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Cougars Basketball Schedule
Next 5 Games
| @ Stanford | Thu 02/11 | 7:00 PM PST |
@
California
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Sat 02/13 | 1:00 PM PST |
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UCLA
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Thu 02/18 | 5:30 PM PST |
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USC
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Sat 02/20 | 2:00 PM PST |
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Washington
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Sat 02/27 | 7:00 PM PST |
Last 5 Games
|
Arizona
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Sat 02/06 | W 78 - 60 |
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Arizona St.
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Thu 02/04 | L 70 - 81 |
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@
Washington
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Sat 01/30 | L 64 - 92 |
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@
UCLA
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Sat 01/23 | L 62 - 74 |
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@
USC
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Thu 01/21 | W 67 - 60 |
Pacific-10 Conference Standings
(updated 2.6.2010 at 11:21 PM PST)
| Conf | Overall | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| W | L | W | L | |
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California Golden Bears
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7 | 4 | 15 | 8 |
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Washington Huskies
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6 | 5 | 16 | 7 |
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Arizona St. Sun Devils
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6 | 5 | 16 | 8 |
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USC Trojans
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6 | 5 | 14 | 9 |
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Arizona Wildcats
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6 | 5 | 12 | 11 |
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UCLA Bruins
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6 | 5 | 11 | 12 |
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Washington St. Cougars
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5 | 6 | 15 | 8 |
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Oregon Ducks
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4 | 6 | 12 | 10 |
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Oregon St. Beavers
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4 | 6 | 10 | 12 |
| Stanford Cardinal | 4 | 7 | 10 | 13 |
Taylor Rochestie will blitzkrieg your dreipunktewettbewerb
by Grady. on Feb 8, 2010 9:20 PM PST
in Cougar Basketball
8 comments
Three-point contest, in German - in case you were wondering.
Sorry, ponytail man - better luck next year. In 2010, it's Taylor that gets the glory and a well-deserved hug from a man in a dragon suit.
8 comments | 0 recs |
How does the Pac-12 sound to you?
by Nuss on Feb 8, 2010 7:17 PM PST
in The Pac-10
27 comments
Intrepid San Jose Mercury News reporter Jon Wilner -- who's been a guest on both the CougCenter Podcast and on 18 And Life -- caught up with Pac-10 commissioner Larry Scott today, and he had some interesting comments that I think Pac-10 fans really ought to pay attention to.
The conference hired Kevin Weiberg as its chief operating officer (translated: second in command) today, and here's what he had to say to Wilner about it:
"He has a very diverse and successful track record. In particular, in his experience as the Big 12 commissioner and an executive with the Big Ten Network, he has dealt with some of the most complicated issues — from expansion to TV networks to media rights in general."
Whoa, whoa, whoa ... expansion?
"We’re looking at it very seriously. It wasn’t something identified for me by the presidents when I took the job. But it’s very natural as you look at the value of the conference from a media standpoint. If we were ever going to look at expansion, this would be the logical time."
There are a lot of reasons why the conference would look at expansion right now, but there are really two overrideing factors:
- Adding two more teams would give the conference added leverage as it attempts to negotiate better television contracts (the current deals expire at the end of 2011-12).
- With the Big Ten actively seeking to expand, the domino effect and upheaval that comes from them raiding another conference would probably make it more likely for a school to leave its current conference affiliation for the Pac-10.
I don't know enough about the ins and outs of any potential 12-team revenue structure to know just how much it would add to the conference. But I'm smart enough to know that the conference would have to exponentially increase its total revenue to make adding two more schools worth it, since dividing the pool by 12 makes the shares smaller than if dividing by 10. (Like I said -- smrt!)
Count me among those fundamentally opposed to expansion, mostly for this reason: The only benefit gained by adding two more schools to the conference is to increase football revenue. I understand football drives the money-making bus in the world of college athletics, through both television contracts and bowl games, but such a move does nothing to enhance the conference in any other meaningful way. Without getting into the long, drawn-out, self-righteous, moralistic reasons for my opposition, I'll just leave it at this: It would undeniably detract from just about everything I love about the set-up of our conference, both in football and in every other sport.
