SB Nation - Taylor Rochestie

Tony Bennett continues to haunt us: Harris picks Virginia

Nuss — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 20:08:52 -0000

Barring a change of heart, Joe Harris will not be coming to Pullman unless Virginia plays a game there. via www.golakechelan.net

View full size photo »

Howie Stalwick had a nice little story today on Taylor Rochestie signing with a German professional team ("It’s in the middle of nowhere," Rochestie said. "It’ll be perfect for me -- just like Washington State. My parents thought it was tough to get to Washington State …" Neato!).

However, you've got to read to the bottom to get the real news:

IN OTHER BASKETBALL news, 6-5 Chelan High senior-to-be Joe Harris announced Monday that he has verbally committed to Tony Bennett and Virginia.

AAAAAAAAAAAERRRRRRRGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH! CURSE YOU TONY BENNETT!!!!!!! Why do you insist on continuing to torture us?

Stalwick says this is especially curious because Harris told Cougfan on Sunday that UVa and WSU were deadlocked, and in that same conversation indicated he might not make a decision until after officially visiting both schools in the fall.

That might make you think this verbal might be on the "soft" side. But if you read this story in the Wenatchee World, he sounds pretty set:

"It was my gut feeling," the soon-to-be high school senior said of his decision. "I had an unofficial visit at a mid-June camp, and I just liked the facilities and the school. It was an opportunity I couldn’t really pass up. ... It was definitely a pretty tough decision, but I’m 100 percent sure I made the right one."

The tipping point appeared to be Virginia's academic reputation.

There's really no way to sugarcoat this one: This is a big loss for Ken Bone. Harris is precisely his kind of player, a tall guard who can get his shot off anywhere on the perimeter and is long enough to play Bone's pressure and deny defense.

You can bet Ken Bone isn't going to give up on recruiting Harris until he puts his name on the dotted line in November -- especially when a kid is making a decision based on a "gut" feeling -- but after months of unadulterated success, it appears we have the first swing and a miss of the Bone era.

That the loss came to Tony Bennett and Virginia -- for one of the reasons Bennett left WSU in the first place -- makes it that much more painful

Finally, some news on Casto - unfortunately, it's not as good as hoped for

Nuss — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 04:57:36 -0000

Vince Grippi is reporting tonight that DeAngelo Casto finally had arthroscopic surgery on the knee he injured while playing with Team USA in the FIBA U19 tournament in New Zealand, and while the prognosis isn't terrible, it's not as good as we all hoped for.

Back when the news broke of the injury, I noted that the extent of these kinds of injuries often isn't known until the doctor gets inside the knee to repair it. It looks like that's exactly what happened this time, as the original reported timetable of a 6- to 8-week recovery now has been stretched out to 10 to 12 weeks thanks to the surgeon having to repair two tears -- in both the lateral and medial menisci -- rather than just one tear.

If you're a geek like me and wondering just what that means, here's the picture of the knee I ran in the previous post. The meniscus is the cushion between the bones in the knee joint:

via img.webmd.com

The words lateral and medial identify which side of the knee the meniscus is on, meaning Casto had tears on both sides of his knee:

via img.webmd.com

The good news is that these types of knee injuries don't typically stay with athletes or rob them of any of their quickness or agility. And as long as everything goes smoothly in his rehab -- and these sorts of surgeries have become rather routine for athletes and their physicians, so there's no reason to think it won't -- the 10- to 12-week timetable puts him ready to begin full-scale workouts somewhere around the end of September or middle of October, which is in plenty of time for the start of practices.

While this does suck as far as Casto working on strength training and offseason conditioning, this could be a huge blessing in disguise. If I remember correctly, Casto battled through some knee soreness during the season, which means there's a good chance that one or more of these tears had already begun. Much better to get them repaired now than once the season has already started.

