Happy Post-Draft Monday Cougs, and of course we hope all is well in your world.  

And a HUGE congrats thrown the way of QB#10 for good ol' Wazzu, as Jeff Tuel signed with the Buffalo Bills as an undrafted free agent.  We at WSUFB couldn't be happier for Tuel, who dealt with a lot of things in his Coug career.  From arriving on the scene as a true frosh and seemingly anointed "The ONE" to lead us out of darkness, it just didn't quite work out as hoped.  Tuel did have a strong sophomore season, where he started all 12 games and threw for 2,780 yards, 18 TD's and 12 INT's, but that was the best it ever was for #10.  So much seemed possible after that season, but hard as it is to believe, he would only start 10 games total the rest of his career after that breakthrough performance, and throw just 9 TD's his final two years combined (half of his entire sophomore season).  Of course, the injuries took their toll and the sacks, oh, the sacks.  119 of 'em, in 26 career starts, or about 4.6 of them per start.  And as the old saying goes, it's not the years, it's the mileage.  And those were some HARD miles.

But hey, we'll always have the 2012 Apple Cup!  After everything that Tuel saw over the years, hard to imagine a better conclusion to his career than that.

Moving on to some other quick-hitters this morning...

Spring Football - Perfect preperation for those important November games.

Hey all and welcome to the remote tailgate experience for those of us not lucky enough to be at Joe Albi. The Crimson and Gray scrimmage kicks off at 2pm PT on Pac-12 Net and I'll be here, beer in hand, ready to rap about the Cougs with anyone who wants to jump into the comments with us. This is the time for un-restrained and irrational optimism, so lets all get our crimson beer goggles on and have at it...

Some of you may be have wondered where I’ve been, most of you probably have not. Anyway, I am just a few winks removed from my deeeeeeeeep sports hibernation that occurs every year after the NCAA tournament wraps up.

For some people its flowers or groundhogs or birds that signal the return of Spring, but for me its baseball, the Masters and Spring football. This week Spokane is getting the full-Moos treatment as the WSU Athletic Department paints the town Crimson with lots of events all culminating in Saturday’s Crimson and Gray scrimmage at Joe Albi Stadium. Last year Amieable and I were lucky enough to make the trek to Spokane for the big game, but we aren’t so lucky this year. That means I will be available to man the ole blog tomorrow. So if you are stuck far away from the action like we are, just grab your favorite cold beverage and join me here where we’ll live blog the sights and sounds delivered to us via Pac-12 Net from Joe Albi (Unless you’re a Direct TV customer, that is).

Coverage: 2:00 pm PT on Pac-12 Net

GO COUGS!

Hooray April Baseball.

Happy Humpday Cougs, as we hit the mid-point of the week and barrel towards another weekend.  Of course, we hope all is well in your corner of the world.

So those M's, yeesh.  They were buried by the best AAAA-level team in baseball history last night, as the Astros hung up 16 runs on Brandon Maurer and Kameron Low, among others.  But hey, they fought their way back in front of a few friends and family as shown above, and wow, they scored 9 runs (most this season in a single game!).  But who cares, right?  It's early April still, it's a LOOOOONNNNNG season ahead and well, these things happen.

Crazy how bad the attendance was last night though.  Just an announced crowd of 10K, a record low at the Safe, somewhere in there?  It's not like the AAAA-stros are much of a draw (see what I did there?), and on a Tuesday night in April it would be surprising if they approached 15K last night.  And that picture isn't exactly fair, I mean the game was long over by the time it was tweeted out by Larry Stone of the Seattle Times.  But I do believe the M's will draw better this year, simply because they will score more runs after an historically anemic offense the last few years.  Adding Michael Morse and Kendrys Morales will only help over the long haul (especially as the so-called young "core" of Ackley-Smoak-Montero continue to slog their way through the start of the season).  Once the kids get out of school and the weather warms up, with those moved in fences and all that I'm sure things will pick up.

Baseball attendance this early isn't just a problem here however.  Even in places like Yankee Stadium and Citi Field in NY, fans have been quick to bail out if things don't look promising:

I don't know, maybe it's just my spotty/selective(?) memory, but I don't recall seeing fans bail so quickly compared to years past?  

