Cougar Gridiron Classic Promo

A little over a month until Cougar Football! Here's a little promo for the Cougar Gridiron Classic:

Death on the Palouse

Dateline NBC aired a special tonight, Death on the Palouse, which chronicled the saga of Frederick James Russell. It was the first interview from Russell since being extradited from Ireland back to Whitman County in 2006 after the accident in 2001 that claimed 3 WSU students' lives. There are many videos on the Dateline website, but here is a small part of the interview with Russell:

Save the Trees!

While most students are gone for the summer, a major change is happening on campus. Part III of the Library Road project involves removing several older trees near Avery Hall. There is a great website, www.savewsutrees.com, bringing attention to this issue, with an online petition you can sign and let your voice be heard. There has also been media coverage in The Daily Evergreen and theMoscow-Pullman Daily News. There are also some good pictures over at this blog.

So what can you do? Sign the petition at the link above, join the Facebook group, write a letter to the Daily Evergreen, or send an email to James Michael Stone of WSU Capital Planning and Development, jmstone@wsu.edu. Hopefully some of these graceful giants can be saved which give WSU its character and make it a beautiful place to be a Coug.

[Photo David Barnes and Michael Hanly, savewsutrees.com]

Giant Cougar to Hit Palouse

That's right, as part of the Martin Stadium remodel, some alumni has donated a 4500 pound, $400,000 bronze cougar statue. It will be located in the NE corner of the stadium and should be in by the November 8th game against Arizona. A crappily photoshopped picture above shows what it might look like. For more info, check out this article on Cougfan.

Kyle's A Bobcat

Kyle Weaver was selected by the Charlotte Bobcats with the 31st pick overall in the 2008 NBA Draft. Weaver was selected along with D.J. Augustin and Alexis Ajinca by the Bobcats, joining former Gonzaga and Spokane native Adam Morrison. He is the only Cougar to be drafted in the last 12 years.

I wish he would have been picked by the Blazers, who had 3 picks near the end of the first and start of hte second round, but I think he will be a good fit in Charlotte, where Tony Bennett played his pro ball.

Update: It turns out that Derrick Low is going to be on the Maerick's summer team. Hopefully he can get a shot at making the team

Seattle Times: WSU Football in Trouble

The long anticipated Seattle Times story on the troubles the Cougars are having on the field has finally been published. It goes through the accounts of several players, including Andy Mattingly, Trevor Mooney, Andy Roof, and the oft-troubled Xavier Hicks, who was ticketed for driving without a license when he was released from his jail term. It definitely reflects poorly on not only Coach Doba and his staff, but many of the current players. Coach Wullf said:

"We've got some kids making some mistakes, but they're not major mistakes," Wulff said. "We're not talking major drugs. We're not talking some truly serious issues that go on in society."

But he adds: "I guarantee that will be held to a minimum as we move forward. The players understand that. I guarantee it."

Hopefully Wulff can help the team put these issues behind them and some leaders will step up and take charge. At least these issues have all been in the public eye and there have been no cover-ups by the players, coaches, police, or university (unlike similar allegations of the Huskies a few year ago). You can read the whole story about the troubled Cougs here.


On a lighter note, here's a nice article about new Suns coach and former Trailblazer Terry Porter, with plenty of quotes from Dick Bennett. And I who would have thought that Terry Porter and Tony Bennett shared a room.

Snow in Pullman... in June?

You heard correctly. Pullman residents awoke this morning to a fresh blanket of snow covering the Palouse. Here are some pictures from around campus.

WSU Football Calendar: 4 Games on TV

According the the WSU Athletics website, 4 Cougar games have been chosen for TV coverage on FSN (along with game times PT): The beginning of the Paul Wulff Era - Aug. 30 12:30 pm against Oklahoma State at Quest Field, The Travel to Texas - Sept. 13 9:30 am at Baylor, Pac-10 Favorite USC - October 18th 12:30 PM in Pullman, and of course, the Apple Cup - November 22 noon in Pullman. There is still a possibility of several more games being picked up by FSN and/or ABC. In 2007 only 4 games were selected early for TV, but 10 of 12 games ended up being on TV.

