Cougar Calls; WSU Athletics are currently on the rise

With only two losses out of their first nine games this season, the WSU women’s basketball team is out to prove that they’re on their way to an NCAA tournament bid this season.

Coming off a win from UC Santa Barbara, WSU Women’s Basketball senior guard Tia Presley was guest on Cougars Calls on Monday and commented on the program’s evolution since becoming a Cougar in 2011.

“I just think everyone’s out here wanting to win a little bit more than when I first got here,” Presley said. “We were just content with how our season was going the first couple years and then we finally realized how much talent and potential our team actually had.”

During Presley’s freshman year, the team lost thirteen out of eighteen conference games.

“I think something just clicked and everyone started working a bit harder, the expectations became higher, and we just started doing a lot better,” Presley said.

The team’s next game will be against Gonzaga on Tuesday in Presley’s hometown of Spokane, where she graduated from Gonzaga Prep.

“This is the last time I’ll be playing in Spokane, this is the last time I’ll be playing against the Zags,” Presley said. “It’s been a fun rivalry since I’ve been in college, so it’s exciting.”

The WSU Women’s Basketball team has also been receiving national recognition lately and with a couple more wins, the Cougars can soon be in the top-25.

“I feel like we’ve put in so much work the past couple years and other people are starting to notice,” Presley said. “We’re really excited and hopefully, we can keep playing well and keep receiving votes and who knows what will happen after that.”

Preparing for the Gonzaga game, the Cougars will play in McCarthey Athletic Center with a large-scale rivalry atmosphere, something the freshmen have never experienced before.

“Everyone’s really anxious and just can’t wait to get the show on the road with them,” Presley said. “It gets a little crazy up there and their fans are loud, so you just try and give them (freshman players) warnings and know that it’s not going to be like any other arena that you’ve played in.”

As far as this past Saturday’s bowl game selections, Cougar Athletic Fund (CAF) Director of Spokane Operations, Devon Thomas, a guest on Cougar Calls, has his eyes set on a Cougar bowl game next season.

If WSU football was to go to a bowl game next year, fans may be looking at attending the Fiesta Bowl instead of the Rose Bowl, due to rotations.

Attending out-of-state bowl games can become costly; one premium ticket to this year’s Fiesta Bowl can set someone back $300. Thomas was nothing but confident when asked if the Cougar fan base would be willing to invest in this type of event.

“I think everyone is going to do what they’ve got to do,” Thomas said. “There is going to be caravans from all over Washington, going wherever it needs to go. I have seen that kind of passion in Coug fans.”

CAF Assistant Athletic Director of Annual Giving, Uri Farkas, also stopped by Cougar Calls to analyze the potential of a bowl game next year.

“We are actively trying to grow the organization,” Farkas said. “We’re hovering right now with about 6,000 members. While we’re proud of that, we need to get that number a bit higher.”

The CAF is currently in the bottom-third of the PAC-12. In the case that the Cougars become eligible for a championship game next year, it can become difficult to compete for games with the donor base that low, Farkas said.