POSTGAME THREAD: Mama said there'd be days like this ...
by Jeff Nusser on Jan 10, 2010 1:26 PM PST
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PrintWell, that didn't go very well, now did it?
What's frustrating about today is that we have no idea how this game might have turned out had DeAngelo Casto and Marcus Capers not chosen to be late to what Vince Grippi has termed "team events" and ended up starting the game. While I didn't watch the game, it's clear the disruption to the lineup and rotation caused the team to get off kilter, and as sometimes happens with a young team, the Cougs just never recovered offensively.
Poor shooting? Check.
Poor free throw rate? Check.
Mediocre offensive rebounding (at least while the game was close)? Check.
About the only thing that didn't go south on us was the turnovers, but as a number of people pointed out on the game thread, a quick, undisciplined shot against that zone can be as bad as a turnover.
The funny thing is that the defense was statistically good enough to win for most of the game -- until it really started getting out of hand late -- if only we'd been able to pull together some semblance of offense. But we didn't, and that was that.
Without a doubt, this game will be a teachable moment for the Cougs. I'm pretty sure Casto, Capers and Watson won't be late for "team events" again, and I'm pretty sure they'll have a better offensive clue next time we see this 2-3 zone of ASU's. They learned from Gonzaga and Kansas State -- two experienced squads that exposed their weaknesses -- and they'll learn from this.
Be thankful that we're heading back home to welcome Cal into Beasley on Thursday with the Zzu Cru in full effect. If this team responds this time as it did before, the Bears had better bring it.
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I don't know how much missing Casto and Capers affected things...
The team wasn’t playing particularly well even with them.
Once the first 10 minutes of the game has been disrupted like that, though.
It’s hard to get back into the flow.
ASU isn’t an easy team to play against from behind, either.
by Coug Friendly Canuck on Jan 10, 2010 1:31 PM PST up reply actions
Yup
It’s one thing to try and get back into an offensive flow against Oregon, a whole ‘nother against ASU. Especially for a young team. It’s all part of the growing process. These guys will be better for this.
Yeah
Especially with ASU’s shooters. Outside shooters are best if they get open shots and establish a nice rythm early in the game. After our initial 7-1 run (where ASU was so confused by our lineup they forgot to play us) we let them establish their stroke and start hitting shots.
As the game progressed, they were making stupid shots look easy. With Capers defense and Casto inside early, they might never find that rythm.
Anybody know if Gutierrez will be back for Cal?
they’re not the same team defensively without him
ouch
Having those four players out, mostly the starters, really set the tone and the disruption was too much to recover from. Klay can’t force things, turnovers hurt. Casto needs to be stronger and show more energy. He looked out of it and that really hurt the team. Playing on the road in the second of two games is tough, especially for a young team. We’ll be ok, GO COUGS!
Most disappointing...
Was the lack of effort. Defense was lackadaisical the entire game. Guys got outworked for rebounds. Guys were settling for jump shots that just weren’t falling. It was just an overall poor performance.
I was also disappointed to see Casto pouting on the bench after he was pulled shortly after his original insertion in the game. Klay continues to pick up silly fouls that completely disrupts the flow of his game, thus the team’s as well. Capers really must get better at finishing around the basket when he’s unable to dunk. And Moore simply pounded the ball for far too long on several occasions this afternoon.
They made ASU look far better than they really are.
Nuss wrote, "While I didn't watch the game"
Nuss, consider yourself fortunate.
I do
Normally, I get really upset if I can’t figure out a way to watch. Not sad today, although I did listen to Bud for most of it.
Can’t wait for the highlights on the video player! :-/
I stopped watching after 15 min of game time
Didn’t take long to see where that game was going.
on this old Beavers All Access
they referred to the upcoming Seattle U game as a tune-up game.
how badly do they want that one back?
hahaha
thats funny, then Seattle U goes and gets blasted by Sacramento St.
They went in for a tuneup
And the shop told them it was time for the scrap heap.
Would love to see them find a way to compete with UO today, maybe steal a win. Doubtful, but it would be nice.
What I take away from this game
1. Bone has standards of behavior, and backs that with punishment based on what I assume is an established set of rules. This is a good thing, and our young players need to learn that those rules are non negotiable and move on.
2. Our deep reserves are not ready for prime time. Knew that going in, but it was confirmed in a big way.
3. Lodwicks minutes are still the most confusing aspect of our rotation. He didn’t break the rules, logically could have played more.
4. Klay still needs to learn to play through adversity. He scored our first five points. He finished with 7. His first two fouls were not necessary, especially the 2nd. Bjornstad blew a rotation, Klay came to help but was late. Let the guy score and live to play another day. Don’t take out frustration on your teammates play by making poor decisions. Overall, Klay seems to struggle when playing with our B team. Obviously it is harder playing with them as he becomes even more of our only offensive threat, but some of the struggles seem to be more about effort and attitude and less about defensive pressure.
Next week is huge
This could be a huge point in the season. Bone has a young team that just got throttled and had some young guys break the rules. It will be huge to get the confidence back and make sure that the players who were disciplined do not turn this into a bigger issue than it is. A split next week is a must and a sweep would be huge. Let’s learn from this and improve and come out with lots of fire next week.
by brinkislikevickheabusesdawgs on Jan 10, 2010 2:32 PM PST reply actions
I don't understand
How could WSU shoot themselives in the foot this bad?
