Washington State basketball’s 'Moneyball' moment

The setting was a November home basketball game for the Washington State Cougars in Pullman, Washington. Warm-ups were over, the Stars and Stripes had been formally acknowledged, and starters had been introduced. My teenage son and I took our seats along the sideline, feet happily on the hardwood of Washington State’s Friel Court. Settling in, we looked around the cavernous rafters of Beasley Coliseum. “It’s so … empty,” my son said. The 12,000-seat, 50-year-old arena was not just mostly empty; it felt like abandoned infrastructure from a previous civilization —...