To stay up to date on schedule changes and game time announcements, subscribe to the Cougar Football Calendar from Google Calendar.

Updates Coming Soon!

So you've been bored lately, with nothing from The Crimson Life? Have no fear. Starting Tuesday, updates will be abounding. Have a great Memorial Day Weekend, and as always GO COUGS!!

How Sweet It Is!

Sweet 16! The Cougars head to Bobcats Arena in Charlotte, NC, where they will face the #1 overall seed North Carolina Tar Heels. I was in Denver for the 1st and 2nd Round victories against Winthrop and Notre Dame. It was an awesome experience. Here are some pictures of the trip:

Butch on NCAA 09 Cover?

As of right now, Butch is leading the voting for the NCAA 09 cover for the Wii (Darren McFadden has already been announced for the 360). Voting ends Friday, so keep the votes coming!

Scheller/Frye-Pierce Win Election; Transit Fee Fails

Brandon Scheller and Adam Fry-Pierce won the ASWSU Presidential and Vice Presidential ticket with a whopping 72% of the vote. Their competition, Davis and Lambert, received only 28% of the 2047 votes. It is interesting that over on Cougster they have successfully used the Facebook technique to predict the election correctly. Voter turnout was below 20% for the election.

The ASWSU Senate results are here, and no real surprises, except Robbie Cowgill tied for the District 7 seat with 1 vote.

The Pullman Transit fee passed with 56% of the votes, meaning a $15 increase in student fees for Thursday night and Sunday service. That's in addition to the $120 fee for the CUB remodel starting next fall.

***UPDATE*** The Pullman Transit fee passed the undergrad vote, but the GPSA voted it down, rendering it void and not implementing the fee.

Check Thursday's Daily Evergreen for more details.

Alpha Kappa Lambda Shut Down

In a surprise to many, AKLs received what is basically a death sentence from the University today, as WSU has revoked recognition to the fraternity until at least 2013. According to the Daily Evergreen, the main reason was that there were many drug deals going down, especially cocaine. AKLs have not commented except to say that they are appealing the decision.

Tony Bennett Going to Indiana? I don't think so!

An article on ESPN.com has WSU coach Tony Bennett as the leading candidate for the coach at Indiana after the dismissal of former WSU coach Kelvin Sampson. I think Pat Forde is wrong, as Tony and Gonzaga coach Mark Few wouldn't jump ship at this point to take over at a struggling Hoosier program. There was even an article Friday in the Evergreen about Bennett and his love for Pullman. Sure WSU hasn't exactly been a national powerhouse the past few decades, but the legacy has started and in addition to a strong senior class this year, we have one of the top recruiting classes in the nation. Leave some comments and let the people know that Tony is here to stay!

Vote for Butch for NCAA 09 Cover!

EA announced that NCAA 09 is coming to the Wii, and people can vote for the college mascot they want to see on the cover. Make sure you vote for Butch every day, because it would be totally sweet to see him on the cover. Also join the Facebook Group Here. VOTE FOR BUTCH!

Victory! Elton John to Play Second Show Mom's Weekend

No, this isn't a dream. Elton John is playing a second show on Mom's Weekend, Sunday night at 7pm. This time, they are doing it right, as a certain number of tickets have been set aside for WSU students, and anyone waiting in line at Beasley will get a wristband and a ticket! I know I will skip the TicketsWest website and head straight for the box office. It's nice to know that the WSU administration and Elton John's people will listen to our legitimate concerns and put on another concert. Hopefully this can be a lesson to everyone.

Coug Fans Wanted Doba To Stay After All

An interesting article on ESPN shows that Cougar fans were largely supportive of Bill Doba and wanted him to stay head coach. It also shows the difference between the politeness and loyalty of Cougar fans compared to the multitude of Fusky fans who were offering money in order to have their coach fired.

