Pac-10 report

SportsLine.com report
April 4, 2000

It wasn't expected to be much of a season in Pullman for first-year coach Paul Graham, and it lived up to the billing as the Cougars finished 1-17 in the Pac-10 play and 6-22 overall, the fewest wins since George Raveling's first team won only six games in 1973.

The Cougars' only hope Graham's tenure turns out as well as Raveling's, who eventually built WSU into one of the best Pac-10 programs of the late 70s and early 80s.

Graham didn't have much to work with as former coach Kevin Eastman left little talent behind. And the numbers only got worse when senior point guard Blake Pengelly quit the team five games into the season.

Most of the drama in Pullman centered on whether WSU would become the first Pac-10 team to ever go 0-18. The Cougars lost their first 14 conference games before beating Cal, the only highlight of the season.

But while Graham said the losing was tough, he also knows he's in this for the long haul and that such a year was inevitable given the sorry state of the program.

The program took plenty of hits after the season. Mike Bush, who looked like the best player on the team at points of last season, was ruled academically ineligible for 2000-01 and Tyrone Evans had his scholarship pulled for lack of academic progress.

Graham did himself no favors when the season was over, pulling the scholarship of freshman Brian Whitehead, an under-talented player who was indicative of the type of athlete Eastman stocked the program with.

While pulling the scholarship might have been the right thing to do from a talent standpoint, it made for a public relations nightmare and might come back to haunt Graham down the recruiting trail. Whitehead prepped at Mount Vernon High School in northwest Washington. The school annually produces some of the state's top recruits, including former WSU standout Mark Hendrickson.

Graham has shown a penchant for recruiting nationally with some level of success. He had better hope he's able to continue that success as angering one of the state's most-respected programs will make his in-state recruiting efforts difficult.

A Glance at 2001

WSU returns two starters and eight players overall. But Graham is also counting on an infusion of talent from a recruiting class that is getting some solid reviews, as well as 6-10 transfer center Jay Locklier, who played in 1999 at Miami-Ohio.

The Cougars can't help but be better.

Starting center Eddie Miller will be back for his senior year, but will now be able to play outside more, and promising 6-2 shooting guard David Adams also returns.

The real excitement is in the newcomers, such as 6-4 guard Tommy Johnson, one of the best high school players in Los Angeles; point guard Marcus Moore, who redshirted this year; and JC transfer guards Jerry McNair and Kendall Minor, who each have three years of eligibility left.

And Locklier will at least be a bigger presence inside than the Cougars have had in some time.

Graham is also still looking to sign another big man, with rumors that he is looking overseas.

It's a lot of new faces to work in, and it might take a year or two, but the future looks better than the immediate past.

The Coach

This was Graham's honeymoon season, and he took full advantage by going 1-17. He also got some bad publicity for the Pengelly and Whitehead situations and had a couple of late-game coaching gaffes in winnable home games against Oregon and Washington that made some scratch their heads.

Still, he looks like an able recruiter, which is the biggest battle that has to be fought in Pullman, and deserves every benefit of the doubt in what was his first year as a college head coach.

However, it's worth noting that Graham was hired by Rick Dickson, who has left the school to become the AD at Tulane. Dickson hired Graham -- a former assistant at Oklahoma State -- when no one in Pullman had heard of him and when many Cougar boosters were favoring other, more local, candidates. Graham might want to win a few more games next year.

Who'll be back

Adams and forward-center Miller return, as does Cedric Clark, who started at the point late in the year. Graham's son Nick, also a point guard, is also back for his sophomore year and forward Milton Riley, who showed some promise as a redshirt freshman.

Paul Mencke, a football player who walked on to help out when the numbers got thin, also has a year of eligibility left if he wants to use it.

Who's gone

WSU lost only two seniors other than Pengelly, forward Chris Crosby and guard Jan-Michael Thomas. Crosby was one of Eastman's better recruits, and had some great games from time to time, but was never consistent. Thomas was a good shooter, but at an even six feet, always struggled to get his shot off, and also had to handle the point some this year after Pengelly left, which further hampered his shooting.

Bush is expected to sit out the season working in the classroom and will try to return in 2001.

Key Newcomers

• G Tommy Johnson (6-5, 195): The Crenshaw High grad has generally been called one of the best players in the city of Los Angeles and is expected to make an immediate impact.
• G Marcus Moore (6-4, 180): Moore didn't become eligible until January and redshirted. He was apparently the best point guard on the team during practices and is the likely starter heading into next year.
• F Kendall Minor (6-4, 185): A transfer from the College of Southern Idaho, he is also expected to play immediately.
• F Jerry McNair (6-3, 180): McNair is a transfer from Fullerton College, and like Minor, has three years of eligibility left and is being counted on next year.
• C Jay Locklier (6-10, 232): Redshirted this year after transferring from Miami-Ohio, where he played sparingly as a freshman.
• G Mike Malloy (6-3, 190): A recruited walk-on, Malloy was a solid combo guard at University High in San Diego two years ago before redshirting at WSU this year.
• F Claude Doucet: A transfer from Lamar who redshirted this year, Doucet will be eligible to play next year.