The Cougars take on the Huskies tonight in the 300th edition of the Apple Cup in Seattle.
WSU (9-2) goes into the game riding a three-game winning streak, including a road win over Nevada and a neutral win over Boise State, both currently considered Quad 1 wins.
Washington (7-3) is coming off a win over Eastern WA, after a tough loss at the Southern California last week.
Eastern WA and Nevada are the only two common opponents the teams have faced this season. WSU beat both, with an 11-point win over Nevada and a 15-point win over Eastern WA. Washington lost to Nevada by ten points, but beat Eastern WA by 18.
All-time, WSU is 111-185 against the Huskies. However, things have turned in the Cougs favor recently. Since 2020, Wazzu is 7-3 against UW. Last year, the Cougs and Huskies split the series, with both school’s winning on the road. This year, they meet only once and the future of the game could be in jeopardy,
New Washington head coach Danny Sprinkle’s indicated the Apple Cup might not be important to him when scheduling future seasons.
“To be truthful, it’s a rivalry, but it wasn’t that important to me to keep it on the schedule,” Sprinkle said, who was himself born in Pullman. “It’s important to a lot of other people.”
The women’s basketball teams at WSU and UW are not meeting this year for the first time in decades and it is possible, with the schools no longer in the same conference, the Apple Cup may not be an annual affair for much longer.
The Cougars seem to hold the game with more weight, despite being a team of mostly newcomers.
“It’s gonna be a heck of a game,” said WSU head coach David Riley. “I know the passion we’ve got for that Apple Cup game. It’s what makes college basketball great, is these rivalries.”
Members of the team expressed similar levels of excitement for the game.
“It’s obviously a big occasion and we know how much it means for the university to get that win, so yeah we’ll be ready for it,” Ethan Price said.
Dane Erikstrup said the Cougs needed to stay calm and not get too high or too low, but was confident they could get the job done.
“We just gotta stay consistent,” he said. “We’re gonna go there, give it our best and beat the Huskies.”
Despite being ranked over 30 spots ahead of the Huskies in both KenPom (WSU – No. 72, UW No. 103) and NET rankings (WSU – No. 69, UW No. 116), the Cougs are underdogs going into the game. Washington open as 2.5-point favorites at home according to ESPNBet and are given a 53.7% chance to win. The Cougs have a 46.3% chance at victory, according to the ESPN matchup predictor.