There are some other links to pass along tonight that I didn't have time to post today, if you're so inclined to read them:

WSU Football Blog breaks down the offensive line. I maintain that these guys hold the keys to our offensive effectiveness.
Howie Stalwick checks in with Taylor Rochestie, who appears to be parlaying his pretty good showing in the NBA Summer League into a contract with a German basketball team.
Jim Moore finally writes another Cougfan.com column, getting inside the head of punter Reid Forrest.
Jon Wilner continues his best of the decade series and names Jason Gesser the seventh-best Pac-10 QB since the turn of the century. When you look at the other names on that list, you realize just how many good quarterbacks have come through this conference in the last 10 years. Holy cow.

THE AFTERNOON PAPER: Discipline issues still at the fore with football

Nuss — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 22:21:16 -0000

I haven't put together a links post in a couple of days, and I've got a ton of stuff built up in the SB Nation Clipper queue today.

Let's lead off with football for once, since, you know ... it's almost football season.

Created by OnePlusYou

Now if we could, you know, actually talk about football when it comes to the football team.

Howie Stalwick at Cougfan.com checks in with Jim Sterk to find out just what the esteemed AD thinks about the job his football coach is doing in the wake of even more transgressions with the law on the part of his players.

"I think Paul has made significant progress and the team has as far as what they’re doing -- their attitude, how they’re conducting themselves," Sterk said. ... "There’s been a couple screw-ups. I don’t want to minimize it. But they’ve been a heck of a lot better than in my previous nine years."

Wait a minute. Nine years? I was under the impression the players running afoul of the law or the university was a relatively new phenomenon. Perhaps there was more going on behind the scenes than we knew. Which is why it shouldn't be surprising that Ted Miller tells his general Pac-10 readers that it's unlikely that Sterk goes in a different direction at the end of the year, even if the Cougs suffer another abysmal season:

So let's say the Cougars win one, two or three games and end up in the conference basement. Does that mean fans should start calling for Wulff's head?

No.

It's impossible to judge a coach on two seasons. And Sterk, who strikes me as a measured decision-maker, knows that and isn't going to panic. Wulff inherited a program that had lost its direction. Or, to be more direct: He inherited a program devoid of talent and leadership.

At the very least, the changes Wulff has instituted are resulting in some good rhetoric around the program. In his Cougfan.com diary, Kenny Alfred dedicates the first portion to talking about the "covenants" the players developed to hold each other accountable.

These four covenants are things that the entire team is unifying with and working to fully attain on a day-to-day basis. And in all honesty, with these four concepts now firmly in place, things have gotten leaps and bounds better both on and off the field than they were before. As new players who are incredibly eager to learn and accept the system that we’re putting in place arrive, we will only become a stronger and better football team.

Then, in his CF.C diary, Kevin Kooyman talks about the difference in strength training since Wulff and strength coach Daren Lovat have made.

It's all well and good, but we heard a lot of talk before last year about the culture change that Wulff was bringing, and it didn't really show up on the field. When I was in high school, we had similar off-field measures to ensure our success in the coming seasons. We went 0-8, and won exactly three games in my entire high school career. We'll see just how much of a change has been made under Wulff when things start to go south this year.

THE MORNING PAPER: Showdown of undefeateds not to be as Aussies come up short

Nuss — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 17:24:19 -0000

After more or less cruising through their first seven games, Team USA and Australia seemed to be on a crash course to tangle for first place at the FIBA U19 tournament -- an exciting prospect given the presence of WSU star Klay Thompson on the American squad and incoming recruit Brock Motum on the Australian team.

Alas, it is not to be. The Aussies couldn't hold up their end of the bargain, getting whipped by Greece 84-69 in a game that really wasn't even as close as that final margin. Motum, whose effectiveness seemed to tail off as the tournament wore on, scored just nine points in 22 minutes with four rebounds and no assists, steals or blocks.

