The picture of consistency

by Jeff Nusser on Feb 2, 2009 4:26 PM PST

I was browsing the kenpom.com WSU scouting report page and taking a look at our wins and losses, and something aroused my curiousity. So I dug a little deeper.

Consider:

This year, 11 of the Cougs' 12 wins have come against teams ranked 61 or below, while all nine losses have come against teams rated 47 or higher. (The one outlier, of course, is the win over ASU -- a win fueled in large part by the kind of superlative individual performance this team doesn't generally get.)
In 2007-08, all of their 26 wins came to teams rated No. 26 or below, while eight of the Cougs' nine losses came to teams rated 25 or above. (The one outlier was the home loss to No. 62 Cal, thanks to Ryan Anderson being amazing.)
In 2006-07, all 26 wins were over teams rated 26 or below, while six of the eight losses came to teams rated No. 35 or above -- the outliers being losses to No. 135 Utah and No. 53 Stanford.

If this doesn't further bolster your excitement about the future, it should. Bennett is establishing a strong track record of getting every last ounce of potential and execution out of his teams. He gets them to play to their true talent level on a night-in and night-out basis, and as the level of talent increases, so should our ability to consistently make the NCAA Tournament and challenge for Pac-10 titles.

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The farther removed we get from it

The more I realize that Utah loss was the biggest aberration ever. What the heck happened there?

Perhaps it was the last losing gasp of the 2003-06 Cougars. Because the next game we beat Gonzaga, and the rest is history. Delicious, delicious history.

by Grady Clapp on Feb 2, 2009 7:44 PM PST reply actions

Aren't your stats telling us that we can never hope to beat a

top 50 team on a regular basis? Really all I want out of Coug bball is like I got out of Coug football for awhile. I want to beat every team in the Pac-10, all in one year would be great, but enough of this 26 straight wins garbage. I hate the fact that UCLA is 80 games over .500 against us in bball.
I guess what I am saying is that I want to be OSU. ;)

by ptowncoug3012 on Feb 2, 2009 9:05 PM PST reply actions

It's not never

It’s just that we didn’t have the team to do it the last two years. Think about it — in two and a half years, we have just one crazy bad loss. But we also have just as few crazy good wins. It’s kind of weird, and leads me to believe that we just need some better athletes to get over that hump. Because no matter how you slice it, when you look at the teams that win the Pac-10 and the teams that go to Final Fours, that’s what it comes down to — well-coached athletes.

CougCenter

by Jeff Nusser on Feb 2, 2009 9:52 PM PST up reply actions

Like Jim Walden says

It’s not the X’s and the O’s, it’s the Jimmy’s and the Joe’s. I think that applies in both football and basketball at Wazzu. Tony is definately headed in the right direction. The quality of the athlete he’s bringing in is getting better all the time.

We gotta start protecting our home court a little better though. We don’t want anyone coming into Pullman, ever, expecting to leave with a victory.

Go Cougs!!!

by SW WA Coug on Feb 3, 2009 12:07 PM PST reply actions