WSU Makes Athlon’s Cover After all

Greetings Cougs, and a happy Monday to all of you.  Yours truly has just returned from a weekend of camping with a bunch of cub scouts, so let’s just say I’m just running a little low on energy this morning.  But we’ll try and get through it together.

So, last week I posted that Athlon’s had once again “dissed” WSU by not giving the Cougs a presence on the regional cover.  This was looking like the third year in a row that WSU didn’t make the cover, when WSU’s own Dwight Tardy made the 2009 Pac-10 edition.  But I was quickly corrected by Steven Lassan from Athlon’s, who pointed out that this year’s cover did in fact include a WSU figure – Mike Leach – but we just couldn’t see it in the online version of the cover.  Steven then sent us the updated cover, and sure enough, Leach is now there at the top-right of the cover.  Note that they have now updated the online version to include Leach’s mug as well:

While it’s not a player-in-action pic, still, it’s better than getting shut out.  And when WSU did last have a player on the cover, they actually went with four players, so it would be nice if they could have found a way to put Marquess Wilson, Jeff Tuel or Travis Long on there, somewhere.

But even if it is just Leach on the top-right, we’ll take it!

And even better, Steven points out that they have the Cougs rated #51 this year in the preseason, and even goes as far as to say that an eight-win season isn’t out of the question!  Thanks again to Steven for the clarification, and I definitely look forward to getting my hands on this year’s edition of the Pac-12 preview.

There’s a new pic of Martin Stadium, this time taken from the student section point-of-view:

Thanks to Pullman Football Rentals for the shot.  Can’t wait to see the finished product and when all the WSU colors, signage, etc, starts to show up, but another great look at the progress of the new addition.

Finally, I know some/many of you still loathe the NBA and have stopped paying attention since the Sonics were ripped from Seattle.  But with OKC making the Finals with Lebron vs. Durant, are you going to watch?

I have to admit that as a big fan of the green-n-gold, as a guy who enjoyed the amazing ride of the Sonics in the 90’s, it is VERY HARD TO WATCH OKC DO WHAT THEY ARE DOING RIGHT NOW.  They are a fabulous team to see running up and down the floor, and hard as it is, I will be watching.  Granted I’ll be pulling for Lebron and D-Wade – HUGE – in the Finals, because the very thought of Clay Bennett hoisting the NBA trophy is just too much to comprehend right now.  And this article does a great job of spelling out the reasons why we should all be rooting for Miami.  But even with my Sonics-NBA heart still broken, I will find a way to check this thing out.  GO HEAT!

All for now.  GO COUGS!