Essentially, you'd be selling your soul to appease a football system that might not be around in 10 years, anyway. And I think that's pretty dumb, especially when I'm not convinced that adding two teams is going to increase the value of the product enough to offset the loss of what makes the Pac-10 unique.
I'd like to hope that there would be another way to significantly increase conference revenue without going this route. However, I fear it's inevitable. Time marches on, and sentimentality won't stand in the way of money.
Just ask the NCAA and its 96-team basketball tournament.
27 comments | 0 recs |
PAC-10 WEEKEND WRAP: Take this conference ... please!
by Nuss on Feb 8, 2010 3:00 PM PST
in The Pac-10
10 comments
This conference is officially a cluster. I'll just leave it at that. Here are the standings:
Seriously, we all keep waiting for a couple of teams to separate themselves, and it looked like Cal and Arizona might be those teams. Then they go 1-3 combined last weekend. Whatever. Because of this, our SBNation bracketologist still has only one Pac-10 team in the field. Same with Bracketology 101 (which is way better than Lunardi, whom we are choosing to ignore). We keep thinking the conference might look better in the end, but it's running out of time.
Not a tremendous amount of change in the rankings. Just a reminder that these are power rankings, meaning that I would expect any team ranked above another to beat that team right now on a neutral floor.
10 comments | 0 recs |
Drew Brees: He coulda been a Coug
Count me among those who had no idea. My gosh ... something could have saved us from Steve Birnbaum and Paul Mencke. Sigh.
about 15 hours ago
Nuss
9 comments
0 recs
Super Bowl XLIV GameThread
by Grady. on Feb 7, 2010 2:30 PM PST
in Miscellaneous Blog Stuff
23 comments
A special Super Bowl gamethread for you, the heroes of Coug Nation.
As well as a special video that has no relation to the Super Bowl or football, but I felt like posting it anyway:
23 comments | 0 recs |
Washington State 78, Arizona 60
by Grady. on Feb 7, 2010 9:50 AM PST
in Cougar Basketball
23 comments
Very happy charts for your Sunday morning:
Finally, WSU puts together a full forty minutes.
The Cougs are a very good offensive team when they do two things: shoot the ball well and rebound. Last night, for the first time in what feels like ages, they flat out dominated an opponent on the boards. That wasn't so surprising on the defensive end, where the Wildcats struggle to get second chance opportunities. It was surprising, however, that the Cougs so thoroughly dominated U of A on the offensive glass. ASU is a solid, if not spectacular, team at pulling down defensive rebounds. A lot of that is due to Derrick Williams and Jamelle Horne, whose combined impact just wasn't that strong in this game. Horne finished with only two total rebounds in 24 minutes.
The real story, of course - after Nuss and I spent the last two days picking it apart - is the team defense. This was as great a Cougar defensive effort as we've seen this season, and it came at a time we desperately needed it. While we're not big fans of the 2-3 zone, the important thing is that WSU committed to it and closed out on open shooters. Regardless of playing man-to-man or zone last night, WSU pressured the ball and kept ASU from attacking the basket and drawing fouls. Nic Wise had virtually no impact on this game, which is nothing short of spectacular. If you had bet me $10,000 on Friday that Nic Wise and Brock Motum would finish with the same point total in this game, I would've taken it in a blink of an eye, and then laughed at you for giving your money away.
So let's talk about Motum, and the bigs - which came up huge in this game for the Cougs. Motum and BigBabyBjorn (I'm trying to get that nickname to catch on) played significant minutes in the first half, and Motum did the same again in the second. Coach Bone said after the game that Abe Lodwick was feeling "under the weather", which is why he ended up with a DNP. The result was a coaching move out of semi-desperation that not only worked, but worked well. Motum and Bjornstad not only held their own; they made an impact. Bjornstad registered a block, and Motum (in 17 minutes!) went 4 of 6, scored 10, grabbed and offensive board, dished an assist and most importantly never turned it over. The strides Motum have made in practice must be substantial - he's always been able to hit jumpers, but last night he was able to score inside off passes from the guards. He even got to the foul line. Again, that magical big man we need isn't walking through the door, but the potential of Motum developing into it is extremely exciting.