Cougs Fall to #21 in AP Poll after split with LA schools

WSU fell to #20 in the coaches and #21 in the AP poll after losing to UCLA and demolishing USC this weekend. Kyle "The Dream" Weaver led the Cougs with 17 points, while passing the 1000 point mark for his career, as Wazzu won easily 74-50. He also played some spectacular defense in shutting down OJ "I didn't do it" Mayo. Tim Floyd also had another huge meltdown at Friel Court, as he was ejected after arguing with the referees. The Cougs are now 3rd in the Pac-10, behind Stanford and UCLA, who was shocked by losing to the Huskies on Sunday.

Game Recap [ESPN]

Photo Dean Hare/AP

WSU Facebook Theme

In case you missed it, here is the link to the bomb-ass WSU Facebook Theme. Everyone should try it out, it is pretty sweet!

Self Directed Triathlon; Can Your Do It?

I am challenging everyone who reads The Crimson Life to join the Self-Directed Triathlon at the SRC. It is 26.2 miles of running, 112 miles of biking, and 2.4 miles of swimming over 34 weeks. Join the Facebook group here and be sure to check out the easy Excel log to keep track of your mileage.

The Crimson Life Hits Facebook

Yes it is true folks, join The Crimson Life Facebook Group here.
It will keep you up to date with the latest Coug News. Plus you can say you are an effin' stud when some huge news breaks from this site.

Shootings Hit Close to Home

Former WSU football player Randall Simmons was killed in action early Thursday as a member of the LAPD SWAT team. Simmons, a 1978 graduate, was shot in an 11 hour standoff, and is the first LAPD SWAT member to die in action. There was a moment of silence before the basketball game Thursday night, and flags were flying at half mast on the Pullman campus today.

In Baton Rouge, a female student shot two other students and herself in a classroom at Louisiana Tech. This comes less than 10 months after the shootings at Virginia Tech.

Cougs Lose to Bruins, 67-59

WSU dropped to .500 in Pac-10 play with the loss to UCLA on Thursday night in front of a smaller than expected crowd at Friel Court (due to closure of US-195 between Pullman and Spokane). Darren Collison led the Bruins with 18 points, all in the second half, while Kevin "Butt Sweat" Love added 16 points and 9 rebounds. Kyle Weaver scored 13 points, and is now 2 short of 1000 for his career. The officiating was questionable at best, but the Cougs need to do the little things, like make free throws, to pull out some of these close games.

[Image Dean Hare/AP]

Cougs Drop to #17 in Polls; UW Scraps Athletic Program

After back-to-back losses at home to the NorCal schools, the Cougs dropped 8 spots to #17 in the polls. I expected us to fall a few spots, but behind Xavier? It won't be easy to rebound from the first losing streak in the Tony Bennett era with games against UCLA and USC on tap this week.

In other news, here is a great article on "ESPNU" about the transfer of the UW Athletic Department to UCLA [Via Cougster]

National Letter of Intent Day for football is tomorrow, so stay tuned and can find out who Coach Wulff and the Cougs have nabbed in a short recruiting season.

Fox Returns to Cable

People of Pullman, rejoice! With the Super Bowl around the corner, KAYU and Time Warner have FINALLY come to an agreement. Yes!

WSU Shut Down After Snow Buries Pullman

Nearly a foot of snow has closed down WSU today in Pullman. All classes after 10am were canceled, and campus buildings will be locked at 1 pm. In addition, the SRC closed at 10, State Route 195 was closed this morning, and even Pullman Transit stopped service at 10:30 this morning. An interesting note is the basketball game against Cal tonight is still on as of 11 am. It is almost unheard of for WSU to cancel classes due to weather. In fact, the last time it happened was when Mt. St. Helens erupted in 1980. Enjoy your snow day.

