Northwest Notes Feb. 24, 2021

West Coast Conference men’s and women’s basketball tournaments will be held without spectators

SAN MATEO, Calif. — The West Coast Conference men's and women's basketball tournaments in Las Vegas in March will be held without spectators due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the conference office announced.

With the health and safety of everyone connected to the conference as the guiding principle in all decisions, the conference consulted with leadership at member institutions, the Orleans Arena and medical personnel in the city of Las Vegas before arriving at this decision.

“This is certainly a difficult decision, but it is the responsible decision for the WCC,” West Coast Conference Commissioner Gloria Nevarez said. “The WCC Tournament has been sold out ever since the event was moved to Las Vegas 13 years ago and we value the passionate fan bases and the ability of friends and families of our student-athletes to support their teams each year. Unfortunately, we are in unprecedented times and we must take unprecedented measures.

“The guiding principle in everything we discuss is the health and safety of our participants,” Nevarez added. “Limiting the number of people inside the Orleans Arena that are not subject to our testing and safety protocols helps provide the safest environment to conduct our tournament. While Clark County has provided the opportunity to have a limited number of spectators for our event, we made this decision to allow us to be in the best position to protect our student-athletes, staff and everyone at our event.”

The tourneys are scheduled for March 4-9 at the Orleans Arena in Las Vegas. All 18 games will be nationally televised, with specific television information provided at a later date. The men’s and women’s tournament brackets will be announced this Sunday, following the conclusion of regular-season competition.

Little named Indians manager for 2021 season

The Colorado Rockies have announced the 2021 field staff for the Spokane Indians in the inaugural year of their PDL license partnership.

Former Boise Hawks and Lancaster JetHawks manager Scott Little has been named Indians manager for the upcoming season. Little will be joined by development supervisor Pedro Lopez, pitching coach Ryan Kibler, hitting coach Zach Osborne, and athletic trainer Kelsey Branstetter.

Little has been in the Colorado Rockies organization since 2016 and started his coaching career in 1992 with the Pittsburgh Pirates organization. Little is familiar with Avista Stadium and the former Northwest League, serving three seasons with the Boise Hawks (2016-18), including two as manager. He has recent experience managing at the High-A level, serving as skipper for the Lancaster JetHawks in 2019. He was slated to manage Lancaster again for the 2020 season.

Prior to joining the Rockies organization, Little was an amateur scout for the Los Angeles Dodgers for seven years (2009-15). In his career, the former Missouri Tiger has also worked in roles including outfield coordinator, major and minor league field coordinator, and manager in the Pittsburgh Pirates (1992-2001), Los Angeles Dodgers (2002-05), Washington Nationals (2006-07) and Texas Rangers (2008) organizations.

WSU's Williams adds national honors after career weekend

Following a historic weekend at Beasley Coliseum, Washington State sophomore Noah Williams added a pair of national honors to his trophy shelf after being named the NCAA March Madness and the U.S. Basketball Writers Association's (USBWA) Oscar Robertson National Player of the Week.

The weekly awards came alongside of the sophomore's first career Pac-12 Player of the Week award after leading the Cougars to a weekend sweep of the Bay Area schools behind a record-setting scoring performance on the court.

Williams scored a combined 72 points in wins over California and Stanford, the most by a Coug over a weekend series surpassing Bennie Seltzer's record of 68 set in 1993. He scored 40 points in a triple-overtime win over Stanford.

WSU men add final regular season game at ASU

The Pac-12 Conference office announced a final addition to the Washington State men's basketball schedule as the Cougars will face off against Arizona State on Monday, March 1 at Tempe. The game is scheduled for a noon PST tip on the Pac-12 Network.

The game, previously scheduled for Dec. 31 at Pullman, was originally postponed due to COVID-19 protocol within the ASU program. The Cougars, who will already be in Tempe for their regularly scheduled contest Saturday, will remain in Tempe to make up the lost game from earlier in the season. With the contest, the Cougars will have completed every regular-season contest that was scheduled at the beginning of the season.

Prior to the two games with ASU, WSU plays at Arizona on Thursday.