It was kind of interesting, but I was talking to my brother-in-law on Easter and the topic of UW's stadium renovation came up (full disclosure:  he's a big Husky booster).  Anyway, he said that some of the things he's heard around Montlake is that the biggest thing even they face in selling tickets in Seattle is the 50-inch TV screen in so many homes nowadawys.  With the Pac-12 network showing every game on TV, it really has become an easy thing to "opt out" of, all things considered.  Would you rather stay home with friends and watch the game in crystal-clear HIGH DEF, while paying grocery store prices on food, use your own bathroom, no costs for parking, etc?  And hey, if the game turns out to be a stinker, you can always change the channel to something else or even just turn it off and do other things!  But I was surprised that even in big-city Seattle and the new Husky Stadium and all that, even they have to fight against the ease of TV and all that it brings for fans to still be part of it without, you know, being there.  

Of course, I'm not the first one to even suggest that attendance can be a problem.  But college football is a little different animal.  You only have a handful of home dates every year to deal with, and it's always an excellent chance to catch up with friends and make an event out of the whole thing.  It's not like MLB with 81 home games, or even the NBA with 40+ in the friendly confines.  I would fully expect that UW will fill that thing up next year, and if our Cougs can get off to a decent start, we'll see decent turnouts in Pullman as well.  

But whatever.  It's SPRING FOOTBALL season, after all.  On to the links!

Happy Tuesday Cougs, and here at blog we hope all is well with you and yours.  

So in what I can only call a fun, interesting game from start to finish, The Louisville Cardinals won it all last night, and in the process handed us the office pool championship!  That's right, even with picking just 1 team out of the Final Four in what is likely one of the worst-ever brackets to actually win, well, anything, Louisville's victory brought it home for us.  Yay Cardinals.  But I couldn't help but sit back and be riveted at the action last night.  I actually thought Michigan was going to win this thing, and man did they play well early on.  But Louisville kept hanging in there, and then made that huge run to end the first half and build serious "MO" to close out the half, and you knew it was going to be a barnburner the rest of the way!

What was really interesting was to see how, for the first time in this tournament, late in the game Michigan looked gassed?  Maybe it was just my imagination but it looked like they were wearing out down the stretch, that all that defensive pressure that Louisville threw at them all game finally started to take it's toll.  Watching Trey Burke at the free throw lane just struggling to catch his breath, you wondered how much he had left in the tank.  But that's just my completely uneducated look at things, I mean I know next to zip, zero, ZILCH about college hoops.  For those of you hoops junkies out there, did my eyes deceive me or was Michigan truly wearing out down the stretch?

And one cool moment to see Kevin Ware cut down the net at the end.  That broken leg will go down on the same level as Joe Theismann, I mean it's going to be something people will always remember from this tourney.  But it was really cool to see him get a piece of that thing after all he went through to help get the team to that point.  

One SHINING MOMENT Y'ALL!

One other thing for the hoops guys - can someone tell me why, exactly, more teams don't employ the Syracuse zone defense??  I am still amazed that Michigan figured out a way to beat them, and I guess big #4 in the middle, McGary, had to be special to beat 'Cuse.  But I watch that defensive scheme and was so amazed by what I saw out of them this year, and left thinking "Why doesn't a team like, oh, I don't know, WSU, employ something like that?"  Is it just too tough to coach and too intricate to learn the ins-and-outs unless you hire someone straight out of Boeheim's coaching tree to figure it out?  Or does it simply rely too much on great athleticism to cover all that ground?  Because I don't know about you, but watching that zone defense, I was just blown away at how hard it looked to just get a clean look at the hoop!  When you make teams work that hard to get good looks, you know that wears teams down as the game goes on and frustration starts to set in?  Anyway, as a hoops know-nothing, I'm hoping someone can fill me in/educate me/whatever.

On to the links....

Happy Monday Cougs, and as always we hope that things are good with you and yours.  We've been awfully quiet of late, for reasons we won't exactly go over right now.  But today is a new day and an opportunity to get something up on the blog, so, here we are.

