In case you want more thoughts on last night's train wreck against Oregon, here's an excerpt of today's email newsletter at Cougar Sports Weekly. Subscription info here; as usual, if you've never seen it, please request a complimentary copy at admin(at)cougarsportsweekly(dot)com.
When Oregon fans are saying they had no reason to expect what happened last night, you should believe them -- this was as out of the blue for them as it was for us. Of course WSU did a lot of things wrong, but Oregon did something to the Cougars that they weren't able to even come close to doing against the three previous terrible opponents they played. The Ducks, shooting 36 percent from three coming in, hit 9-of-16 out there for nearly 60 percent. A number of teams, including Oregon, probably would have trouble replicating that against air.
The other thing that I think is getting lost is that the offense, while not spectacular, was good enough to produce a victory on most nights. The Cougars scored at a 1.07 points per possession clip, and that's a rate they maintained pretty much the whole night -- it really wasn't the product of garbage time points. If WSU does that every night (which they won't, but I'm trying to make a point here that offense was fine last night), they're going to win more games than they lose the rest of the way.
Now that I've hopefully talked you down off the ledge a little bit, here are a few things that I do think you can take away from this game.
The newsletter also had my quick preview on what to expect against Oregon State tomorrow.