I was there when we had Mark Hendrickson and the rest of the crew vying for an NCAA berth. That place was loud and rocking. Not what it’s been now with the Zzu Cru, but it was still pretty packed and loud. I joined the pep band just so I could have a front-row seat without having to stand in line. (Back then, the pep band was on the sidelines.)

Within four years, as the losses mounted, you could literally walk in 10 minutes before tip-off for a fourth-row seat. I remember showing up for a game against Arizona, who was like a top 10 team, and there being a few hundred students. That’s just the way it goes. I never really understood it, since the alternative on a Thursday night in Pullman can’t possibly be better than watching a Pac-10 basketball game essentially for free, but that’s the way it is.

“you’ve got to be able to overcome suspect stretches of defense with at least passable offense.”

I think they can by winning that battle on the front end. They get into deficits by not overcoming suspect stretches of defense with at least a passable offense. Which is to say that if they had a passible offense, which I believe they “could”, then they wouldn’t have to battle back and shoot themselves back into a game.

The standard so far has been to start the game by holding their opponent to single digits for the fist 10 minutes of play, while not taking advantage of it on the offensive end. Instead of going into the locker room with a 6-10 point lead, which should be achievable with the defensive effort that they start the game with, they go in 4 points down and commence to crap themselves by panicing on offense in the second half.

I agree that they don’t have the player you are talking about, but when have they ever really had that player? Low and Weaver were great but it wasn’t like they ever single handedly shot the Gougs back-from-any-deficit by themselves. Sure it would be nice to have a guy like that, but honestly, the Cougs don’t have that kind of system let alone that player. You can only let so many opportunities pass you by before they add up to a loss. And many of the game winning opportunies that they’ve let pass them by have been on the offensive end in the first 10 minutes of ball games. It’s easy to look at the second half meltdowns, and late game turnovers, but the poor offense in the early portion of the game puts them in a bad position that leads to those meltdowns.

In the end it comes down to results, but Tony’s a teacher, and teachers are interested in process as much as anything, because they believe good process produces better results in the long run.