"We just came out soft, they were all over us," Australia's Cody Ellis told FIBA.com. "They were a lot physically stronger than us tonight. We beat them in Melbourne by 20, and we just came out like we were going to win this. Even in the warm up we were soft, not talking."

So, Team USA will now face Greece -- a team it has already beaten -- for the gold medal after narrowly beating Croatia, 81-77. In fact, it took a fourth-quarter comeback to put away the Croatians after a 46-33 halftime lead was completely erased in the third quarter.

Thompson had his worst shooting game of the tournament -- just five points on 2-of-6 (1-of-4 3-pointers) -- but as he has all tournament, he contributed in other ways, picking up four rebounds, an assist, a steal and two blocks.

If you didn't watch the games, you can catch highlights here (although, it's basically just a bunch of 3-pointers and dunks with no commentary). I'll have a preview for the gold medal game, which will be played at 12:30 a.m. PDT Saturday night/Sunday morning, up a bit later.

Half a world away, another Coug also will be playing for a gold medal, as Nikola Koprivica and Serbia will take on Russia in the World University Games after defeating Israel, 82-56. The Serbians would have gotten a rematch with Team USA had the Americans not allowed the Russians to end the game on a 20-9 run and defeat them by a point, 69-68. Ouch. But you've got to love all the international success our players are experiencing.

However, at least one blogger is not impressed by all this international experience the Cougs are getting. Joel Welser at CollegeHoops.net ranks WSU as the No. 141 basketball team in the country heading into this season, just ahead of such stellar programs as Jackson State (144), Fairfield (143) and South Carolina State (142).

He does seem to have a grasp on the team as a whole, so I'll give him credit for that -- he even nails Klay's need to be more aggressive to the basket, which is huge and often overlooked. But 141? That's equivalent to Oregon territory from last year, and I have a hard time believing you could make a plausible argument that we'll be that bad. Although not as absurdly low as a couple of the commenters on the post would make it sound, it still seems pretty low to me.

I will, though, give this guy props for even attempting a list like this. Until you've done something similar -- I've voted on blogpoll Top 25s the last couple of years -- you don't know just how hard it is to rank one team against another. It's a lot more difficult than it seems.

Want even more basketball news? Aron Baynes and Taylor Rochestie kicked off their quests to realize their NBA dreams, making their debuts in the NBA summer league yesterday. Rochestie played well in 20 minutes, scoring eight points on 4-of-4 shooting with two assists, a rebound, a steal and a turnover.

Baynes didn't fare nearly as well -- eight minutes, 0-of-4 shooting, three rebounds (two offensive), one assist, one turnover, five fouls. Yuck. Whether Baynes can move his feet quickly enough to play serviceable defense in the NBA will be the key, and if he's picking up that many fouls in summer league ...

Both will be back in action today at 3 p.m. You actually can watch the games online, if you want to give the NBA $14.99. I don't, but I won't begrudge you if you do. The other Coug in the league, Kyle Weaver, doesn't play until 5 p.m. tomorrow. You can check out the full schedule here.

Let's talk money, hopefully for the last time in a while. We noted on Thursday that WSU sent out a release detailing how it's coping with the budget mandates handed down by the university, and it turns out that's about the extent of the budget modifications the athletic department is undertaking. The final numbers are being worked out, but it does appear WSU is going to be able to get by on tightening its belt rather than undergoing the bloodletting at other schools.

Jim Sterk, via Grippi:

"It’s a little bit better than what I had thought," said WSU athletic director Jim Sterk on Thursday, when the athletic department announced a group of budget cuts for the 2009-10 fiscal year that started July 1. "However, some revenues are down, the annual fund, ticket renewals. … Those are things we knew were going to be down, we just had hoped they would stay strong, and they have for the most part."

Still, Washington State is trying to cover a revenue shortfall of around $1 million, a number still not completely defined despite the onset of a new fiscal year.

"I hate to be evasive and I apologize," Sterk said when pressed for concrete budget numbers, "but you could safely say, as we looked at our budget last year and then this upcoming year, we were looking at probably over a million dollars.

