Washington State 75, Air Force 68

by Grady. on Dec 12, 2009 11:29 PM PST in Cougar Basketball Comment 28 comments

Once again, we make things interesting late in the second half by letting an opponent creep back in the game via turnovers and sloppy defense.

I was hard at work (hardly working?) today so I don't have a lot of thoughts to provide. I did get to hear some of the radio broadcast, but I'll leave it to you in the CougCenter comment army to provide some insights of your own. Likes? Dislikes? Frustrations? Exuberance? A win is still a win.

Player of the Game: Reggie Moore. 16 points (4/6, 1/3 3pt, 7/7 FTs), 10 freaking assists, 2 boards and only 3 turnovers. A double double for the talented freshman. I miss Tony Bennett a whole lot less when I remember Reggie wouldn't be on this team if he was still here.

Unsung Hero: Nikola Koprivica. 8 points (3/7, 2/3 FTs) and 11 rebounds. Wait, what? 11 rebounds. That can't be right. Nik. 11 rebounds. It's not a typo. I'm in shock. Maybe this performance explains Bone's irrational hatred of Abe Lodwick, who started again but only received 7 minutes because... who knows? Turnover issues, maybe? Also, this game saw 20+ minutes given to Koprivica, Harthun and Enquist. I'm really only OK with Nik getting that kind of PT, what with being our sixth man and only senior and all. However, I'm still excited to see Harthun get some shots down and get some significant game experience. But hey, 14 minutes for Brock Motum! That's what I'm talkin' bout.

It was over when... Klay drained a three to make it 74-64 with 31 seconds remaining.

Stat of the Game: The Cougs held the Falcons to 22.7% three-point shooting. Not bad considering that was a huge issue for us earlier this season.

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Sometimes when a team knows it is better than the opponent

you can have a let down. In addition, when that team loses its best player before the game, the team or particular players can lose all focus. I think that is what happened to several players yesterday when Grant Parker didn’t play.

by Coug1990 on Dec 13, 2009 10:38 AM PST reply actions 0 recs

Stupid Grant Parker.

Made my pregame stuff just look silly.

CougCenter WSU's second main blog

by Dancing Football on Dec 13, 2009 11:05 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Air Force still played well though

Problem is we don’t have a defense capable of stringing together enough stops to put a team like that away earlier

by Grady. on Dec 13, 2009 11:58 AM PST via mobile up reply actions 0 recs

I see that you are a fan of Entourage

Emmanuelle “Sloan” Criqui is nice, very nice.

by Coug1990 on Dec 13, 2009 11:38 AM PST reply actions 0 recs

Entourage has gone a little downhill though

Problem is the first two seasons were so good the rest couldn’t possibly live up to them.

It’s still watchable and doesn’t deserve some of the hatred it’s been getting, but it has fallen way behind flight of the conchords on my HBO depth chart.

And yes, Sloan is way too hot for E.

Now what were we taking about?

by Grady. on Dec 13, 2009 11:51 AM PST via mobile up reply actions 0 recs

It was Dancing Football on Fieldgulls discussing Sloan

The Seahawks sure didn’t show up today. Playing Houston for them was like WSU and the Hawaii game. Just pitiful and embarrassing.

I never watched Entourage until this year, but it is interesting and I have watched all the episodes now. Too many times the creator and writer of the show moves on and the new writer isn’t as good. It is still a good show, just not great anymore.

by Coug1990 on Dec 13, 2009 11:58 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs

There will be no more FOTC on HBO.

But Bored to Death is my new favorite.

CougCenter WSU's second main blog

by Dancing Football on Dec 13, 2009 12:03 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

I like Bored as well

Talia “Yo Adrian” Shire’s son, Jason Schwarzman, is the star. I have always liked Ted Danson as well.

by Coug1990 on Dec 13, 2009 12:25 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Sad

But I kinda figured FOTC was over after the last episode. Better to stay with quality over quantity.

by Grady. on Dec 13, 2009 8:14 PM PST via mobile up reply actions 0 recs

Yeah they sort of threw together the second season.

And it showed at times. The first season was basically their career work.

CougCenter WSU's second main blog

by Dancing Football on Dec 13, 2009 9:17 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

What did we learn?

We joked about Charlie being a key reserve and then he showed up and played well. The starters, all of them, were in the doghouse for a lack of effort. I don’t know whether it was the time of year, the weather, or what but they didn’t show up like they should have. Nik continues to thrive in the system, getting to the bucket, making better passes, and rebounding! Not sure what was up with Dee, but everyone seems to have noticed something was off. Hopefully it was just a bad game. The coaches were very unhappy with the effort on the defensive end, at one point pulling all 5 starters at the same time after a defensive lapse.

