College Basketball: Digital Pac-10 Preview, #6 Washington State

Welcome back to our journey through the Pac-10, from a digital point of view.

The internet has leveled the playing field. All schools have an equal opportunity for their coaches and teams to share what it means to be a part of the program. To get you fired up. And to connect with other fans. There is no window of time that coaches can't connect to prospective players (or their families) online. And it's even better, since the control is fully in the hands of the prospective athlete. They reach out to connect whenever they want (or don't want).

So far our journey through the conference has shown us #10 USC , #9 Arizona State, and #8 Arizona, and #7 Oregon State. Let's keep moving...

#6 Washington State

The Digital Scouting Report

Strengths: Good pieces in place - a recruits tab, basketball blog, and athletics department photo gallery and twitter feed.

Weaknesses: Limited depth and excitement once you hit the basketball page. (Which many people might do quickly!). Not much photography or video content.

Full Scouting Report:
Clicking into the WSU athletics site, here, and you'll see quite a jump in an overall level of communication. First, you'll notice the bold recruits tab in the middle of the top navigation. Let's dive in.



The content here seems ok, though nothing really tailored for a basketball player... and nothing that is an opportunity to follow the program when you leave this site (Facebook or Twitter anyone?)



Here's the welcome, from the AD. You'll see an image of a packed football stadium (wonder if that's recent?) Anyway I know this is a general message from the program as a whole... but something makes me wish this was hoops-specific.



I also clicked on notable alumni. This is another opportunity for a program to let you know what they stand for -- tell the stories of success. Help recruits envision who they could become... This is a random list of names, missing the story of each person. I don't mind the list. Just give me a story about who they are, and how they experienced WSU.



Here's the Multimedia tab. (Here's the Twitter and Facebook reference!) I'll dive into many of the connection points next.



Clicking on the Cougars on Twitter and Facebook callout gives you this directory -- which is pretty easy to then navigate as you want. Naturally I was hoping for a men's basketball Twitter callout but didn't see one here.



Diving into the Cougars Athletic DepartmentTwitter site here, with just over 1,100 followers. The site is pretty updated, but also pretty random in who they follow (just as we covered with Arizona State). I'd much prefer to see a list of other sites that reflect coverage of WSU athletics or key alumni.



Next, clicking into Cougars Blogs. As you can see the next page is pretty random -- there doesn't seem to be a hierarchy of communication. Which sport is the most important? Are soccer and golf more important than Hoops or Football here?



I'll skip over the other blogs and dive into the hoops blog myself. As you can see, it's fairly regularly updated by the Media Relations department. Cool. I just hope they bring in more of a connection to the staff and players during the season...



Finally, I'll dive into Cougar Chats.... and am not really sure what I see. Is this a WSU chat or a Dodge chat? (The Dodge logo is MUCH more prominent). The information seems good, just needs to be a little less (ok, a lot less) sponsorship feeling.



OK, it's time to leave the home page and dive into the Basketball page. I had big hopes. To me, WSU is a program that wants to be different. They have had a pretty good run the past few years and had a young coach (who's now at Virginia) and a new coach in Ken Bone who comes from a mid-major. I was ready for a powerful experience!

You'll notice a pretty prominent callout on the right for the basketball blog and then blogs again beneath the main picture window. Cool.

Looking around the site though there really aren't any other ways to follow the team. No Hoops Twitter and no Hoops Video/Audio content. I'm hoping this changes in a hurry.


In sum, WSU has a pretty solid experience. I'd love to see a bit more from the coaching staff, perhaps a bit more of a connection on the current squad. (and some energy - videos and photography could really help) But overall the experience is pretty good.

Check back tomorrow as we continue our roll through the Pac-10 with #5...

Andy