculous 11-0 this year when leading by double digits, I thought I might write about what that says about our tendency to blow double digit leads.

Then, when I watched Washington blow a game that they were in control of for 36 minutes, I thought I'd write a bit about how I thought Lorenzo blew it by not calling a time out with the ball, down one, with 12 seconds left.

But ultimately, when I stumbled upon a post by Sir Vincent Grippi from last week (which I missed because I was out of town), my take on everything changed.

So, if you want to check out my change in worldview re: Cougar Hoops, then read on...

Hello Coug Fans,

I know everyone is caught up watching their brackets implode (thanks a lot Butler!), but we need to start getting focused on our business, namely, winning the NIT. Between the NCAA shockers, armageddon in Japan and the bombing of Libya, you may have caught this bit of news scrolling past the bottom of your screen... Northwestern put a beat down on Boston College. What does this mean for us? It means that the yellow brick road to Madison Square Garden for the NIT final 4 passes straight through Beasley. With BC's loss, the Cougs are now the highest seed left in their bracket and need 2 wins in front of the home crowd to get a trip to the Big Apple. On Monday night the Oklahoma State Cowboys come to town for a clash between 2 teams who have a lot in common. Both had promising pre-seasons but were disappointed during league play and have had a lot of trouble winning on the road. That last part is no longer a problem for the Cougs. Win on Monday and we will host Northwestern for a chance to play in the Garden.

The students are back from Spring Break and they can't be too bogged down with homework just yet, so I expect a raucous student turnout. However a Monday night game with a tip off after 8:30 pm could be a tough sell for us old farts with jobs and families and addresses outside of the 99163 zip code. But all that aside, I plead with you fellow old people! Come out in force and scream your heads off Monday night. We have never lost an NIT home game before and to do it now, when Madison Square Garden is so close... that would be a shame. So come on Coug fans, tickets are just $15 and there are great seats to be had if you get there early.

Finally, to help inspire you all, I want to pay homage to one of the greatest (if not THE greatest) Coug fans of all time, the immortal Rally Girl:

In our final home game of the regular season, Rally girl made her triumphant return to Friel and lead the Zzu Cru in this off-Broadway production:

Bravo Rally Girl! And for the rest of you, I'll see you at Friel on Monday night, right?

GO COUGS!

Happy Wednesday Cougar Fans!

Not a ton to talk about on Planet Wazzu.  With the students on Spring Break, and thus a break in the action that is Spring Ball, we don't have a lot to talk about.

Sure, we host Long Beach State in the opening round of the NIT tonight, but quite frankly, I could give a rat's you know what.  Even if we win the whole stinkin thing, wow, sweet, we're the 69th best team in America!  It means nothing to me.

What does mean something to me is the NCAA Tournament, and that's why we created a Tourney Pick Em over at Yahoo Fantasy Sports, just like we did for the football season.

Go ahead, fill out your bracket and compete amongst other WSU Football Blog readers!

Here is the link to Yahoo NCAA Pick Em.  Select the "Join Group" icon in the middle of the screen and that will take you to a different screen and click "Join Group" again.  It will ask for your Yahoo login, which you would have if you played Football Pick Em in the fall. 

The Group ID is 177416 and the Password is "gocougs."

Unfortuantely we won't be giving out a prize, but you will get a shout out on the blog.

Good luck!

Hello Followers.  Hope you're having a good week.

Well, as the NIT draws ever so near for our 2011 Cougar Hoopsters, I thought I'd give a little insight into what you already know:

I'm a total fricking hypocrite.

So, if you want to check out the ins and outs of my latest confession, then read on. 

Hello Followers.

Well, following the worst bracket (hatchet?) job done by the NCAA in some time, the Cougs land as a #2 seed in the NIT against Long Beach State.

(Props to Sir Vincent Grippi for calling that today, by the way).

Win that game, and we face the Harvard-Clay Bennett State winner.

If seeding follows, we then would travel to play a very beatable Boston College team.

So, here's the deal:  With four starters who have already done the NIT thing before, anything less than a ticket to the Big Apple is a failure.

Embrace the challenge, Cougs.

Now, go get Long Beach State (a team that has lots of experience playing high level talent).