TERRY MOSHER
TOP OF THE TOWN – Washington State is loading up its basketball program. Good for the Cougars. It was announced just today (June 7) that Mouhamed Gueye, a 6-11 sophomore, who declared for the NBA draft and then backed out but stayed in the transfer portal has decided to return to WSU. He was joined today on the Cougar roster by Justin Powell, a 6-6 guard who transferred from Tennessee. Head coach Kyle Smith now has 12 players who are 6-foot-5 or taller. Five of them are international players as Smith is showing he’s adapt at mining players from overseas. The Cougars are priming themselves for a run at the Pac-12 championship. They have not had a losing season since Smith was hired three seasons ago, and last year the Cougars made it to the semifinals of the NIT while compiling a 22-win record. While Smith has the Cougars cooking, their cross-state rival Washington is finding it difficult to stay afloat and continues to turn over its roster while stumbling through conference seasons under coach Mike Hopkins. The Huskies made a remarkable recovery last season to a 17-15 record with a revised roster. Another remade roster has happen again this off-season and it’s anybody’s guess if the Huskies can make another remarkable recovery. In the meantime, rumors have already started Quinn Snyder, the former high school star at Mercer Island, who has had a remarkable career in the coaching world, may be lined up to take over the Husky program should Hopkins’ stumble through the 202-23 season. Snyder just resigned his coaching position with the Utah Jazz after eight seasons in which he took the team to the playoffs six times…. I have read a few social posts comparing Draymond Green with Bad Boy Dennis Rodman. That’s not really a fair comparison. Green is not a weird lifestyle guy like Rodman, who detailed a suicide attempt he made and then decided to kill that imposter by coloring his hair any color that came to him, wearing a nose ring, getting tattoos over much of his body and generally killing off the old Dennis. He once kicked a sideline photographer in the groin for no reason at all, head butted a referee, and married himself. Those are just starters on Rodman’s weird plate. Green is not as colorful. He is just one of the top trash talkers in the NBA and doesn’t mind getting physical with opponents. But he has not married himself. He does things on the court to rile up opponents and get this teammates juiced up. Opponents may hate him, but if Green can get them distracted he has won the battle. He got the Celtics all bent out of shape in Game 2 Sunday, and the Warriors blew them off the court with a second-half blitz. So hate Green at your own risk. Watch Game 3 Wednesday (June 8) and you will see crazed Celtic fans raining hate down on Green. Green will eat that up. It will fire him up. He will beg them for more. And he will destroy the will of the Celtics if he is allowed to get in their heads. That is why Green is on the court, to disrupt and discourage. Of course, he’s a pretty good basketball players, too. So this should be interesting Wednesday as the two teams square off in Boston for Game 3. That’s enough for today. Stay safe.
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