POSTGAME THREAD: Well, you can't say we didn't have a chance
by Jeff Nusser on Jan 14, 2010 9:09 PM PST
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PrintWhen the Cougs fell down by 20 early in this one -- 28-8 -- a lot of understandable frustration flowed on the game thread. I cautioned against giving up too early on this team, but I was curious to see what kind of fight they would show. Previous editions of the Cougs were disciplined enough to grind their way back into a game over the final 30 minutes.
Not these guys. They just explode on you -- so much so that they were able to close the gap to 41-37 at half.
And as they headed to the locker room, we all said we needed to start the half fast. And this is how it started.
Turnover Klay.
Forced shot Klay.
Block Klay. (Nice play, but ...)
Turnover Klay.
And with that, any chance the Cougs had to win this game evaporated. You might think it too early to pronounce a game over in the first minutes of the second half, but when the other team is being fueled by yet another diminutive guard having an out-of-body experience, you can't miss opportunities. The Bears gave us one; they weren't about to give us another.
I have some ideas on what, exactly, is wrong with Thompson, and I'll explore those this coming week. But the bottom line is that he's not doing much to help us win right now, other than draw attention on offense. If there's any positive to take away from tonight, it's that the offense overall performed very well, even without much of a contribution from him.
That's important, but it's only going to work for so long -- especially if he continues to shoot as poorly as he is right now. Besides, if you look at our offensive efficiencies over the past month, you could make a pretty convincing argument that it's not working, and that tonight was an anomaly.
And this doesn't even begin to speak to the defense. Cal is explosive, but c'mon ... giving up 93 points on approximately 74 possessions? That's 1.25 points per possession, easily the highest against us of any opponent this year. Completely inexcusable. This was a complete and total defensive fail.
I'm not sure any of us expected to win this game. However, on the heels of Sunday's mess, I really was hoping for signs that we're going to take another big step forward, as we have after every other low point this year. While I'm glad we fought back, I'm not sure that's what we got tonight when all was said and done.
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Transition defense was not pretty
Randle and Christopher torched us, as well.
You can’t really tell Klay not to shoot, but when he’s the focus of the defense he should be able to find an open man if he’s off. Heck, he could be a decoy once in a while if needed.
He doesn't look to dish and create
He looks to score and then turn around and pull it back out.
He either develops this part of his game or he continues to be a liability when his shooting eye is 20% from the 3.
Yup
The problem is that he’s really only positively contributing to our offense when he’s making shots. That’s not totally unexpected for a sophomore, but it’s a problem nonetheless.
It's a large problem
While it’s expected from a sophomore, we have no upperclassment to lean on. It makes it a bigger problem then it would be otherwise.
Can we get you guys to push Bone on why Anthony Brown is not playing?
The guy was first team All-State in Washington and all GSL.
He’s a slasher, banger and scorer.
This sitting on his hands every game at 6’4" 205 for a freshman is a joke.
We've touched on it before
Not ready, probably not good enough for this level, and odds are he transfers
You're full of crap
He ran circles around Casto in high school. I watched him.
I'm really not
I know how good he was at Shadle and I want him to succeed, but the writing is on the wall. He isn’t even traveling with the team at this point. Everything points to burning his redshirt so he doesn’t lose eligibility.
The first dumb move by Bone
Waste this talent and keep Harthun, while getting the slow 6’10" oaf from Columbia River.
I love D who is from my school, but Shadle Park's Brown torched Ferris every year
just barely losing by a point or 2 during the 58 game winning streak.
Ferris had 5 double digit scoring threats during that 2 time defending state champion run.
need opening
With one senior and 2 new studs coming in, someone needs to transfer, it must be Anthony.
Great Point
It’s very frustrating to burn the redshirt and then sit him. If he wasn’t good enough this year, why play him. With so many freshmen this year, it would’ve been nice to stagger the guys. This group will graduate leaving many holes.
Instead of people here making assumptions
I want Bone to answer some questions.
We pay him to answer questions, not just be silent and cerebral during interviews with a bit of wry wit here and there.
You can't do that as a coach
You can’t come out and say “yea this kid is a lame duck, he’s leaving”. Let the kid get his year of education and occasional playing time at a pac-10 school and if he moves along so be it.
We really don't pay him to answer questions
We pay him to coach a team. He is responsible to the AD and the President, and he needs to be honest with his kids. He has no need to be open and honest with us, that’s not in the job description. It’s nice, but it’s not ever required of a coach to answer fan’s questions.
The press asks questions
They are paid to ask and he is paid to answer as part of his Public Relations with the Press.
If the Spokesman’s too gutless to ask we have to have someone who has connections to ask the question.
He's paid to answer in a way that makes sense
He’s not paid to give us the dirt on a kid.
Anthony Brown might have been great in high school. He might at some point be great in college. But whatever is going on, Bone isn’t going to address it until it’s over.
I've talked with Vince about it
It just sounds like Bone isn’t letting on one way or the other about it.
I guess I would just say if you’re looking at tonight and focusing on why a guy who would play no more than 5 to 10 minutes — in the best of circumstances — perhaps you’re focusing on the wrong thing …
was trying to figure this out too
even if brown is as good as you say he is, who’s he taking minutes from? capers? X?
others stepping up
Reggie is coming a stud and almost a go-to-guy. Marcus is being aggressive, but Casto is fading away. Klay is trying to do way too much. Relax, let Reggie create, if he can’t score, let him kick it outside to Klay or Marcus cutting to the paint.
