Washington State 87, Alaska-Anchorage 68
by Grady Clapp on Nov 25, 2009 11:08 PM PST
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PrintThat's about as ugly as a 19 point win can look. But we'll take it and move on, as just a couple of games ago the Cougars squandered a double-digit lead against EWU, and let the game go down to the wire.
This time, the Cougars let the Seawolves go on a run in the second half to bring the WSU lead down to single digits. However, Klay Thompson and co. finished strong, putting away a closer-than-expected game against the host of the Great Alaska Shootout.
A win is a win, and you can't take that for granted in the Pac-10 this season. Still, the Cougars allowed 27 points by Brandon Walker and 40% shooting from beyond the 3 point arc by the Seawolves. And even though UAA never seriously threatened, the Cougs had to keep their first-team rotation out on the floor for about 38 minutes of the game. The usual deficiencies were there: rebounding, perimeter defense and lack of a consistent scoring threat outside of Klay Thompson and Reggie Moore.
Speaking of which...
Player of the Game: Klay Thompson. I'll keep giving this award to Klay until someone takes it away from him. Tonight: 25 points on 9/18 shooting (3/5 from 3), leading all Coug scorers.
Unsung Hero: Reggie Moore. 17 points on 5 of 10 shooting, and an excellent job of keeping the Cougars on the free throw line. Once on the charity stripe, Reggie hit 7 of 8.
Play of the Game: A few solid contenders, but I'm going with the Klay-to-Capers fast break dunk in the first half.
It was over when... Klay Thompson swung the ball low, then rose up for a three early in the shot clock, late in the second half. I forget the exact score and time, but it sealed the deal against the feisty 'Wolves.
Stat of the Game: For all my complaining in the gamethread, this was actually a good shooting night for the Cougs, who shot 50.9% from the field. Perhaps we just got so caught up in the idea of running over a lower division opponent that we forgot to respect the chance that the lower division opponent may be better than we think. The usual issues are there - we know that - and they need to be remedied soon. But, for now, we can enjoy the fact that we can get a double-digit win despite the lack of depth in our frontcourt and inconsistent play by guards not named Thompson or Moore.
In fact, maybe us fans were a little too cocky going in, myself included. Vegas only had the Cougs as 10-point favorites going in, according to statsheet.com.
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It is great that we are winning win-able games, but. . .
the teams needs to experience a challenge from a strong opponent. UAA played strong, but they clearly had less ability. It felt like we were playing down to their level in the first half, and I saw that Bone was getting irritated. I hope we can stay strong against Nicholls State and then we can see the guys step up against the strong competition in the championship game.
As for the Championship game,
it looks like we will be playing against San Diego as Oklahoma looks to be going down.
Here's a fun fact
Moore had more rebounds and the same number of offense rebounds as Casto (4-2 to 3-2).
Looks like Dee had an off night. Oh, and Klay is still good in case you were worried.
In the rebounding world
I don’t think we should worry too much about Casto. He’ll come around.
Last year DR%
Baynes – 23.4 (44th nationally)
Casto – 20.7 (125th)
He’s no Baynes, but he’ll be good. Plus you have to remember we have some good rebounding guards (Capers, Reggie, Klay). What concerns me is what we do at the 4 when Abe’s not there, and the 3 when KT isn’t.
Well, if Lodwick isn't on the floor, Bone can always put in Ludwig
Although he may be only on the team in Alaska.
According to that announcer, there are a lot of guys on the team I hadn't heard of.
Like KopaREETsa, KopriZEETsa, and KopaREETsVA.
But remember that a lot of that came with Baynes taking the heat off of him
Also, in just ~40 percent of the team’s minutes. And, also before knee surgery. There are a lot of things that are different this year.
I'm officially concerned about the defense
I have yet to see anything that tells me it’s on the way to improvement. It won’t matter against Nicholls State — which might be the worst team we’ve played all year — but it will matter against San Diego. That will be a wake-up call.
Reasons for hope
Our biggest defensive problems are 3 pt defense (ranked 269th) and FT defense (208th and we can’t control how well the other guys shoot FTs).
That 3pt defense is screwing with our eFG% given up. And it will regress. I hope.
Regardless, we have to start closing out on shooters and avoiding missed assignments. I don’t think that 3-2 zone we saw last night for a poss. or two was the answer, but maybe it just needs more work.
I think we need to press more in the full court and force turnovers. We can speed up the game and frustrate people like AZ did to us last year on the road.
by Grady Clapp on Nov 26, 2009 10:11 AM PST up reply actions
i was there last night
and what I saw was a team UAA trying to be very physical with WSU. Castor was being pushed and dbl and he was lost because of it, Klay was dbl at half court and beaten up — they left the 3 open and we hit a few shots but the 3, 2, 1 were wide open all night and will be all season long (where is Harmeling when we need him?). WE did not seem very focussed and very intersted in dominating UAA so it will be interesting to see what we do with SDSU. Our guards get lost on defense and get picked covering the low post area so that is why the 3 point shot is open. I saw a WSU team that has no ID and is learning who they are — it could be a very disappointing season or if they figure it out then they could be great — we wil see if Ken can coach?
Well UAA beat Nicholls St. by 14.
UAA seems to have pretty good program. Hopefully our starters will get some rest tomorrow against Nicholls St. Whether they win the tourney or not there will definitely be more positives then negatives. For one, the team plays three games in four days. This will give them a good workout and show Bone how well these players can handle multiple games in a short amount of time. Also these are the first road game of the year. This will only help them prepare for the more hostile away games at GU and K St.
Watching UCLA try to run an offense
Makes me want to throw up my Thanksgiving dinner. Also, Dragovic is already back. That Howland discipline must be hardcore
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