Your Mom Goes to Elton John. Oh Wait, You Couldn't Buy Tickets

Want to see Elton John on Mom's Weekend? Unless you have a crap load of money, you probably are like the majority of WSU students and won't be going. It is hypocritical for this to be promoted as a Mom's Weekend event, yet there is no special preference given to WSU students or their mothers, while scalpers run rampant charging ridiculous prices on the Internet. I know their were of people who were online at exactly 10 am, calling continuously for 3 hours, and waited in line at Beasley but were still unable to get tickets. Ticketswest claims their server only went out for 6 minutes during that time period. In reality, the online ticketing system was down for much longer than this. Any time there is large demand for a concert or event this is likely to happen, but it doesn't help that WSU recommended to students that "going online at www.ticketswest.com will give you the best opportunity to purchase tickets..".

It also says on the Beasley website and releases from Ticketswest that "TicketsWest is pleased to have assisted the Beasley Performing Arts Coliseum in selling out the Elton John performance scheduled for April 12, 2008." Hey, at least you don't have to rub it in that you screwed thousands of students and their Moms over. Interestingly enough, when I sent an email Friday to Ticketswest, I received this message:

"We're sorry but this onsale generated a tremendous amount of interest, with demand far outweighing availability. Throughout most of the onsale, our web servers experienced over 6,000 concurrent connections. Qwest reported that at one point we had over 5,000 calls per minute running through their circuits to our call center. The TicketsWest ticketing system was fully functional and transacted orders from all sales channels throughout the onsale period. Due to the heavy traffic to the website, on two separate occasions, at 10:21 AM and 11:12 AM respectively, TicketsWest engineers displayed the TicketsWest maintenance page for a period of approximately 6 minutes in order to allow existing traffic already on the TicketsWest.com site to complete pending transactions.

Funny, that's exactly what it says on the Beasley website with "I'm sorry" added to the beginning. Thanks for the shit customer service Ticketswest. There are rumors of a possible second Elton John concert in Pullman, but I think that has the same chances of Oregon State winning the Pac-10 in basketball.

So what can you do about this? First of all, give all the asshole scalpers on Ebay and craigslist a piece of your mind. Second, complain to the people responsible or with power in this situation:

• Michelle Poesy, Mom's Weekend Event Coordinator, michellep@wsu.edu, 509-335-4809
• TicketsWest Corporate Office, info@ticketswest.com, 509-459-6100
• Jack Lucas, President of TicketsWest, jack.lucas@ticketswest.com, 509-459-6100
• Leo Udy, Director of Beasley PAC, udy@wsu.edu, 509-335-3748
• Fran Curtis, Elton John contact at Rogers and Cowan, fcurtis@rogersandcowan.com, 212- 455-8418
• Elson Floyd, WSU President, floyde@wsu.edu, 509-335-6666

***Please be courteous when contacting these people. Do not threaten of harass any of them, as they are trying to do their jobs.***

Finally join the Facebook group, write a letter to the Evergreen, and stay tuned to The Crimson Life for the latest information. Let's show them WSU students, in the words of the great Elton John:

Don't give us none of your aggravation
We had it with your discipline
Saturday night's alright for fighting
Get a little action in

UPDATE:
Here is contact information for the local Spokane news stations (not KAYU)

• KREM 2 - newsdesk@krem.com
  
• KXLY 4 - News4@kxly.com
• KHQ 6 - q6news@khq.com

There is also an event on Facebook, "Going To Elton John Without A Ticket". Take a look!

(Image Beasley Performing Arts Coliseum Website)

Cougs top ASU 56-55

#6 Washington State was able to squeak by #24 Arizona State 56-55. It was the second time in 2 years the Cougars have escaped Tempe with a 1 point win. Derek Low led WSU with 18 points, but the real man today for the Cougs was Kyle Weaver, with 8 rebounds, 8 assists, and some stingy defense to block James Harden's last second shot. The Cougars will return home next week to face Cal and Stanford.

