The Washington State women’s basketball team is likely headed to it’s second consecutive NCAA Tournament — for the first time in the program’s history — on the heels of its most overall and conference wins of the NCAA era. On Wednesday March 2nd, the Pac-12 announced that its media members awarded WSU’s head coach with their Coach of the Year honors.

Which was honestly fortuitous timing for us here at Sports with Neil and friends headquarters. I had sat down with Coach Ethridge on Tuesday March 1st to discuss her squads historic season and the upcoming Pac-12 Tournament in Las Vegas, Nev.

While the Conference’s Coach of the Year award went to Stanford head coach Tara VanDerveer, Washington State center Bella Murekatete did earn a Co-Most Improved Player award from the Pac-12. Jordyn Jenkins was her co-improved player according to the conference; the media voted Jenkins as the Pac-12’s most improved women’s basketball player outright. Murekatete is invaluable as a rebounder, there was an uptick in her rebounds per game from the previous season (6.7 to 7.3), but where she took a significant stride this season was with offensive production. The junior jumped from 8.5 points per game to 10.3 and helped create many opportunities for the Cougs off of second-chance boards as a result.

Shortly before I sat down to interview Ethridge on Tuesday, Major League Baseball officially announced the cancelation of its first week of games. And you better believe that Victor and I have strong opinions about that.

The time stamps for our segments are as follows:

• Introduction/Poison of choice (0:00 – 2:17)
• Our interview with Coach Ethridge and reflections (2:18 – 20:12)
• We discuss how WSU men’s basketball faired against Washington and Oregon State (20:13 – 39:15)
• MLB’s lockout is dumb and the owners fault (39:16 – 62:03)
• We take a quick look at some Kraken trade rumors (62:04 – 70:38)
• Are we taking about Sounders FC? (70:39 – 78:38)
• Only the hawtest of taeks/conclusion (78:38 – 87:58)

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Photo Credit: Washington State athletic communications.