Those of you who think Klay isn’t a good defender, I invite you to watch him follow Derozan around the court last year, and then read Grippi saying Klay was assigned to the hot hand tonight. He shut down Washington, then switched to Lyons and shut him down. He is an underrated defender but he does have that part of the game in his bag. Harthun on the other hand….has some work to do. Klay also had an off night, and still had 19 and 8. We’re spoiled.

I mentioned this in the game thread and a couple other people have, but where would we be without Reggie Moore? At the end of last year, we thought Thames and Harthun would be running the point. A quick coaching change and surprise commitment later, and we have Moore. He’s the perfect floor general for the system, getting to the bucket, dishing with ease, and providing a good scoring compliment to Klay. He sets the tempo for the team and really cares it in a way that goes unnoticed. When we hit a lull in the offense, Moore seems to always be good at hitting another gear, speeding up the offensive tempo, and getting into the lane and to the line. We’re lucky to have him.

by cougfan on Dec 13, 2009 2:08 PM PST reply actions 0 recs

"Hey Deon, don't miss it."

Would you throw a fan out of an arena for saying that? It is exactly what Roy Williams did at The Dean Dome.

Conversely, we all remember that some of the things that were shouted at DeAngelo Casto were well over the line and nothing happened.

I have never liked Roy Williams. I can’t verbalize it, but he always rubbed me the wrong way.

http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/blog/the_dagger

by Coug1990 on Dec 13, 2009 3:23 PM PST reply actions 0 recs

A disciplined team

exposed our lack of it. We have all been saying the inconsistency and lapses are somewhat expected, but maddening anyway… we are oh so young. But getting a win with Casto WAY out of it and Kaly mildly off his shooting, is a bonus. Nik is figuring out the splits on the floor and slashing well… the long rebound is our friend and we have Capers and Nik and Klay who are getting a lot right now, it would be nice for this to continue. I didn’t see or hear the game… was the low % from the trey for AFA due to better defended shots? Or was it just an off night for AFA from the floor. In the Vandal game I flet there were a number of 3-bombs that dropped that were perfectly defended and they just kept hitting them- which happens too some nights…

Any news on why Abe sits so much? He really does box out better than any other Coug on the floor. Let’s hope for those quality minutes out of Enquist… it is early he made find his way. Go Cougs- sloppy… but a “W” will do.

If you can't Go Cougs... don't go.

by hollyweirdcoug on Dec 13, 2009 3:30 PM PST reply actions 0 recs

The 3 point %

Since I couldn’t see the game, I can’t pin down a reason for the three point percentage, so I’ll call it a combination of:
1) They don’t shoot it that great as a team (33%)
2) Spokane Arena is very tough to shoot in if you’re not used to, as we mentioned in the game thread. The depth behind the backboard makes it hard to find the range and this is probably part of the reason Klay was off.
3) Bone seemed to be demanding much more defensive effort so we may have been pressuring the shots more. I did notice we were making them run the shot clock all the way down to single digits, forcing them to rush shots from deep. So, that also helped us. When the clocks running down, even for a patient team, the shots come rushed and miss the mark quite a bit.

As for Abe, it really is a game to game thing. He’s going to use whoever works better in that matchup. Nik pulled in 11 boards while also being a key on the offensive end, so he stayed with that. I think those two will be manning the 4 spot together most of the season depending on the matchups and who is playing better at the time.

by cougfan on Dec 13, 2009 7:29 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

couple clarifications from the game

I was at the game and wanted to clarify a couple items:

In the second half, Abe threw a pass off Klay’s feet which went out of bounds and immediately was yanked. He finally got back in much later and immediately threw another pass out of bounds right into the Cougar bench and came right back out again. Dumb Turnovers.

In the first half when he benched the starters, it was actually due to an offensive breakdown. They had come out of a timeout with a set play and it totally bogged down and ended i think with a turnover. He then replaced them.

by bertel on Dec 14, 2009 8:58 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs

I shudder to think where we would be at the PG spot if TB

was still around. Shoot, I wonder what he would be doing at the 4 spot!
Reggie is down right exciting, and something we have been missing for a long, long time. I might have to go back to the Seltzer days where we have a PG as cat quick as Reggie who can take the ball to the hoop.
It is nice to have a 2nd solid scorer, I truly believe Reggie is one.
What I would like to see us is work on our post game with DC. Obviously he really didn’t get a chance to be involved, but I would love to see him get about 10-12 shots a game from the post position. Really give us that inside outside benefit.

by ptowncoug3012 on Dec 13, 2009 3:59 PM PST reply actions 0 recs

post season

a little early… but given the play of the pac-10… the cougs will have an good chance of post-season play if that have win half their league games.

by willarose on Dec 14, 2009 7:40 AM PST reply actions 0 recs

Willarose

I assume that you would have wanted to simply delete the words ‘that have’ from you sentence above and replace them with the word ‘they’? Could you clarify?