I'd be completely out of my mind, though, to downplay DeAngelo Casto's performance in this game. 19 and 9 with 3 blocks no 8 of 13 shooting. Just ridiculous. Part of me wonders if Arizona is just soft in the middle, but I think they're not so much soft as they are young. Natyazhko, Williams, Parrom and Hill are all freshmen. For obvious reasons we match up well against that. D is the secret motor behind this team. Klay and Reggie can be penciled in for 10+ points on any given night, but when Casto is on fire than this team is very hard to stop. Not to mention his obvious contributions on defense. In fact, after picking up a quick first foul, Casto played good defense the remainder of the game without fouling (often). Which is pretty refreshing.
No discussion of the bigs would be complete without mentioning Watson's silky smooth jumper (probably why Bennett liked him so much) and 3 rebounds in only 6 minutes, and Koprivica (who isn't really a big) snatching 5 boards in 20 minutes. In fact all the guards rebounded well - Reggie with 6, Klay with 3, Capers with 2.
One more thing before the awards: I was surprised that down the stretch, when Ken Bone knew defense would be the difference between a blown lead and a victory, we stayed in the zone. Not only that, Marcus Capers was on the bench and Xavier Thames was out on the floor. We all know Capers is a solid defender, so I have to believe the reason for this lies in the idea that Thames is a better fit for the zone defense. Interesting. I certainly enjoyed the results, given with how well we closed this game and forced Arizona to burn clock and take jumpers inside the arc.
Player of the Game: DeAngelo Casto. Again, 19 points on 8/13 shooting, 9 rebounds, 3 blocks, only one turnover. Something about Arizona brings out the best in D.
Unsung Hero: Brock Motum. I'm so happy I can give this award out to Motum, and I'm shocked and excited it was in a Pac-10 game. That we won. 10 points on 4/6 shooting, a board, an assist, and no turnovers. He's suddenly making the AIS to NCAA transition look a lot easier than it should.
It was over when... Reggie's three-point play off the steal put the Cougs up 18 with 1:45 to play. It might've been over before that, but I've learned not to take anything for granted in Pullman.
Play of the Game: Tie tonight. First, Motum's dunk in the first half off a beautiful assist from Klay Thompson. Second, Nik's three to put the Cougs up 11 with 4:18 to play. Hard to believe it was a six point game with just over 5 to play.
Stat of the Game: The 32-23 rebounding advantage for WSU. If you're into advanced stats, the Wildcats had a stretch of 8 straight games with over 100.0 offensive efficiency prior to traveling to Washington this weekend. The Huskies held them to 90.2, and we held them to 93.8. However, where UW only had a 97.5 efficiency night against the U of A defense, the Cougs went off for 121.9. Good times.
23 comments | 0 recs |
That's more like it
by Nuss on Feb 6, 2010 11:01 PM PST
in Cougar Basketball
30 comments
So, I didn't see the game -- I was out celebrating my wife's birthday by spending the day with her at the Pike Place Market (without the lads) and consuming perhaps my favorite beverage in the world -- but I did glance at tonight's stats.
Grady will be along either later tonight or early tomorrow morning with the recap, but in the spirit of my post from yesterday, I thought I'd go ahead and point this out:
Arizona offensive efficiency, Pac-10 play: 105.5
Arizona offensive efficiency, tonight: 93.8
The stats tell me we didn't really harass them into that bad of a shooting night -- pretty much exactly average for them -- but we did an exceptional job of cleaning up the defensive glass and keeping their free throw rate down.
Makes me wish I had seen it, because it sounds precisely like the sort of defensive performance I would have appreciated. I'd love to hear from any of you just how it went down.
30 comments | 0 recs |
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