"It’s going to be a work in progress. Going into our budgets we have a lot of unknowns."

So there you have it -- the non-story story. About the only definitive thing about it is that there won't be any sports cut this year, which is fantastic (if not unexpected) news.

Let's finish up with a couple of small football notes. First, the game times have been set for the first three games of the year:

vs. Stanford: 5 p.m.
vs. Hawaii (in Seattle): 4 p.m.
vs. SMU: 2 p.m.

None are scheduled to be on TV, although Cougfan.com says the first two contests do fit into broadcast windows and could still be picked up. That seems correct to me.

Lastly, Jon Wilner -- the excellent college sports reporter at the San Jose Mercury News -- ranked Mike Price as the No. 6 Pac-10 coach of the decade. Neato.

We'll be back with more later on this sunny Saturday afternoon.

THE MORNING PAPER: Three Cougs drafted by MLB clubs

Nuss — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 16:56:26 -0000

Quite the newsy Thursday in Cougar land today.

Of course, the big news of yesterday was three Cougar baseball players taking the first step to begin their professional careers after being selected in the MLB First-Year Player Draft, highlighted by senior LHP Matt Way heading to Philadelphia's system after the Phillies took him in the fifth round. It was the highest selection for a WSU player since third baseman Stefan Bailie went in the fourth round to Boston in 2000.

Way's told his hometown paper he feels the extra year at WSU made him ready for this next step:

"It was a good call to come back," he said in a teleconference Wednesday afternoon. "I'm not sure how money-wise it'll work out, but I'm definitely glad I came back for one last season. I felt a lot more comfortable going into the minor-league system now, trying to climb the ladder this year instead of last year." ...

(H)e added another pitch to his arsenal, developing a slider to go along with his fastball and change-up.

"It kinda helps to go into the minor leagues when you have three pitches," Way said. "It sets up my change-up and fastball and it's another weapon to use against left-handed hitters. Just developing that pitch should help me in the long run."

Also selected were junior RHP Jeremy Johnson (13th round, Cleveland) and C/1B Alex Burg (24th round, San Francisco). I don't know that Johnson has said definitively what he's going to do, but I think we all can assume he's not coming back. Said Marbut: "I am really happy for these three guys. They all will represent the Cougs in a first-class manner on and off the field." Sounds like a done deal to me.

Don't underestimate the value of what happened yesterday. Not only does it show that Marbut can prepare a kid for a professional career, but Way's improvement -- from a 36th round pick last year -- shows that he and his staff can really develop a player.

The draft concludes today with rounds 31 through 50. Expect guys like Jared Prince, Greg Lagreid and Chad Arnold to get the call, but expect Arnold to come back for his junior year.

The NCAA Track Championships kicked off yesterday amid some dicey weather in Fayetteville, Ark., but that didn't stop Jeshua Anderson from cruising through the prelims in his quest to defend his 400-meter hurdles crown. He posted the third-fastest time of the day (50.12 seconds).

Also advancing yesterday were senior Barry Leavitt (400-meter hurdles), sophomore Melissa Tschida (javelin) and junior Trent Arrivey (high jump). Eliminated yesterday were senior Justin Woods (100-meter dash), senior Lorraine King (400-meter hurdles) and senior Sam Ahlbeck (3000-meter steeplechase).

As the Pac-10 champ in her event, King's elimination has to be considered a surprise -- she ran a 58.99 yesterday, which was nearly a second-and-a-half off her Pac-10 championship time. Granted, that time was her lifetime best, but she surely was hoping for a better showing. Woods finished 19th by 2/100ths of a second in an event that took 18 runners to the semifinal heats. But he gets a chance to redeem himself today in the 200-meter dash prelims. (By the way, did you know that Woods is 5-foot-5? That's incredibly short for an elite sprinter. Kinda neat.)

