Chase Jeter sidelined (again)

UA center Chase Jeter did not play Saturday against the Cougars after experiencing back tightness earlier in the day, team officials said.

Jeter’s presence has been minimal on the court during Pac-12 play anyway.

Jeter struggled to rebound in UA’s two losses at Oregon last month and didn’t play for the final 18 minutes on Jan. 9 against the Ducks, and upon returning to practice on Jan. 14 reported back pain.

He then missed UA’s next three games, even though he was cleared to play at ASU on Jan. 25 and played less than two minutes on Thursday at Washington.

Stone Gettings has since taken Jeter’s starting spot and additional minutes have filtered down to reserve Christian Koloko.

Wildcats at ‘home’

Because WSU opted to wear its crimson-colored road uniforms on Saturday as part of a red-out type promotion, the Wildcats pulled out their home whites.

Although the Cougars managed to attract an above-average crowd of about 5,000 fans, 11,671-seat Beasley Coliseum was not exactly bathing in red.

As it turned out, about a third of the Beasley crowd wore blue or some other non-school color — although there were plenty of empty red seats.

The state university

While the University of Washington introduced a court design featuring the Space Needle and other features of the Seattle skyline five years ago, WSU took a state-wide approach when it added a new design to the Beasley floor this season.

WSU's design features landmarks across the entire state that represent the school’s four in-state campuses — Seattle, Richland (Tri-Cities), Spokane and Pullman.

As such, it starts on one end with the silhouette of the 110-year-old Bryan Clock Tower on campus in Pullman, the Riverfront Park Clock Tower in Spokane, the Cable Bridge connecting two of the Tri-Cities (Pasco and Kennewick) and the Space Needle.

Only this Space Needle looks a little different than the one at U-Dub: It has a WSU flag flying off the top of it.

Autism awareness

Coaches wore a light blue puzzle piece pin Saturday as part of the NCAA’s Autism Awareness and Acceptance weekend.

The Autism Speaks organization started the idea in 2014 after college coaches Pat Skerry and Tom Herrion became inspired to add to autism awareness, each having sons with autism.

Back to homepage

Subscriber Login

Keep reading with a digital access subscription.

Subscribe now

Cheers, Cougs

Here’s one way to attract fans to Beasley: WSU added a new “Coug Den” beer garden in one side of the arena concourse.

For $6-$7, fans could select from Coors Light or Miller or Blue Moon, or go for craft IPAs such as the Citrus Mistress or the Stash & Mango of Oregon’s Hop Valley.

Palouse-style pride

Even before you get to the rows of crimson-coiored WSU flags lining Main Street and the Cougar etched in stone on a bridge passing over the Palouse River, there’s new evidence of Cougar pride unique to the wheat fields and hills of the Palouse.

On one hillside a few miles out of town, the words “Go Cougs” and a WSU flag logo were painted over the brown winter ground.

Easier commute home

Thanks to a $142.5 million renovation to Moscow-Pullman Regional Airport, the Wildcats had only a five-minute drive after the game to catch their charter flight home Saturday night.

Previously, the local airfield had a runway and taxiway that were only 200 feet apart, and only smaller jets such as Alaska’s Q-400 prop planes could land there while bigger charter flights required a 45-minute drive to Lewiston, Idaho, or a 90-minute drive to Spokane.

The Wildcats usually bused down from Spokane before WSU games and then flew out of Lewiston. But thanks to new option, UA was expected to return shortly after midnight, even with the one-hour time change and two-plus-hour flight.

Fraternity suspension over

Whether or not it affected the basketball crowd, WSU fraternity members had options Saturday.

For the first weekend since a WSU student was found to have died from acute alcohol poisoning in November, WSU’s fraternities were allowed to have social events that permit alcohol. The school’s Interfraternity Council extended a ban through Jan. 27.

The big number

12

Rebounds by UA center Stone Gettings, a season-high (his career high was 17 against Penn in 2017-18). He had 10 of those rebounds Saturday in the first half.

Check out more photos from Arizona's win here: