SB Nation - Abe Lodwick

Washington State 75, Air Force 68

Grady. — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 07:29:35 -0000

Once again, we make things interesting late in the second half by letting an opponent creep back in the game via turnovers and sloppy defense.

I was hard at work (hardly working?) today so I don't have a lot of thoughts to provide. I did get to hear some of the radio broadcast, but I'll leave it to you in the CougCenter comment army to provide some insights of your own. Likes? Dislikes? Frustrations? Exuberance? A win is still a win.

Player of the Game: Reggie Moore. 16 points (4/6, 1/3 3pt, 7/7 FTs), 10 freaking assists, 2 boards and only 3 turnovers. A double double for the talented freshman. I miss Tony Bennett a whole lot less when I remember Reggie wouldn't be on this team if he was still here.

Unsung Hero: Nikola Koprivica. 8 points (3/7, 2/3 FTs) and 11 rebounds. Wait, what? 11 rebounds. That can't be right. Nik. 11 rebounds. It's not a typo. I'm in shock. Maybe this performance explains Bone's irrational hatred of Abe Lodwick, who started again but only received 7 minutes because... who knows? Turnover issues, maybe? Also, this game saw 20+ minutes given to Koprivica, Harthun and Enquist. I'm really only OK with Nik getting that kind of PT, what with being our sixth man and only senior and all. However, I'm still excited to see Harthun get some shots down and get some significant game experience. But hey, 14 minutes for Brock Motum! That's what I'm talkin' bout.

It was over when... Klay drained a three to make it 74-64 with 31 seconds remaining.

Stat of the Game: The Cougs held the Falcons to 22.7% three-point shooting. Not bad considering that was a huge issue for us earlier this season.

Washington State 76, Idaho 64

Grady. — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 07:48:53 -0000

NCAA Basketball Stats

Vandals vs Cougars recap

One of the trends I've noticed from obsessively following a sports team for the past seven years is that I tend to find positives in the losses (hey, at least so-and-so played well...) and find negatives in the wins. It's the weird counter-intuitive stuff that creeps in to your head after you've over-analyzed something for long enough. I can only imagine how crazy most head coaches must be, since they think about this stuff 24 hours a day, and their teams almost never put together a completely perfect game.

Tonight, this is probably the angriest I've felt after a win in a long, long time. The Cougars had a 27 point lead in the second half. 27 points! Then, Ken Bone's brain took the night off, essentially playing our second team (with a starter or two mixed in) for the next ten minutes and letting Idaho creep back in. Worse, a running offense became a completely halfcourt one; the equivalent of when a football team that passes like crazy but runs the ball on three straight plays because they are trying to run the clock out. That's something called 'playing not to lose', and it is horrible. More teams lose playing to avoid a loss than teams that actually play win the game (of course, when they do go for the win, like Belichick on 4th and 2 - and fail - they get plastered by the media, creating hoards of spineless coaches who continue to give up on what their team does best in the name of "just hanging on").

Like we saw in the Gonzaga game, we can no longer feel safe with a large lead like we did in the clock-controlling Bennett area. This team can blow leads in games if they lose their aggressiveness or defensive intensity. And while Idaho never seriously threatened, they cut a 27 point lead down to seven with a minute left (darn you, halfmullet!). I would love to believe that our seven point lead with a minute left is safe, but you'll have to excuse me for not: I was at the Stanford game in 2004.

I get that Idaho is a very good team, and realistically we are only 5-10 points better than them. Problem is we didn't play our best team for a good portion of the second half, and it turned a big blowout into a semi-close game. Was Bone trying to rest players? Probably. But if so, it didn't matter since the starters had to essentially play the entire final five minutes just trying to hang on. Play those guys earlier, and you don't get into that situation in the first place. Sacrificing a lead in the name of rest is never a good idea in my opinion. Charlie Enquist and Mike Harthun got a huge number of minutes during a stretch in the game where quite frankly they didn't deserve it. Give them 8-9 minutes with a comfortable lead late, not with ten or fifteen left to play. That's an eternity in college hoops.

On the other hand: wow. This was a big victory. For a moment, we dismantled a very good ball club eight miles away from their home. A 21-2 run blew it open, fueled by what we had been craving: more three-point shooting. And it wasn't just Klay: role players like Abe and Nik got into the act, and in the blink of an eye the Cougars had almost built a 30 point lead. Of course in several more blinks Idaho had nearly erased all the goodwill we had built, outscoring us by 20 until the final minute. That's not great, but then again we aren't a juggernaut, and we aren't going to bury a team like Idaho by 30 points. It was just nice to think for a second that we could have.

Anyway, it's a great win. It really is. We took down the Vandals in all four factors, defended the perimeter, protected the ball and hopefully made Mac Hopson wish he'd never have transferred.

But for goodness sakes, please finish the job. Earlier.

Player of the Game: DeAngelo Casto - A dominating night on the boards with 14 rebounds (5 offensive) and 13 points, all against a physical Vandal front line. Great night for D.

Unsung Hero: Klay Thompson - That has to be about as quiet a 25 point night as you'll ever see. A lot of it has to do with an inefficient night shooting (9 of 21) and three turnovers. However, he wins this award thanks to his nine boards and overall point production. I can't give this award to Reggie Moore every time.

It was over when... Reggie Moore hit two free throws to put the Cougars up nine with under a minute to play. It's just so sad it took that long to get to our "It was over when..." moment. Ugh.

Play of the Game: Abe's back to back threes! (Klay missed one in between, but whatever) They were huge in the context of our ridiculous 21-2 run. Downside: they were the only two shots he made and for some reason Bone still thinks Abe is good enough to start but not good enough to get more minutes than Koprivica.

Stat of the Game: I'm not usually into plus/minus, but tonight it was very telling of how this ball game played out. It also features a ridiculous spread from top to bottom. Hat tip to BigWood:

Thompson 33
Moore 27
Lodwick 25
Casto 21
Capers 17
Watson -15
Enquist -27
Koprivica -35
Thames -37
Harthun -39

Like I said, we aren't as good a team out there when our best players are on the bench. Duh. Now, Kenneth, please play Abe Lodwick more. He's actually pretty good.

One final thought: ZZU CRU - it would have been nice if you had shown up for this game. I get that it's cold, but this was a rivalry game against a quality opponent. I could tell the Vandal fans understood that, but outside of a couple key stretches, most of our student section didn't. Yes, I'm calling you out, because you're better than that.

AUDIO: CougCenter Podcast, Episode 18

Nuss — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 18:57:49 -0000

You know, I thought this whole "figure out why we're losing" thing would be limited to the football podcasts. Guess not.

Click play below to listen to Craig, Grady and I break down the Gonzaga and Kansas State losses, as well as discuss what can be done to get Klay Thompson back on track, how the defense can get right, and why you all should be legitimately concerned about Idaho tonight.

As usual you can listen to the audio via the player below, or visit our podcast page for myriad subscription options. You can also find us in the iTunes directory under keyword "CougCenter." The advantage of subscribing? Besides having the audio directly delivered to your player of choice, I often upload the audio to the podcast site before posting it here.

AUDIO: Ken Bone press conference, 12-8-09

Nuss — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 07:21:47 -0000

People seemed to enjoy the Paul Wulff weekly press conferences with reporters -- at least as much as they can enjoy listening to a coach talk about injuries ad nauseam -- so we hit up the WSU Sports Information Department to see if they'd send us the Ken Bone audio from his conferences.

Sure enough, they did. Here is this week's audio -- 15 minutes of goodness breaking down the losses to Gonzaga and Kansas State. (On second thought, maybe this isn't all that different from the football conferences ...)

Most interesting to me is his comment about the offensive sets, and how they haven't even put in their full motion offense yet, let alone and special sets they'd like to run. I think that's significant -- those special sets are precisely what this team needs to help Klay Thompson get some open looks, and they just aren't in there right now.

What we learned last night

Nuss — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 06:08:31 -0000

More photos » by Rajah Bose - AP

Boy are we glad this guy's calling the shots for us.

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Follow us on Twitter @CougCenter and me @NussCoug!

We all had the sneaking suspicion that last night's game at the crucible of K2 would tell us a lot about the Cougs after they more or less stomped lesser competition for the first six games in what looks like a masterful bit of scheduling -- three cupcakes at home, a game against a lesser opponent on the road, a game against a lesser opponent on a neutral site, and finally a game against a little bit better (but still overmatched) opponent on a neutral floor.

Well, the game delivered as promised. We learned a heck of a lot last night -- most of it positive. Buckle up, because I've got a lot of stuff floating around in my head.

Gonzaga is exactly who we thought they were. I'm not going to talk a whole lot about the Bulldogs, because you know where you can go to get that stuff. But it's important to note because all of the rest of the analysis of the Cougs has to be put in the context of Gonzaga being a pretty darn good team -- especially defensively.

It might have taken 32 minutes for them to show up, but there is no question this is the best defensive Gonzaga team I've seen since I've paid attention to them. They've had good statistical defensive teams in the past, but that was built mostly on overwhelming physically overmatched WCC opponents. When it came time to play the big boys, they got torched. Those teams just didn't pass the eye test. This team passes the eye test.

However, if I was a Gonzaga fan, I might be just a tad bit worried about my offense. Without a reliable trigger man at the point -- a signature of Bulldog basketball over the years -- they look like they might struggle from time to time on that end.

Now, on to the Cougs.

This Cougar team is clearly -- CLEARLY -- better off with Ken Bone as coach than Tony Bennett right now. When the Cougars' offense is rolling, as it was in the first half last night, it's truly a sight to behold. The Cougs only finished with a 95.7 offensive rating, but you can largely chalk that up to scoring just six points over the final nine-plus minutes (minus the meaningless 3-pointer at the buzzer. Quick math tells us that the team's efficiency probably was around 110 up until that point. That's awesome against a team like Gonzaga.

But can you imagine what this team would look like if Bennett were still coach? Walking it up the floor, awkward half court sets, everyone hesitating to shoot lest you find yourself right back on the bench? Offensive efficiencies hovering around 100 every night? Yeah, me neither.

With Bennett, we'd be talking about these guys being good in two years when they're seniors and juniors -- you know, when they've finally got Bennett ball "down." With Bone, we've got a team that's explosive on offense and is getting better every game on defense. Additionally, I think it's already becoming obvious that Bone is Bennett's superior as a game coach. At some point this year, we'll be talking about how the Cougs got a win thanks to some shrewd game plan or in-game decision from Bone. It almost happened last night.

When the year started, I was hesitant about Bone Ball -- felt like we were just too loose and undisciplined on both ends of the floor -- but I get more excited with each passing game. They're improving rapidly, and he's getting these guys to play to their strengths. I'm not going to make any bold pronounciations about whether he'll be better long term than Bennett would have been. But right now? I'm soooooo happy he's our coach.

The defense still needs some work. The Cougs are still having difficulty finding shooters in the open floor. In general, they did a better job fighting through screens -- although, as noted by some of our commenters, their technique could be better at times -- but they're still just too slow closing out on shooters. There's no reason why an average 3-point shooter should be able to get as many open looks as Matt Bouldin got. But they are making strides. Holding Gonzaga to around a 102 efficiency is nothing to sneeze at. These guys are getting incrementally better.

This team is just one legitimate big man away from being very, very good. That would be great news, if this team had a legitimate big man hanging out somewhere, either on the bench or waiting in the wings for next year. But since we don't, we're just going to have to be content with being pretty good this year, and pray to whatever god you believe in that Ken Bone can dig up a big man for next year's team.

Being loaded at guard can only take you so far if you don't have a frontcourt to do some of the dirty work. Yeah, we were able to run out to a big lead last night while generating turnovers and picking up a pile of loose-ball rebounds thanks to our guards crashing down on the boards. But when the game slowed down and Gonzaga started to get the ball to Elias Harris -- who is going to be an absolute beast when he learns to play hard for 40 minutes -- and decided to really crash the boards, the Cougs were pretty much powerless to stop them. It's going to be a point of frustration all year, and we've got to hope that our guards can make the difference more nights than not.

Honestly, the more I think about it, the more irritated I get that we don't have another quality big man on the roster. For all of the great things Tony Bennett did for this program, his infatuation with recruiting guards has left us in this untenable position.

Here is a list of frontcourt Bennett landed since 2007 (height/weight when recruited): Charlie Enquist (6-10/190), Fabian Boeke (6-10/225), James Watson (6-7/205), DeAngelo Casto (6-8/240), Brock Motum (6-9/215). He signed just five frontcourt players in three years, only one of which could be considered a legitimate Pac-10 big man. Sure, people thought Boeke would be around, but I think the fact that Casto more or less fell into his lap during the late signing period after qualifying at the 11th hour in 2008 more than makes up for that.

I know big men don't grow on trees, and I'm thankful for some of the guards he brought in. But it really was an inexcusable fail in recruiting that Bone and his players are paying for this year.

On a related note, Bone's got a heck of a dilemma on his hands at the 4 spot. Abe Lodwick has started every game at the 4; Nik Koprivica has been his primary relief. When Koprivica's in the game, the offense is better, as is the man-to-man defense. When Lodwick's in the game, the rebounding is better -- he's putting up better rebounding numbers in these seven games than Caleb Forrest did all of last year.

Last night, Bone elected to roll with Koprivica virtually the entire second half, probably the only decision all night I'm not sure I agreed with. We were getting killed so badly on the boards, and it sure seemed like we could have used Abe in there. Yet, Bone elected to stay with Koprivica. He seems to not want to play these two guys on the floor at the same time, so it's going to be interesting to see how he manages these two guys.

This team will be better off for having lost that game than they would have been had they won with Klay bailing them out again. Of course, nobody ever wants to lose. But sometimes you learn things in losing that you don't learn in winning. Both Reggie Moore and Marcus Capers said the Cougs didn't finish the game strong after racing out to the big lead. That's the second time it's happened this year. Against EWU, they were bailed out by Klay Thompson. No such luck last night, with Klay being locked down by the Zags' defense.

If this game ends up teaching them how to keep their foot on the gas for 40 minutes, then it will have been worth it. How different might last night have been if they had kept up the intensity enough to take care of the basketball down the stretch and continue to aggressively drive into the lane? They would have won even without Klay, and that's what this team needs to learn.

Besides, if the Cougs are in the mix for a Tournament berth in March, this will hardly be considered a bad loss.

Klay Thompson is still very much a work in progress. We wondered what would happen when Klay finally played an opponent with the length and athleticism to bother his shot. We found out -- 6-of-21 shooting for an ineffective 15 points. Steven Gray was physical with him all night long, working to deny Klay the ball as much as possible. When he did get the ball, he could hardly get off a shot.

It was painfully clear last night that if this team wants Klay to continue to perform at a high level when they're playing a quality opponent, he's going to have to work harder to get open -- seriously, he should get some videos of Stephen Curry and study them -- and his teammates are going to have to be more in tune with getting him the ball in spots where he can score. Not that this is all bad; if there's one thing Klay has shown over the last two years, it's that he learns from game to game -- not month to month or year to year. Again, there's no doubt in my mind the Cougs will grow from this.

Truthfully, Gray is probably going to be one of the better defenders Klay sees this year. But if you were worried about Klay leaving at the end of the year, last night should make you feel a little better. If I'm an NBA GM watching last night's game, I'm thinking Klay's still got some work to do.

Lastly, Greg Heister and Craig Ehlo suck. More specifically, they suck at being objective. It's not that they necessarily call a bad game, it's just that they try to represent this total farce of a facade of objectivity. I mean, on one possession, it looked like there was a foul down low on a Gonzaga player and Heister said, "Was that a foul? It better be a foul!" He tried backtracking later, but why pretend? If FSN is going to go so cheap that they can't send one of their better (a relative term, I know) announcing teams to Spokane, then just be a homer. It's fine with me. But quit pretending.

Especially Ehlo. For goodness sakes, Craig -- we know you're a Zag now. We know that the only WSU player you really know anything about is Casto because he grew up in Spokane. We get it. You are a Spokane guy who's closer to the Gonzaga program. Fine. Just drop the pretenses, and say you don't follow the Cougs all that closely, OK? Because it's really obvious

Bank on it: Cougs are hoping Zags engage in uptempo contest

Nuss — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 23:00:16 -0000

More photos » by Eugene Tanner - AP

The Bulldogs generally want to run as much as possible, but we wonder if that doesn't just play right into the Cougs' hands.

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Catch up with me on Twitter @NussCoug!

One of the more interesting things Jim Meehan said in our interview yesterday is that if the Cougs want to push the tempo tonight, he fully expects the Zags to be more than willing dance partners.

This doesn't come as a huge surprise -- the Zags have averaged right around 69 possessions over the past few years despite virtually every team they play in conference deliberately trying to slow them down. In an ideal world, Gonzaga wants to play a game with possessions in the high 70s.

Of course, it doesn't always work out that way. If a team wants to slow the game down, they generally can -- after all, it was Mark Few who last year said his team would love to turn up the tempo on the Cougs, but it takes two to tango, and he didn't expect the Cougs to do that since they had slowed the game down to historic proportions the year before.*

*Unfortunately for us, the Cougs actually were all-too-eager to indulge the Zags last year by putting up their third-worst shooting night of the year (allowing a lot of defensive rebounds to become transition opportunities) and turning the ball over in one out of five possessions (also leading to transition opportunities) on their way to WSU's third-fastest game of the year (65 possessions). But I digress.

Well, these Cougs most definitely don't want to slow it down. Beyond the fact that it's just Ken Bone's preferred style to get up and down the floor, this team also has struggled in half court sets for the better part of the year. Much of that can be blamed on youth; when you run a motion offense as Bone does, experience is important, given that an ill-timed screen or a missed cut can undermine the entire set.

Which is why I think the Zags might be making a mistake if they want to make tonight's contest into a race.

There's an old saying in coaching that a team should never get away from what it does best, and there's little doubt that what the Zags have done the best over the years is get out and run. But the advantage Gonzaga would hold in an uptempo contest over the young and athletic Cougs is much smaller than the advantage they'd hold in a half court contest.

Think about it: If your defense is designed to slow down Klay Thompson, is it easier to find that one guy in a half court set, or in transition? It goes without saying that Klay should have an easier time finding looks in a fast-paced game.

Additionally, the Cougs' most glaring weakness is in the frontcourt. Defending post players and defensive rebounding are going to be a major, major issues for this team all year long. Gonzaga has a decided advantage on both counts, with 7-foot Robert Sacre and 6-11 Kelly Olynyk. If those two share the floor with 6-foot-8 Elias Harris, that's a tough load for the Cougs to handle. Heck, if even two of them are on the floor at the same time, that's a huge advantage, given that one of them likely will be guarded by either Abe Lodwick or Nik Koprivica.

But if Gonzaga gets into an up-and-down game with WSU, I think that mitigates our defensive rebounding issues a bit. While we have had issues boxing out bigger offensive players in halfcourt sets, we have demonstrated an ability to offensive rebound with quickness and agility. Defensive rebounding in transition is a lot more like offensive rebounding than it is like defensive rebounding in the half court. I think a running game makes our rebounding deficiencies smaller.

It's probably true that Gonzaga is the better team. But if it's true that the Zags really do want to get into an uptempo contest with the Cougs, I think it gives them a puncher's chance to knock out a ranked team on their own home court.

Klay goes for 43 as Cougs win Great Alaska Shootout

Grady. — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 21:11:34 -0000

NCAA Basketball Stats

ESPN.com Recap

UPDATE: I thought I'd throw in a couple of thoughts now that I've had time to actually see the game (Thanks to FSN for a replay this afternoon).

A lot of you might be wondering how Klay did it. Simply, he shot the lights out. He made shots when he was open, and he made shots when he wasn't so open. San Diego's defense was faulty at times, leaving Klay wide open on a couple of occasions. That was an especially egregious offense late in the second half, when everyone in the arena knew who the hottest man on the floor was. Nevertheless, this performance had more to do with Klay playing a spectacular game than the Toreros playing poor defense. Remember, San Diego is a team that prides itself on solid defense, and has had some tough battles with Gonzaga since Bill Grier left the Zags to become their head coach.

Most of Klay's damage was done on jump shots. 24 of the points came from threes, but Klay also displayed a turnaround jumper inside the arc that is virtually indefensible. He didn't have to be overly aggressive getting to the rim; he was shooting so well that he just didn't have to do it. Or get to the foul line for that matter, where he only had three points.

Klay's 43 sets the record for a single game in the Great Alaska Shootout, of which he was named the MOP. It was also the Cougars' first tournament win as a team in the G.A.S.

One of the things the Cougars had trouble with, at least in the first two games of the shootout, was burying their opponents with a prolonged scoring run. Tonight, it wasn't an issue, and I believe it had a lot to do with the Cougars locking the game down on defense. With 17:12 left, this was a close game, with WSU leading 43-41. By the time the clock hit 2:24, the Cougars went on, if you can believe it, a 43-10 run to blow the game wide open. A lot of it had to do with tough interior defense. Almost nothing underneath the basket was getting by DeAngelo Casto, Abe Lodwick and the Cougars' taller guards. The Toreros had some open perimeter shots, but they were few and far between, and when they did they couldn't capitalize.

And, of course, the Cougars had Klay Thompson.

Player of the Game: Klay. Thompson. 43 points on 16/24 shooting (8/13 3pt, 3/4 FTs), 5 boards, 4 assists, 2 steals.

Unsung Hero: Reggie Moore. The only other Coug in double figures had 16 points on 5 of 6 shooting. He also contributed 5 assists, 2 boards and 6 steals.

Play of the Game: Klay came off a screen to bury a three with 2:58 to play, giving him the single-game scoring record in the Great Alaska Shootout. It also put the Cougars up 84-51.

It was over when... With 7:40 left, Reggie Moore poked the ball free from San Diego's De'Jon Jackson and into the arms of Xavier Thames. Thames returned the favor by firing an outlet pass to the streaking Moore, who took it the distance for a dunk. The Cougs led 72-49 and erased any USD hopes for a comeback.

Stat of the Game: The Cougs' offensive efficiency rating of 137.6 is the highest its been in a single game since kenpom.com started cataloging the stat in 2003. Oh, and San Diego is only the 58th best team in the nation for defensive efficiency this season.

Washington State 89, IPFW 70

Grady. — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 07:44:46 -0000

NCAA Basketball Stats

This wasn't a basketball game, this was the Klay Thompson show.

Thompson went for a career high 37 points, on 15 of 20 shooting, as the Cougars ran away from the IPFW Mastodons in a high scoring affair.

The game was never really in doubt, so let's go through some bullet point style observations:

Klay Thompson is good. No, really. He's good. At one point in the second half, Ken Bone ran out a lineup of Thompson, Thames, Harthun, Watson and Enquist. Four reserves and one Klay. It was like KB was saying, 'It doesn't really matter who I throw out there with him, as long as Klay is on the court'. And, frankly, tonight it didn't. The crazy thing is that you'd think a huge scoring night for Klay would involve a billion three pointers. It didn't. He only made 2 of 3 beyond the arc, and the rest of his scoring came from the foul line (5 points) or inside the three-point line. He even acted like a post on a couple of occasions. If Klay can develop into an inside/outside threat, this is just the beginning of his dominance.
Before the game, Nuss sayeth: "The WSU big men: With a distinct size advantage (probably one of the two times we'll be able to say that this year), will the frontcourt begin to get sorted out?"
After the game, we got our answer: No. In fact, even with that noticeable size advantage (again, one of the few times we'll see it this year), WSU only outrebounded the Mastodons 35-33. Even worse, they lost the battle on the offensive glass, 33.3% to 31%. That's bad. Sure, there were a few long rebounds off of long shots that just didn't go the Cougars' way. But the lack of intensity and fundamentals under the basket at times was extremely frustrating. The frontcourt picture is possibly even blurrier now than before: Enquist, Motum and Watson were all bounced around for several minutes and neither one distanced themselves from the other two. Motum had a particularly embarrassing moment when he unintentionally hit the deck trying to convert a fast break with Klay Thompson. One of the two should have had an easy dunk or lay-in. Instead the ball bounced harmlessly out of bounds off an IPFW player. Lodwick and Koprivica played well in stretches, but also happen to be our most undersized forwards. We'll need one of the upper 6-footers to step up.
Xavier Thames is starting to make a name for himself in the backcourt. He played 20 minutes, as many as Marcus Capers, hit 3 of 4 shots and scored 7 points. More importantly, he looked comfortable doing it. We may not need to run Reggie Moore out there for 35+ minutes a night after all.
WHY CAN'T ABE LODWICK MAKE A THREE POINTER IN A GAME??!?!?!? I really hope it's not as frustrating for him as it is for me to watch. There is no way he's this bad of a shooter. No way. Abe was 0 for 4 tonight from distance, but grabbed 3 boards and made his only attempt inside the arc.
Good news: the Cougs were back to their old selves at the foul line, hitting 18 of 21. No Cougar starter missed a free throw attempt. Keep it up.
Why the Cougs won: unlike the last two games, getting to the foul line wasn't a big key for WSU in this one. The Cougs (mainly Klay) simply shot the lights out (60.2 eFG%), and held on to the ball (13.2% turnover rate). If you do those things consistently well, you're going to beat a lot of teams.

On to the awards:

Player of the Game: Klay Thompson. I'm starting to get concerned that no one else will win this award.

Unsung Hero: Xavier Thames. See above.

It was over when/Play of the Game: Deilvez Yearby air-mailed a one-handed dunk early in the second half, bouncing the ball off the backboard and into Nikola Koprivica's hands. Koprivica then passed the ball the length of the court to Reggie Moore, who was waiting on the other end to convert the dunk.

Stat of the Game: Klay Thompson. 37 points.

He's good.

Quick observations on last night's win

Nuss — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 04:19:07 -0000

Enough football! Let's talk hoops!

I don't have a lot of time to compose flowery prose, but I did want to pass along some of my initial thoughts after last night. Here you go, bullet style:

Like most of you, last night was the first time I've gotten a chance to watch this team. My initial impression brought to mind a certain former coach of the Arizona Cardinals. We're athletic in the backcourt. We're small up front. We have a new coach, so the offense looks awkward at times. We're young, so the effort is inconsistent. These are all things we expected, and all things we saw last night.

Klay Thompson is a different player than he was last year -- and that is a fantastic thing. You might think I'm talking about that improved free throw rate. I'm not. While that is all well and good, I'm just talking about his attitude. He's got a completely different demeanor than he did last year, when there were times where he had to be begged to shoot instead of deferring to Taylor Rochestie and Aron Baynes. He's carrying himself like a guy who not only knows he's the team's best scorer, but as a guy who knows he's one of the premier scorers in the conference, if not the country. He looks like a guy who knows he's the best player on the floor. Tremendous confidence. I've said it before, and I'll say it again: This team will go as far as Klay can carry it.

The downside to that, of course, is that there were times last night where I felt like he was taking some rushed shots and forcing things a bit. I'm guessing that's part of Ken Bone's strategy to get Thompson to see himself as a scorer. Once that transformation is complete, expect some of that to get reigned in. Personally, I'd rather have my best scorer shooting too much than too little, and Thompson is far too smart of a player to continue to have such poor shot selection.

Yup, Reggie Moore is good. I think what I liked the most is that he generally wasn't spectacular -- just steady while making the occasional nice play. And oh by the way, he played 36 minutes. If he plays with this kind of a steady hand all year, while blossoming into a reliable scorer, this team could end up being better than I thought.

Speaking of those minutes, count me among those a little perplexed by Bone's rotation last night. I was all set to write a post on Bone's history of minute distribution at PSU, which essentially is that he used a lot of bodies for no more than 65 to 70 percent of the minutes on any given night. That held to form on Friday, but then last night blew that whole thing out of the water. Last night was classic Bennett: Three guys playing high minutes, five guys playing meaningful minutes, and a couple of guys getting token minutes. Perhaps this was just a one-night strategy, but count me among those surprised by how much he relied on Thompson, Moore and DeAngelo Casto last night.

Casto is fantastic. He's definitely beefed up, and has obviously worked to develop some offensive moves. However, I wonder if he can keep up that kind of energy all year long -- only five rebounds last night after a big night on Friday. There's obviously no way to know if there's any kind of causation there, but it sure seemed like he was slowing down on the glass as the game wore on. And, to be honest, it's not the minutes I'm worried about, per se; it's the minutes as the team's primary big man, with the other team's best big man leaning on him night after night.

The rest of the frontcourt is as big of a question mark as I feared. James Watson looked OK I guess, and Abe Lodwick's energy was impressive. But where was Brock Motum? And Charlie Enquist is doing nothing to dispel the idea that he's merely keeping his scholarship warm for someone with more talent. The lack of production out of anyone not named Casto was stunning. Perhaps it had something to do with the matchup that Bone elected to go small almost the entire night, but I fear that it's because our bigs are even worse than we imagined.

Good to see the defense be incredibly effective in spurts. The pack is still in full force, even if it's been modified ever so slightly to increase ball pressure on the perimeter. There were a number of breakdowns along the way, which would probably lead some to question whether the same commitment to defense will be there this year. It's a sound question, but I'll reserve judgment on it until we see some more games. I'll go ahead and chalk up some of those open 3s where they didn't close out to immaturity at this point.

To close, I thought last night was the perfect microcosm of what we're going to see this season. There were spots where they looked really, really good. I was satisfied with the way they were playing early, cold shooting and questionable shot selection notwithstanding. The effort was good, even if the execution wasn't. Soon, they turned up the heat defensively, and closed the first half on a run. They began the second half in much the same way, running the lead to 15 points with 12 minutes to go.

But then ... youth kicked in. The Eags, full of veterans and trying to make a name for themselves, kept chopping wood. The Cougs, full of freshmen and sophomores, started to coast. And it nearly cost them. The great news is that it didn't cost them -- they still won -- but Bone will have plenty of teaching points as ammunition for practice this week. That's really the best of both worlds when you've got a young team.

