WELCOME TO MARCH!
For the first time in 16 years, the Washington State Cougars are headed to the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament.
The Cougars are a seven seed in the East region and will play the 10 seed Drake Bulldogs in Omaha, Nebraska at 7:05 p.m. on Thursday, March 21st.
“It’s neat to see these guys put the work in. They know how hard this is and to earn this opportunity, it’s been terrific. We couldn’t be happier for this group, been pretty easy to coach.” Kyle Smith said.
“Since I finished my chemotherapy, I wrote it down in my journal and on my iPad, all the things that, you know, me personally, I want to accomplish and team wise and just everything I want for us to be able to do. Making the NCAA Tournament was one of the things I wanted to get done this year and then we got a couple more things we can check off.” Myles Rice said.
Last time WSU was putting on their dancing shoes: Flo Rida and T-Pain’s “Low” was dominating the top 100, the New York Giants had just defeated the previously unbeaten New England Patriots in Super Bowl 42 and CougCenter.com had yet to exist.
But on Sunday, CBS got to pan inside Beasley Coliseum to capture the reaction of the team, and fans, snapping their tournament drought.
“It’s a special feeling. As a four-year guy to be able to make it to the NCAA Tournament, it means a lot. But, I honestly saw the vision from the beginning, from my freshman year. I saw something in the coaching staff that I thought, we can make something special. And obviously it takes time. My sophomore and junior year, we made it to the NIT.” Andrej Jakimovski said. “But like I said, as a four-year guy, to be able to play in the best tournament in the world means a lot to me and to this program.”
The Bulldogs are fresh off winning the Missouri Valley Conference tournament, defeating the Indiana State Sycamores in the title game. They went 25-6 in the regular season and 16-4 in conference. Their two out of conference losses coming against UAB and Stephen F. Austin. The Bulldogs boast the nation’s best defensive rebounding team, only allowing opponents to gather 22.1% of their misses for offensive rebounds.
“I watched them play their conference tournament and they’re good. I just remember they have a point guard that really defends, they got a big widebody, they got the best player in the league and the coach’s son. So it’ll be a really good challenge.” Smith said.
The game will take place at the CHI Health Center Omaha and be the final tournament game of the day.