This makes me wonder what will happen next week. I am kind of nervous too.
Don't get too caught up in one game.
We’re the same team we were after beating LSU, OSU, and UA. We are flawed, we are young, we are learning a new system. We have some serious talent, but also some serious deficiencies.
If nothing else, tell yourself that a part of this loss is due to Bone teaching his guys a lesson. They now know that he has rules. Remember that being a young team has multiple side effects, and one of those is that most of our players are still teenagers or just turned 20. If you deal with this age group at all, you know that they will push to learn where the boundary is. Now they know. And as a team they see how a few players actions affects everyone. All of this is important and part of the process of having new guys on the roster and a new coach in charge.
Finally, just breath. And remember, as long as we don’t go on a losing streak like UW (losing again to Arizona) and drop 3 games in a row when we were expected to lose at most 1 of them, we are OK.
Although UW is rallying back
Trying to stop the bleeding. A loss today to Arizona and there will be serious question marks about this team.
Feeling overwhelmed right now
Flipping between GB rallying against Arizona, UW playing UA, and Kansas trying to come back in the last minutes against Tennessee. And I should be working
Not really getting "too caught up"
Just stunned how a team with talent topping the PAC-10’s let’s their emotions get in the way so much of their game performance which destroys themselves completely. I would’ve been fine with a 5-10 point loss. But that is just traumatizing.
I would have expected WSU to know how to combat the Arizona State defense since the majority of WSU’s roster had used it in play last year with Benett. I don’t know.
I think we can beat Cal and Stanford(?) this week at home. A few days should give enough time WSU to reorganize.
ASU plays a 2-3 zone
the absolute antithesis of Bennett Ball.
i'd also disagree that we have talent that tops the Pac-10
outside of Klay, there are at least 3 guys at every position in the conference better than our guys.
What I mean is
Arizona State plays a slow style game. Like Benett. ASU only allows 54.4 ppg, that was about WSU last year when they played under Benett. WSU only allowed 58.#ppg, if I remember right which was the #1 scoring defense in the country.
I guess we don’t have the “Top” talent either, but most teams with better talent aren’t really showing it well, like Washington and Cal. I probably meant top for showing rather than possessing.
Cougars have great talent that has been showing well, but there are always those dark moments, which I don’t get. It’s basically if one player has an off game, they all pick up that “down sense” and start making stupid plays, like… I couldn’t even list them all.
indeed and i agree
we wore our youth like a badge today.
i think our fans just need to come to grips with this team. we’re a middle-of-the-road Pac-10 team right now. We played mind-numbingly-bad basketball today, particularly on the offensive end. But I think our best road effort vs. ASU’s best home effort ends up with them winning more often than not. This loss isn’t the end of the world. We got a road split against two good team, and that’s all a team like ours can really ask for at this point.
We're 2-2 in conference
With an almost mind numbing 4 other teams sitting at 2-2, and a few 2-1’s and 1-2’s from teams that have only played 3 games. We are middle of the road, but what is good is so is the rest of the conference.
It really is a year to just sit back and enjoy the ride, for it is going to be an up and down season conference wide.
indeed
i think we just need to adjust expectations as a fanbase. the “conventional” way of thinking is you need to sweep at home and split on the road to get to the tournament, so we’re a game behind that….the problem is most of our fans haven’t realized this isn’t a tournament team, so none of that really matters.
i wasn’t upset we lost today. i figured we would. but ASU is NOT 25 points better than us. we’ll learn from this and get after them harder in Pullman next month.
Couldn't have said this part better myself
i wasn’t upset we lost today. i figured we would. but ASU is NOT 25 points better than us. we’ll learn from this and get after them harder in Pullman next month.
The only place I’ll diverge from you is that I think this can be a tournament team. This is the epitome of a squad that’s going to be much better by the end of conference play than it is now. If it can win enough games along the way — as it did during nonconference play — then it can put itself in the conversation come first weekend in March.
I keep hearing for other people, not Cougar fans, that this can be a tourney team
With the way the pac-10 is in flux, it’s going to come down to which young team pulls it all together and I think we have a good shot of doing so. We’re going to take some bad losses like today, but it seems like every single bad loss we’ve learned from. GU and KSU happened, then we bounced back for LSU and pulled out some close games, finishing in the end like we couldn’t at Gonzaga.
This team will get better and, as frustrating as it may be to watch them grow, the payoff will be worth it in the end.
i would be VERY scared to play us in the PacX tourney
if Klay gets hot, we could run through that thing and not blink.
The automatic bid
Is gonna come down to which young team comes in hot. There’s probably 6 teams that could take it depending on who puts it together by the end
I see us as a two bid conference
Tourney champ and regular season champ. They won’t be the same team, and I can’t imagine the committee turning down our regular season champ.
I only watched the second half, but I was troubled that we didn't
dictate size in this game.
Here is a team that essentially plays four guards. Why didn’t we stick it to them a bit and play Casto and Watson together? Maybe we did in the first half, but it didn’t work. Somebody let me know. Sometimes you have to get a team out of their comfort zone.
Pretty disheartening when Ty Abott at 6-3 has 8 rebounds at the half!
What an awful 2nd half I had to sit through. But at least it was no where close to the K. St game. I can handle continuing to brick 3 ft shots all day long, and we did, a bunch!! It’s another to turn the ball over like we did against K. St.
i'm not sure if you can dictate size against a team with Boateng
he did whatever he wanted today
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