The competition continues today with Matt Lamb (discuss, 11 a.m.), Robert Williams (110-meter hurdles, 3:50 p.m.) and Lisa Egami (1500-meter run, 5:55 p.m.) starting their events, while Anderson will run in his semis at 6:05 p.m. You can actually watch it live here.

There's also some basketball news out there, with Cougfan.com's report that Steven Bjornstad has been released from his letter of intent with Nevada. However, this has not been officially announced -- it appears CF.C is working from information from Bjornstad's high school coach. Nevada seemed to be really digging its heels in, so it will be interesting to see if it's accurate. I would be surprised if it wasn't true, but I'm guessing it leaked out a little before everyone wanted it to. Of course, Bjornstad would be a natural fit for the Cougs with their need for big bodies, so don't be surprised if he ends up in Pullman shortly after his release becomes official.

In other basketball-related news, Taylor Rochestie was named WSU's male Tom Hansen Conference Medal winner, "based on the exhibition of the greatest combination of performance and achievement in scholarship, athletics and leadership." Steeplechase and cross country runner Sara Trane' was the winner for the women.

Wondering what Rochestie and his other senior basketball mates have been up to since graduating? Howie Stalwick catches up with each of them for Cougfan.com. In short, both Aron Baynes and Rochestie are hoping to continue their basketball careers, Caleb Forrest has given up on that altogether thanks to a chronic ankle injury (did anyone else know about this? How much pain has that guy played through? My respect level for Caleb just went up another notch), and Daven Harmeling is finishing up his teaching credentials with his eye on becoming a coach.

Other miscellaneous stuff:

At least one guy thinks it won't be a surprise if Ken Bone can lead the Cougs back to the NCAA Tournament.
Cougfan.com advises not to count on catching the football team too many times on TV this fall. (Thanks, Tom Hansen! You're the best!)
Wondering what Mike Price is up to at UTEP? The Quad Countdown -- which ranked the Cougs 114th among FBS teams -- has the Miners ranked No. 83 in this preview. (Curse you, Alabama and your allure of "big time" football!)

Top 10 Cougar Plays: #1

Grady. — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 15:00:28 -0000

February 28th: Like it was going to be anything else.

This was absolutely horrific shot selection. For one, when you're down only one, the smart play is always - always - to go for two. Driving to the basket is the best way to accomplish this, as it gives you the added chance to get to the foul line if you can't make the shot. Initially, it looks like Taylor was going this route, although Derek Glasser's defense and the bump by Forrest prevented what might have been another trademark runner/floater by Taylor.

Instead, Taylor pulls out to just beyond the three-point line, where he has a decent look if he wants to pull the trigger. He doesn't. He passes it to Marcus Capers, who, perhaps remembering the UCLA game, gets the ball out of his hands as quickly as possible. Back to Rochesite. He shakes of Glasser, and....

All I remember is seeing a ball go up. I had no idea where he shot it, as I was on the other end of the court blocked by my fellow students probably screaming for a time out. I remember the silence as it went up, the initial shock when it went through, and then the pandemonium when we all realized what had happened.

Usually, shots like these go to the other guys. Friel, as great a venue as it is, never usually rewards the home team. We've seen losses in this building that felt like a punch to the stomach. We've seen calls as inept as any I've ever seen in college basketball. We've seen our final desperation attempts fall harmlessly to the ground. This time was different.

As much as we want to make the smart call, play the percentages, go by the book, every once in a while you get something even better when you just throw it all out the window. And that's what Taylor Rochestie did. In his final home game, with the postseason on the line. There will never be another shot like this one in the minds of Cougar fans.

Forget basketball. Forget just this year. This is my favorite Cougar play of all time.

I still can't believe it went in.

Top 10 Cougar Plays: #3

Grady. — Thu, 21 May 2009 23:30:10 -0000

January 10th: Taylor Rochestie's runner with 17 seconds left beats Stanford.