Washington State 94, Miss. Valley State 66

Grady. — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 07:53:58 -0000

NCAA Basketball Stats

Cougar friends and family, we are gathered here to mourn the loss of a close friend.

Together, we were there for the birth in 2003. Saw it through some hard times and growing pains. Suffered through the blowout losses, and triumphed after the improbable upsets. And, in the end, our patience was rewarded, as we were taken to new heights and places we hadn't been in ages. It was a glorious era, filled with defense, halfcourt offense and games with final scores in the fifties.

But, now, it is all over.

Bennett ball was only six years old.

Here we sit tonight, after a game where the Cougars shot 46.9% - 30% from three-point range - and scored ninety-four points.

So while we remember the good times we had in the past, the time has come to move on.

Something tells me we aren't going to miss the five minute scoring droughts anyway.

Now let's talk about the game:

Starting Lineup: Yet again Bone went with Moore, Capers, Thompson, Lodwick and Casto. Normally I'd say that Abe Lodwick starting at the 4 is a recipe for trouble, but tonight he played his position well, even if the shots still aren't falling: 4 points, 6 offensive boards, 9 total rebounds and 2 assists. He did only play 16 minutes, sharing time with Koprivica, Motum and Enquist. All played well against the undersized Delta Devils, with the Cougars earning a substantial 46 to 20 rebounding advantage.

Outside of Lodwick, the other starters lived up to their hype, scoring in double figures and keeping the Cougar offense afloat throughout the night. Klay Thompson led all scorers with 20, Casto had 18, and 10 points each were scored by Capers and Moore. Reggie added six assists and a couple boards.

Quick Start: WSU jumped out to a 9-0 lead and MVSU never seriously threatened again. Defense was an issue for the Cougars, surrendering 66 points and a more problematic 12 three-pointers. Still, the Cougs were in control all evening and despite MVSU coming within nine again late in the second half, the Cougars ramped up the tempo and took a 17 point lead into halftime.

Positives: The Cougars made nearly twice as many free throws (28) as MVSU attempted (15). The Cougs made 80 percent of their 35 attempts at the charity stripe. WSU also forced 21 turnovers and had the aforementioned dominating performance on the boards. The Cougars had 11 players score on the evening, four in double figures. (EDIT: Sweet fancy Moses look at that offensive rebounding dominance - who are we, U-dub? Oh yeah, and that free throw rate is phenomenal - everything I wanted to see last year, especially from Klay)

Negatives: Wazzu gave up 17 turnovers of their own, and occasionally struggled to score in the halfcourt. They shot poorly from behind the arc, making only six of 20 attempts. There were also some defensive lapses, with Cougars failing to close out on D'Angelo Jackson, who hit three of five from downtown. Tashan Newsome, MVSU's leading scorer, connected on five of ten shot attempts. The reserves for WSU struggled in the final minutes, however John Allen and Brock Motum connected on three-point shot attempts.

Redshirts burnt: Ken Bone played both Steven Bjornstad and guard Anthony Brown in relief, meaning that neither true freshman is eligible for a redshirt unless medical circumstances call for it. It was a questionable call considering that both players stand to get very limited playing time.

Player of the Game: DeAngelo Casto. In only 20 minutes, Casto was dominant: 18 points on 6 of 9 shooting, 4 offensive rebounds, 4 defensive rebounds, 2 assists, 1 steal, only 1 turnover and all 3 of the team's blocks. One can only wonder how lopsided the game might have been had Casto played a few more minutes.

Unsung Hero: How about Nikola Koprivica? Off the bench the Cougar senior had nine points, four rebounds and two assists against no turnovers. He made half of his shots and helped the Cougars regain their energy in transition late in the first half.

It was over when... Speaking of which, it was Koprivica's entrance into the game that helped spark the Cougars 8-0 run near the end of the first half after the Delta Devils had come within nine. Down by 17, MVSU would never threaten the Cougar lead again.

Play of the Game: There are a few candidates, but I have to go with Casto's back-to-back blocks on the same MVSU possession in the second half. It looked like after the first block, the second Devil shot would go up uncontested. But Casto snuffed out the shot, leading to a fast break opportunity for the Cougs.

Stat of the Game: Sharing is caring, and the Cougars assisted on 20 out of 30 made shots.