Stanford looks HORRIBLE tonight vs UW. He need to be aggressive against this team and force turnovers.
Casto had an off game
Boykin and a 7’3 kid are a tough matchup. Just two games ago he won us a game. And a game before that he “won” us a game, too.
Appreciation
Nuss,
I just wanted to give you a shout out for your writing and analysis. I appreciate your thoughtful and insightful work.
I like how you bring up problems with the team and offer solutions. I love visiting this site daily.
Go Cougs!
I believe
this was a vast improvement.
The freshman are becoming a blinding light in the window, doing great when Thompson hasn’t been for a while now, and Marcus is opening his offensive power, slowly. He’ll become a spitting image of Kyle Weaver, I think.
I think freshman led the way, considering how bad they were at the first half. The Cougs defense needs to be solidified just a little bit and Klay needs some John Wall passing skills. If he, out of some miracle, gets that kind of prowess, scoring opportunities will vastly open up.
Thanks for the read and go cougs!
Minus the shooting touch
Weaver really worked on that at the FT line and in transition. He was great at controlling his shot off the glass during contact and is one helluva ball handler for his lankiness.
If I had to say one thing
the refs were worse then usual. I mean we are, by now, used to bad reffing but what happened tonight was just horrible. There were so many times when things should have been called and weren’t. The students were starting to throw thing we were getting so fed up with it. I am not saying that if the refs had called the game right we would have won, I don’t think that there is anyway to know. But what did happen was every time we would start to do something good the refs would “mess” it up, i put mess in quotes because I really want to use another word but I am restraining myself. This game very easily could have been ours.
Bud was his normal self complaining about lack of calls on Cal
Without seeing the game, I am not sure was the truth.
Yes I was
Now the Refs weren’t just bad against us, they were bad against Cal as well. It just seemed that they hit us with the controversial fouls at possible pivotal moments in the game, when we might be able to go and get the lead. Oh well hopefully we can crush Stanford.
2-3 vs. 3-2
Wow would being 3-2 with Stanford at home next be nice right now. If only we had that damn Oregon game back.
Touching on the Anthony Brown situation
Isn’t it kind of obvious that Bone wants Brown to transfer? He did over commit our scholarship limit by sign Faisel Aden to next years class on the assumption somebody would transfer right?
Is it at all possible that Bone just wants Aden more than Brown and since Bone didn’t recruit Brown, that he is not gonna play him to ensure he transfers, opening up a scholarship? Not saying that Brown is ready for college ball at all or anything, I could care less if he plays. However, it makes sense.
He's not gonna intentionally sit him to force him to transfer
A simple “I don’t think you are gonna work out” conversation does the trick in a much better way.
This happened with Witherill, as Nuss pointed out. Tony burned his redshirt basically in order to let him play in the pac-10 in blowouts and save the redshirt for a transfer year.
by Brian Floyd on Jan 14, 2010 10:55 PM PST up reply actions
But Brown isn't even playing
So I’m not sure that they the exact same situation. I understand the coach could just say “it’s not working out” But do you say that to him now? Forcing him to ride the bench knowing he has no chance of playing and has no future and has to wait for 3 months to transfer.
I don’t think so, I would think Bone would simply do what I said and not play him, saying he is not ready and have that conversation at the end of the season. He is intentionally not playing him because he doesn’t think he is ready for the game and he feels he is not best suited for the new cougar team.
Also burning Browns red shirt isn’t like Witherills situation because Brown NEVER plays, so whether or not you use the redshirt now or during his transfer season is pretty irrelevant.
These talks happen before the season
Remember, he had plenty of time to evaluate Brown once Brown got here. It comes down to a conversation about his future which takes place before burning a redshirt, before the season begins/
It’s the same situation in that Brown plays garbage time minutes at home, because he isn’t traveling right now, and still has a redshirt year for when he sits out. He has the ability to occasionally play because he doesn’t have the redshirt and can instead use it down the road if he transfers.
I guarantee you that whatever the situation is, Brown and Bone both know and there have been discussions. It’s not something that just went down because Bone said so. It’s a mutual decision based on what they know.
by Brian Floyd on Jan 14, 2010 11:30 PM PST up reply actions
Alright
But with 4 minutes played this season I think playing time can be taken out of the equation. And the way our team plays poorly out of the gate, we will not have anymore garbage time minutes available. The chance may be there, but the opportunity will not be. Either way I’m excited about what Faisel Aden is doing averaging 25 ppg in his JC league. ESPN graded him out as an 88 as well, which was good news.
4 minutes on a PAC-10 team can mean the world to a kid
Nuss touched on this a little bit ago but basically that’s all it takes. The kid gets on the court, is in the stat books, and gets a free year of education. That’s good enough for some.
Aden looks like he’s gonna be good. It’ll be nice to add a scorer that can fill it up and have an immediate impact, I hope
by Brian Floyd on Jan 14, 2010 11:38 PM PST up reply actions
Remember that Brown's isn't the only scholarship that can open up
While it seems likely that Brown will be leaving, we have other options to get Aden here. Charlie can go back to walk on status (which I would almost expect, but maybe for another F/C) and Harthun could be the odd man out and get the “it’s not going to work out” talk.
Either way, I wouldn’t count Brown out entirely nor would I say I expect him to stick around. We’ll just have to wait and see.
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