Can't help but love this time of year, even though there is no actual football GAMES to take in?  But it's a season of true change around the country, where basketball is winding down and baseball is in the air.  It's lighter until almost 8 PM, the morning jog is now done in the sunlight (who knew??), and it's just a great time to renew hope in many things as winter fades to memory. 

And I LOVE Championship Monday!  Even though I'm not as big on the NCAA hoops tourney as I used to be back in the day, it is still cool to watch a new champion win the title and get geared up for One Shining Moment and all that.  I don't know who ya got tonight, but if Louisville wins it, we win our little bracket contest!!  (Ok, only 9 people entered my wife's contest at work and one of those entries didn't, well, even fill out their bracket!  But hey, we have some kind of rooting interest tonight anyway.  If Louisville wins, we win).

I was lucky enough to take in a Final Four a long time ago, when the old Kingdome hosted the event in the mid-90's.  My friends and I sat in the 200 level and watched UCLA take down Corliss Williamson's Razorbacks in a thrilling final, as the Bruins celebrated a national title.

Where have you gone, Toby Bailey?

That was the Final Four where Okie State's "Big Country" shattered a backboard during the Final Four practice session on the Friday before the semifinals, which set the Kingdome crowd abuzz....

Good times.  Anyway, while I didn't really have a "dog in the fight" watching UCLA-Arkansas get it on, it was a cool thing to watch an NCAA title game play out in person.  I was lucky enough to go to the 1998 Rose Bowl, so I guess you could say we all saw Michigan win a national championship by capping an unbeaten season that year and get the mythical national title in football?  But it was cool to see UCLA win it and watch the Bruins fans celebrate a real championship won, you know, on the court??  Hopefully college football gets this playoff thing figured out once and for all, and the new system produces that kind of excitement that has been pretty exclusive to the hardwood.  

On to the morning links-n-such.....

Hello, Followers!  Hope you’re having one heckuva week.

As for me, well, as fate would have it my spring break just went before it even came.  I mean, just when I thought that I might catch a break from writing and reading papers et al., something called “civic duty” reared its ugly head.

And by civic duty, I’m talking not talking about helping old people cross the street. 

I’m talking about CIVIC DUTY here….Meaning: I’m on jury duty for the whole stinking week!!!!

So, while my mind melts away sitting in a court room listening to a case that I can’t talk to anyone about, I thought to myself, “Man, wouldn’t it be great to parlay this wonderful experience into a random blog post?”  And as I sat down today to eat lunch, the two Baliffs outside the jury room provided the needed inspiration for such a post.   

And that inspiration focused on that “one thing” that these dudes couldn’t get enough of...

Softball.  For more on that, read on.

 So, THERE's the beef.

Thanks to our friends at Cougfan I have been perusing the Spring Football Roster and, of course, there is a lot to talk about. A few familliar names are no longer with us such as Brandon Golden (transfer), Justin Clayton (injuries) and Kalil Pettaway (concussions), and there are a few startling weight gains/losses. Most notably Conner Hallady lost, yes LOST 6 lbs. Probably just making sure he has that super model career to fall back on if this football thing doesn't work out. Meanwhile the offensive line which will be bolstered by a bunch of guys leaving their red shirt year behind has made some impressive looking weight gains. It wasn't too long ago that the only chance you had to see over 300 lbs sprinting accross the Rogers Field turf was during a 3 legged race. Others that stood out to me: Kristoff Williams, Destiny Vaeao, Taylot Taliulu... all made some impressive gains. Take a gander and tell us what you think.

Hello Followers.  Long time no see.  Hope you all are doing great.

As for me, well, the seas have parted just enough for me to fire up a quick post.

So, for a few quick thoughts about Ken Bone and Cougar Basketball on the eve of the NCAA tournament, read on.

Happy Humpday Cougs, as we hope all is well with you and yours.  Tonight the Coug hoopsters take on UW in Vegas, as the strip comes alive with Coug fans walkin' around, checkin' stuff out.  Of course, the last time Cougs were in Vegas, well, we kind of made ourselves at home?

something something something GO COUGS!

Anyway, lots of stuff floating around and not much time, so, here we go.....