Roundup: Arizona State introduces Herm Edwards; Stanford and UCLA win titles
Arizona State named Herm Edwards its new football coach on Sunday night. In the release linked in the preceding sentence, Arizona State explains its vision for a restructured football program.
Stanford women’s soccer won its second national championship by defeating UCLA 3-2 Sunday afternoon in Orlando, getting a beauty of a game-winning goal by Jaye Boissiere in the 67th minute. The win over the Bruins gave Stanford 114 NCAA team championships, breaking a tie with the Bruins for most NCAA team titles in the country. But then…
…UCLA men’s water polo won the NCAA title by beating USC 7-5 in the Trojans’ home pool in the finals, tying the Bruins back up with the Cardinal at 114. Adam Wright did a helluva job with this team – UCLA was probably the fifth-best tam in the country coming into the season (and in men’s water polo, fifth best at a school like UCLA means you’re expected to have a down season). Three natties in four years for UCLA men’s water polo.
Colorado women’s volleyball advanced to the Sweet 16 by upsetting Baylor in three sets. This is the first time in 20 years that the Buffs will be going to the round of 16 in the NCAA Women’s Volleyball Tournament. Nebraska is up next.
Utah women’s volleyball is also on to the Sweet 16 after defeating Purdue in four sets, improving to 24-9 on the season. The 11th-seeded Utes will face No. 6 Texas Friday on the Stanford campus.
John Canzano’s latest column discusses Oregon football needing a resolution to the Willie Taggart-Florida State situation. Will he go to Tallahassee? Will he stay in Eugene? Time for an answer, Canzano writes.
Bush Hamdan will be the new offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at Washington, returning to Montlake after a year as the Atlanta Falcons’ QB coach (Seattle Times). Hamdan spent the 2015 and 2016 seasons on Chris Petersen’s staff at U-Dub.
Bowl selection Sunday turned out be a very good day for the Pac-12. While there is no team in the College Football Playoff from the Conference of Champions and the Rose Bowl won’t have that traditional Pac-12/Big Ten matchup, USC will play Ohio State in the Cotton Bowl in a matchup of Pac-12 and Big Ten champions, so it’s like we’ll get the Rose Bowl in Texas. Washington gave the conference a second New Year’s Six team (and nice influx of cash) by going to the Fiesta Bowl to play Penn State, so another bigtime matchup between the two conferences.
One of nine Pac-12 teams to make a bowl game, Washington State will play Michigan State in the Holiday Bowl, marking the second straight year the Cougs will play in that bowl game.
Another one of those nine Pac-12 teams playing in a bowl game is Arizona, which will face Purdue in the Foster Farms Bowl in Santa Clara.
Newly minted Oregon State head coach Jonathan Smith is a proven recruiter of elite quarterbacks, writes Andrew Nemec of The Oregonian/OregonLive.com. After delivering four-star QB recruits to Washington for the 2018 and 2019 classes, there's hope a solid signal caller could speed up the turnaround in Corvallis.
Cal women’s basketball dominated Santa Clara 79-41 Saturday afternoon in the South Bay, getting 17 points from Kristine Anigwe in just 21 minutes of court time.