I could talk for a while about last night’s game.  I am still frustrated about it, because I felt like we got beat by a lesser team who is streaky.  Last night the basket was the size of the Pacific Ocean for Patty Mills.  Patty Mills has skills, but Omar Samhan seemed to be lucky, because he does not have a pretty game.  I try not to talk trash, but the Gaels were annoying to watch.  I watched Samhan practically walk over one of our player (Capers) in between free throws as he was headed to the bench after his 3 or 4 foul.  Besides Patty Mills it was an ugly game by the Gaels.  If this was a best of three series I would put my money on the Cougs.

I am glad I recorded the game and that I was able to fast-forward through some of the commentating.  It was bad.  I like at the end when the ESPN announcer said that Capers was purposely trying to elbow the player in the face from St. Mary's and that he was sure of it.  I think Capers was just trying to foul him as quick as possible.  For an announcer who has probably never seen a WSU game and doesn't know Capers made a pretty bold statement.  He probably thinks since he played basketball that he knows it all.  I thought it was funny the other announcer disagreed with him and he was still stubborn enough to stick to what he said.

Anyways, I will get to aggression.  I saw something last night that many other probably didn’t even think about.  This is the second time all season that this has happened.  At the end of the game Thompson took it hard to the rim and tried to dunk it on someone.  If I remember right he got fouled and went to the line.  It was almost like he was so pissed off that he had to take some frustration out.  I wish he did that more often.  He actually surprised me with his hops.  I know with maturity his game with get better, but being such a great free throw shooter I would like to see him at the line more.  This is what James Hardin does and he will probably be a lottery pick.  Think how much it would help WSU’ style of play if we were at the line more and we could slow it down so much that we could put the other team to sleep and then beat them.  One thing I also noticed is that for being 6’-6” he does use those long arms to shield the ball when he drives.  He tends to get the ball knocked away or loses it somehow.  Also, in time he will hopefully learn to fix that.  He also has the psychological part of the game to work on.  I have actually heard a couple announcers comment that he needs to quite shaking his head.  If he could be like a cornerback in football and have a short term memory I think he could be one of the best to come out of WSU, but he needs to quit shaking his head after every miss and mistake.  We all know competitors get mad when that happens, but don’t let everyone know that.  Mistakes happen and most nights 50% or less of the shots won't go in...you have to get use to it.  Do you think that ever got Reggie Miller discouraged?  Not likely.  You have to have a poker face and body language like a pitcher or cornerback and not let everyone know you are rattled.  He has the poker face, but not the body language to back it up, which speaks volumes.

I can’t wait until next year to see Xavier Thames and what else is in store for us.  I hope we have some players who will complement all our guards next year, because we will be guard heavy.  Capers sure left me with something to be excited about next year.  It seemed like he blossomed one to two seasons in one game last night.