Stat of the Game: Derek Low was 6-11 on 3 pointers, scoring all 18 of his points from beyond the arc

More game coverage:
Game Recap [ESPN]
No. 6 Cougs Survive No. 24 Sun Devils [WSU Athletics]
Photo Desert Finish: Cougs Win [Cougfan.com]

[Photo Paul Connors, AP]

'Cats Clobber Cougs 76-64

Washington State lost for just the second time this season as Arizona laid some treys to win 76-64 in Tucson. Jerryd Bayless led the Wildcats with 23 points, while Chase Buddinger added another 22 as Arizona pummeled a normally stringent Wazzu defense. Kyle Weaver was the leading scorer for the Cougars with 15 points, but couldn't do anything against the hot hands of Arizona.

Stat of the Game:
Arizona was 55% from the floor and 57% from 3 point land. Hard to stop that.

More Game Recaps:
Sometimes in the Pac-10, This Just Happens [WSU Hoops]
Game Recap [ESPN]
Around the Rim - Andy Katz [ESPN]
Cougars' Defense: Lost in the Desert [Daily Evergreen]

Ducks at the Bookie?

No, not the hated Oregon kind. This is a picture of some Ducks I took in front of the Bookie about 15 minutes ago. They must have thought the icy parking lot was a frozen lake.

The Wazzu Underground

Here's a website of a group of subterranean explorers from the 1990's at Washington State. They have several videos of the underground steam tunnels at WSU, and some pretty cool stories. Probably a lot nicer than walking in there than out in the snow we are supposed to get for the next two weeks...

Hoops Preview: at Arizona

#6 WSU (16-1, 4-1) heads to the McKale Center in Tucson tonight to face the Wildcats of Arizona (12-6, 2-3). The Wildcats leads the all-time series, 48-13 and 23-7 at Tucson. The Cougars swept the series last season with a 77-73 victory in overtime at Friel Court Jan. 6 and a 72-66 win at Tucson Feb. 1. Arizona presents a three-pronged attack, led by freshman guard Jerryd Bayless (19.2 points a game), complemented by forward Chase Budinger and center Jordan Hill. The Wildcats come off of a 4 point loss at Stanford and a 4 point win at Cal last week, while the Cougars swept the Oregon schools at home.

Tip: 5:30 pm
TV: FSN NW

More game previews:
Seattle Times
WSU Athletics
Daily Evergreen

Former WSU DE Rien Long in Critical Condition

"Former Washington State and Tennessee Titans football player Rien Long is in critical condition after his car crashed into a rock wall on an interstate in Nashville."

Let's hope the Outland Trophy winner will have a full recovery. Rien, you are in our thoughts and prayers.

Former WSU, Titans football player Rien Long injured in crash [Seattle P-I]

UPDATE: Long has been upgraded to stable condition [AP]

(Photo CNN/SI)

WSU Theme for Facebook

For those of you using Firefox and the Greasemonkey extension (which everyone should be doing), I have a script here that will give Facebook an awesome Crimson and Gray WSU Theme. Pretty sweet! Let me know if you have any comments or suggestions.

Brr It's Cold!

It is a balmy 2° right now in Pullman, and it should stay pretty cold through the night. The high is supposed to be in the low 20's tomorrow and it doesn't look like we'll get above freezing until next week. Now I'm glad I got those long underwear for Christmas.

Cougs down Ducks 69-60

A packed house at Beasley Coliseum and a strong second half helped propel WSU over the Oregon Ducks 69-60. It was the first win in 7 years over the Ducks for the Cougs. The Cougs improve to 16-1 on the season and 4-1 in Pac 10 play, good for a tie with UCLA for 1st place with their loss to USC. For additional coverage, check out:

ESPN Game Recap Summary and Stats from ESPN.com

Feels Good to Have That Monkey Gone Ananlysis from WSU Hoops blog

The Cougars jumped in both polls to the number 6 position and remain a 2 seed in ESPN's bracketology

(Photo Dean Hare, AP)

The Crimson Life

Welcome to The Crimson Life! This blog is dedicated to everything WSU. There are a few WSU blogs out there, but this one will get everything you need to know about the Cougs. Thanks for visiting and GO COUGS!