Roundup: Tara VanDerveer goes for win No. 1,000 Friday night
Friday night has the potential to be an historic one as Stanford women’s basketball coach Tara VanDerveer goes for her 1000th career victory when the Cardinal takes on USC at Maples Pavilion (catch it on Pac-12 Network). Michelle Smith of ESPN (and Pac-12.com) gives us this story on VanDerveer’s selflessness in the coaching world, always reaching out to fellow coaches and players.
Sean Miller is getting a contract extension at Arizona that will keep him in Tucson through May 2022 (The Arizona Republic).
Ronald Gasser was indicted on second-degree murder charges Thursday in the killing of former USC running back Joe McKnight in a road-rage incident (Associated Press). The charge carries a mandatory life sentence.
Sad news here, as incoming freshman Poutasi Poutasi’s mother died hours after he signed with the Golden Bears.
Tough way to lose – here’s the Jabari Bird alley-oop that sunk Utah in double overtime Thursday night in Berkeley (Kyle Goon with an assist from Pac-12 Networks).
Colorado men’s basketball defeated Stanford 81-74 at Maples Pavilion Thursday night behind 19 points apiece from Derrick White and Xavier Johnson. After starting the conference season 0-7, the Buffs have won three straight (third time that has happened in Pac-12 men’s basketball history).
Here’s the House of Sparky recap from Arizona State’s hard-fought 71-70 loss at No. 13 Oregon. The Sun Devils dropped to 10-13 overall and 3-7 in Pac-12 play.
Kyle Boone informs us that UCLA men’s basketball guard Lonzo Ball set a UCLA and Pac-12 freshman assist record against Washington State. He now has 183 helpers on the season (UCLA’s single-season record is 256 from Larry Drew II (pronounced “two”, not “the second”; Drew II also has the record for assists in a D-League game with twenty-freaking-three).
Ken Goe lets us know that Oregon women’s track is in the hunt for another national indoor title. They have won six of the last seven NCAA women’s indoor titles. The Ducks also made history by placing five women on the February Bowerman watch list. No school had ever had more than three on the list at any one time.
Howard Megdal is all in on the Markelle Fultz hype train, and he spends part of this article comparing Fultz to Bradley Beal of the Washington Wizards. He also compares Lonzo Ball to Kyle Lowry and Goran Dragic and Lauri Markkanen to the Zinger himself, Kristaps Porzingis.
As the college baseball season in about to begin, Oregon State baseball alumni hope an NCAA Tournament snub in 2016 fuels the 2017 Beavers, writes Danny Moran.
Chet Broberg of CougCenter looks at how Washington State’s recruiting class compares to schools across the conference and country. It’s one of the best classes Mike Leach has coming in.