Ken Bone fired by Washington State
Bone failed to reach the NCAA Tournament with the Cougars and won just 10 games this year.
Ethan Miller
Washington State has fired head coach Ken Bone after five disappointing seasons in Pullman.
Washington State has fired Ken Bone, sources told ESPN. Story coming.
— Jeff Goodman (@GoodmanESPN) March 18, 2014 Bone, 55, came to Washington State in 2009 after reaching back-to-back NCAA Tournaments as the head coach at Portland State. Things did not go as smoothly for Bone in Pullman as he led the program to a 80-86 record. Washington State never made the NCAA Tournament under him and only reached the NIT once.
The Cougs finished the 2013-14 season with a 10-21 record, including a 3-15 mark against the Pac-12. As our Washington State blog, Coug Center, notes, the fan base had completely lost faith in Bone:
Interest in the program has sagged to back down to the depths not seen since Dick Bennett took over 11 years ago. Just 5,200 people -- total -- showed up for WSU’s final two home games, including the Senior Day victory over UCLA. The average attendance of 2,800 this season was a drop of roughly 2,000 per game from last season and the lowest since the Cougars averaged just under 2,300 in 2001-02.
As WSU’s second-most-visible program, the plethora of empty seats on TV had become an embarrassment.
Coug Center also took a list at the likely candidates to be the next head coach at Washington State. Could someone like Ernie Kent return to the Pacific Northwest after spending years down the road at Oregon? Leon Rice of Boise State and Wayne Tinkle of Montana also seem like strong interview candidates.
See More:
