For all of those attached to Portland State basketball, the last six weeks have been quite a whirlwind. On Feb. 21, the Vikings—who were coming off a string of four consecutive road losses—took on Boise State in a nationally televised game at the Stott Center.
The team that commenced the 2008–09 season with the No. 1 ranking ended the season as the nation’s definitively best college basketball team. North Carolina defeated Michigan State, 89-72, in front of 72,292 at Ford Field in Detroit, Mich.
Four years ago, Ken Bone likely never imagined experiencing the success that he has as men’s basketball coach. Now, Bone has departed for the greener pastures of the Palouse and the latest head coaching position at Portland State has become open.
It almost seemed like a done deal. Ken Bone—men’s basketball coach of the Portland State Vikings, winners of the last two Big Sky Champions and boasters of the most talented roster in the conference—and his family may have already begun packing their belongings from their home in Vancouver for the six-hour drive to Pullman, Wash.
Mentioned as a candidate to fill the newly created coaching vacancy at Washington State was head basketball coach Ken Bone.
A Washington native, Bone was an assistant coach at the University of Washington before accepting the head-coaching position at Portland State.
Just three weeks ago, 65 teams held national championship aspirations. Now after two weekends of intense basketball, only four teams remain.
North Carolina, Villanova, Michigan State and Connecticut all punched their tickets to the Final Four over the weekend and each will head into Saturday’s quarterfinal matchups brimming with confidence.
The remnants of a once-dominant program are all but gone.
A few wrestlers dressed in ripped sweats and faded shirts remain in the dark and gloomy wrestling room in the northeast corner of the Stott Center.
Some stretch out and work on technique off to the side while others spar playfully while somehow putting the painful reality of their own vanquished dreams out of their mind.
This is all that remains of a once-proud program that boasts national champions and Olympians, a powerful alumni group and what was once the most dominant collegiate wrestling team in the Northwest.
Amidst the excitement of the last few days for Portland State fans–a postseason appearance for men’s and women’s basketball and an announced renovation to PGE Park– the Portland State Athletic Department announced Wednesday that the wrestling program would be discontinued, a decision that is effective immediately.
In a game that not a soul was bold enough to predict, Montana State defeated Weber State in the Big Sky Tournament Semifinals, 70-61. The win advances Montana State, an unlikely participant, to the Big Sky Championship where they will face the No. 2 seeded Portland State in the championship game tomorrow evening.
Playing in their final tournament of the preseason, the softball team dropped three of five at the Cal State Northridge Worth Invitational.