Cougars defeat Huskies with the point spread, 77.5-72

I’ll give Ernie Kent credit for one thing, his team often plays just well enough to almost beat Washington some of the time. The same still can’t be said for, well, nevermind. In the end, though, the Washington State Cougars still were not good enough to beat the “one-eyed man in the land of the blind” Washington Huskies on Saturday, surrendering a nine-point halftime lead enroute to a 72-70 loss.

I don’t have a lot of time for a recap, and I am pretty sure Jeff will provide a much better synopsis than I could, anyway. In all honesty, I still haven’t seen a second of WSU Basketball this season, and my care factor fell down the well so long ago that not even Lassie could rescue it. Still, I was really hoping WSU could figure out a way to beat Washington. Hope is, as always, a dangerous thing.

Seeing as how WSU was going for its third straight Pac-12 win Saturday, I was curious about how long it had been since they’d done that previously. To my amazement, it actually happened under Ernie Kent! In Kent’s first season, after a non-conference slate that included blowout losses to the likes of TCU and UC-Santa Barbara, WSU actually stood at 3-1 in the Pac-12 after consecutive wins over Cal, Washington and Oregon. Order was quickly restored in the form of a four-game losing streak, and thus ended the high point in the Ernie Kent regime.

While looking that up, I realized I’d totally forgotten that WSU lost 17 straight games to end the next season, and Bill Moos extended Ernie Kent’s contract anyway. One fun fact from this game - one of the officials was Bill Vinovich. You might remember Mr. Vinovich as the head official for Super Bowl 49 or, more likely, for the 2019 NFC Championship game.

But let’s not leave on that note. Instead, I’ll try and give you a bit of a chuckle to start your Sunday.

Beasley Coliseum’s basketball capacity is listed at 11,671 (which is about 3,000 too much, but that’s neither here nor there). Saturday’s announced attendance was,

/checks notes

4,233

That’s roughly 36% of the stated capacity. Then again, I’m a History major and I was never good at math, so maybe 36% is nearly a full house. So anyway fire Ernie Kent, and Go Cougs.

Basketball

Once again for everyone, momentum in sports isn’t really a thing, especially when neither team has played in a week.

Late miscues cost Washington State in near upset of first-place Washington | The Spokesman-Review
For nearly 30 minutes Saturday night, it looked and felt like the momentum Washington State stumbled on in two major road victories might carry the Cougars to a third win at home.

Football

Ranking the Pac-12's Football Rosters for 2019
Utah and Washington State must continue to buck trends heading into 2019 still ranked on the lower half of the conference's star ratings.

Washington State Recruiting 2019 Final Thoughts: No Big Deal, But …
If it’s not the worst class in the Pac-12, it’s a close second ahead of Oregon State’s, however …

This Week in Parenting

Not much material, since I was away from home for most of the week. You’re welcome. I got home Thursday evening, and we headed out for Portugal on Friday. We toured Sintra and Lisbon on Saturday, part of which was having to fight our way past these fearsome guards at the Palace of Pena.

Later in the day, as we were headed back to our hotel, the tour guide said, “On the way back, I will drive you by Madonna’s house.” (apparently she lives here part of the year)

Roughly one millisecond later, in unison, the boys said, “Who?” Now, I’ve never been a big Madonna fan, but that cut Mrs. Kendall and me pretty deep. Slap another brick onto the “getting old sucks” wall.

Beer

Best beer I had this week: I don’t know about my fellow beer nerds, but any time I walk in to a beer store, I have real trouble walking out with empty hands. If it were a big Total Wine-like store, it would be easy. But when I’m the only person in the place, and the place is tiny, I feel guilty if I don’t get something. Well, since I went to three beer stores in Brunssum, The Netherlands and one Liège, Belgium this week, guilt + lots of enticing selections led to this:

The sad part? That wasn’t even all of it! Why did I go to so many beer stores spanning two countries? Well, mostly because a buddy wanted a certain beer, so I traversed several kilometers in search of it. And even though I came up empty, I’d be lying if I said I didn’t enjoy the search. Oh yeah, and I also found a bottle of Cuvée De Clarisse Wild Weasel Whisky Infused Batch 2. It was outstanding.

Beer-brewing Trappist monks put faith in plants to reduce water waste | World news | The Guardian
Koningshoeven abbey is one of only 13 places in the world to brew Trappist beer, and its products have won over drinkers around the world.

Non-Sports

How a Tennessee clinic swindled the military for $65M | Investigation
In Tennessee, two doctors and a nurse practitioner have pleaded guilty to defrauding a military insurance program, called Tricare, out of $65 million.