In that case, I’m still not following your arguement. You say “given the play of the pac-10” as if that should make it easier for the cougars to play in the post-season. You would be hard pressed to find someone on this blog who agrees with you. If you have been reading what the bloggers or commenters have been saying, everyone is pretty much in agreement that since the PAC10 is losing OOCGs to lesser opponents this is decreasing chances that PAC10 teams will make the postseason. Winning half of your games in the PAC-10 this year is not going to be enough, at least not for the NCAA tournament. Therefore, when you make the two statements remarking about the the PAC10 play and how winning half of your games should warrant a postseason berth, the two statements do not mesh.

by cougars on Dec 14, 2009 10:33 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs

9-9 gets a bubble

I think. Let’s say the Cougs go 9-3 pre conference- then manage a 9-9 mark in league. That is 18-12 and add a 1-1 w/ conference tourney— 19-13 is a bubble worthy mark and assures an NIT bid I would think. Snag a couple of close wins and get the 11-7 conference mark and the NCAA is highly feasible… it is so early to project. One high ankle sprain to a key guy for us or an opponent and the whole thing is altered. But if the conference is that far down then maybe my win total is underestimated. Go Cougs

If you can't Go Cougs... don't go.

by hollyweirdcoug on Dec 14, 2009 10:52 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Yeah I think maybe willarose meant to say that it should be easy enough for the Cougars to win half of their pac10 games given the way those teams have played so far.

And in that case, although it is probably not good enough for the 65, the amount of wins accumulated would probably allow the Cougars to get invites to other postseason tournaments. (All hypothetically of course, too early for this, but everybody likes to talk about it)

by cougs4the16 on Dec 14, 2009 11:58 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs

There is absolutely zero chance.

That the Cougs get an NCAA berth with a 9-9 record (unless they win the Pac-10 tourney). The Pac-10 is absolutely awful and won’t bounce RPI quite as much as useful. They have no noteworthy non-conference wins and a terrible overall NCSOS. It would be a travesty if they got a bit at 9-9.

That much being said, I think they have a decent chance of getting up to an 11-7 or 12-6 record, especially if the D continues to improve and they sort out their interior rotation.

by Coug Friendly Canuck on Dec 14, 2009 12:54 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Totally disagree about the bubble portion

Here are some records of some teams— from a major conference — that did not make last year’s NCAA tournament:

21-9, 10-6 (NIT)
23-10, 9-7 (NIT)
20-13, 8-8 (NIT)
19-12, 8-8
22-11, 10-6 (NIT)

Really, only one of these teams was considered a bubble team last year. The teams? (In order)

South Carolina
Florida
Kentucky
Vanderbilt
Auburn

Yup, the 2010 Pac-10 is the 2009 SEC.

CougCenter

by Jeff Nusser on Dec 14, 2009 12:59 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Interesting year

In football USC come back down to earth and in basketball UCLA comes back down to earth. Hopefully in baseball ASU comes back down to earth and the Cougars win the Pac 10.

by Coug1990 on Dec 14, 2009 5:22 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

UCLA didn't just come back down to Earth...

They crashed down pretty hard. I actually genuinely feel sorry for UCLA fans. I know they lost a lot of guys, but so did we…

by displacedcoug on Dec 14, 2009 10:20 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

I'm shocked at UCLA

No one was picking them to win the Pac 10, but no one was picking them to be like they are now.

Howland is too good of a coach for them to be down long. If not this year, then next year they will be back.

by Coug1990 on Dec 14, 2009 10:25 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

You feel sorry for UCLA fans?

With their 12 championships? Are you sure?

CougCenter

by Jeff Nusser on Dec 15, 2009 9:23 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Yeah kind of.

I’ve never really had a problem with UCLA fans, and all those 12 championships helped the conference. Then to have a season where you go from 2nd to last is pretty harsh. I’m just used to suffering, they’re new to it.

by displacedcoug on Dec 15, 2009 10:12 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs