Pac 12 Preview: Washington State

Pac 12 Preview: Washington State

Last Season:
17-15 overall and 7-11 in Pac 12 play.


The Coaches:
June Daugherty is in her 9th season at Washington State, after a number of seasons as Head Coach at Washington
Mike Daugherty, June’s husband, is also in his 9th season.
Ashley Gill (Glover) is in her 4th season at Washington State.
Rod Jensen is new to the staff. He didn’t coach last year but coached the Cougar Men 2 years ago. Jenson has 30 years of experience and is known as a fine defensive coach.


Losses:
The Cougars lost their top three scorers so huge losses.
Lia Gladeira led the team in scoring with 20 points per game. Lia also averaged 6 rebounds and with Pressley had over half the team’s steals. Lia had another year but left early to play professional overseas.
Tia Pressley was 2nd on the team in scoring with 16 points per game.
Shalie Dheenshaw was 3rd on the team in scoring, 9 points and 1st in rebounding with 7 per game.



Additions:
Maria Kostourkova is a 6-4 Frosh Center who played on the 18U team for her native, Portugal. She averaged 14 points and 12 rebounds in the World 18U tournament, in 2014. Last year in the 20U she averaged 14 points and 10 rebounds. Named the 3rd and 4th best international college player by two sites.

Borislava Hristova is a 6-0 Wing from Bulgaria. Hristova averaged 27 and 24 points per game in the last two European tournaments, 18U then recently 20U. She was called the top international recruit by one site.

Alexya Swedlund is a 5-11 Guard from South Dakota. Alexya was Ms Basketball for South Dakota. She scored 2,002 points in her HS career and averaged 25 points as a Sr.

Nike McClure is a 6-3 Redshirt Frosh from Washington who sat out last season. Close to a top 100 player out of HS.

Krystle McKenzie is another redshirt Frosh and a 5-8 Point Guard from Australia.



The Schedule:
Some good teams are on their pre-season schedule including Oklahoma State, Kansas, U of San Diego, Gonzaga and St Mary’s. Big break as the Cougars play the Oregon schools, Stanford and Cal just once each.

The Team:
Mariah Cooks is a 6-1 Sr Forward who averaged 7 points and 5 rebounds. Cooks is the top returning scorer and the number 2 returning rebounder.
Louise Brown is a 6-2 Soph Forward who averaged 4 points and 6.5 rebounds last year. Brown is an Aussie.
Dawnyelle Awa is a 5-9 Sr Point Guard who started every game last season averaging 5 points and had a better than 2:1 assist to turnover ratio.
These three are the only returnees to starts a game last season, Awa and Cooks started all their games and Brown started half of the games.

I believe these three will start along with the international Frosh, Kostourkova and Hristova.
Taylor Edmondson is a 5-11 Sr Guard who averaged 5 points in 18 points.
McClure, profiled above is a strong rebounder.
Pinelopi Payopoulou is a 5-8 Soph Guard from Greece who averaged 12 minutes and 2 points last season. There are five other players on the roster who averaged 4 to 7 minutes last season.



Predictions:
The Cougars lost two outstanding players and a third good player so the need to rebuild. They will be depending on several international recruits to do so. If they jell, they could be good, but a big if. The Cougars have seven international players.



2016 Recruiting:
Chanelle Molina 5-6 PG from Hawaii # 39.