This wasn't just a shot, this was an exorcism of our demons against Stanford.

For the record, I hate Stanford. I hated them ever since the Chris Hernandez era, and a certain game that I don't like to talk about (Funny how ESPN has pulled down the recap, as if it never happened. I like that). I probably hated Stanford before that, but I just didn't know it. I probably would've applied to Stanford as lofty, see-if-I-can-get-accepted school, but there was something unappealing about doing another $50 application when I didn't want to stray that far from home in the first place. Plus, I kinda like the fact that I'm not stuck up about my education. Oooh, you went to Stanford? Let's pull out the brie and chardonnay so we can talk about it!

Ok, that's not fair. I'm pretty sure most (but not all) Stanford students are cool, so I reserve the bulk of my hatred for the athletic teams. Especially the men's basketball program, headed up in two of the last three years by Brook and Robin Lopez, twin brothers of questionable literacy.

Of course the real reason I hate them is that in our magical, 23-7 Sweet Sixteen season, Stanford beat us three times. Three! That's almost half of our losses for the entire season. And all involve R. Lopez or B. Lopez (sometimes both) manhandling Baynes in the post, while drawing invisible fouls on Aron at the other end. My memories of Stanford games past involve Baynes sitting on the bench in foul trouble, while Brook Lopez beats his chest because he is, in fact, God's gift to basketball.

For the majority of this year's game at Friel, it looked as if the Cougars were in for another loss to the Cardinal. We trailed by as much as 11, and cut the lead to eight at the half. For the most part, WSU was lifeless in their first game against Johnny Dawkins' Cardinal. That is, until a certain freshman broke away for a dunk that gave the Cougars the lead for the first time. The game was hotly contested the rest of the way.

I remember two things about the Rochestie shot. One, it was way too early. 17 seconds left? Milk the clock, buddy. The other was that Taylor, despite having a noted knack for hitting last-minute shots, had never made a game-winner at Friel Court. When the basket went in, we were a defensive stop away from making it happen.

Of course, for whatever reason, it's never easy against Stanford. Anthony Goods missed a jump shot with under ten seconds left. Goods missed, and DeAngelo Casto grabbed the board. There was time left, and with Casto going to the line and WSU up one point, Stanford would still have a chance to tie, or possibly win.

That was the other remarkable thing about this game. In the final minutes, Tony went with the following lineup: Rochesite, Thompson, Casto, Lodwick, Baynes. Seriously. Ye who have little faith in Abe may have forgotten he was on the floor for one of our biggest wins of the year. Finally, Tony showed some confidence in our freshmen. It helped prevent us from going 0-3 in conference to start the year.

Then again, freshmen are still freshmen. So when DeAngelo Casto bricked both (!) free throws on the other end, Stanford had one more chance to win. But Goods' 30-footer for the win fell harmlessly to the floor, and WSU was vindicated.

It may not have erased the painful losses of the past, but for the moment it felt great. Taylor got his winning basket, the Cougs' got their first Pac-10 win, and everyone went home happy. Well, everyone except for Stanford.

Top 10 Cougar Plays: #4

Grady. — Tue, 19 May 2009 16:34:30 -0000

January 17th: Baynes. Open. For three.

At one point, I know video existed of this play. However, I'm afraid the YouTube Gods have frowned on us now that the season is over. Either that, or I just can't find it.

Here's the KXLY recap of the game, which is tragically without the magic of Aron Baynes:

If you didn't see it, here's how Aron Baynes, all 6'10", 250 pounds of him, became the Cougars' most accurate three-point shooter (percentage-wise) last season:

With time winding down in the shot clock, and just over seven minutes remaining in the game, Taylor Rochestie hoisted up a three that missed badly. The ball bounced off the backboard and all the way out to Aron Baynes standing at the top of the arc. It was unclear if it touched rim. Baynes thought the shot clock was about to expire. It wasn't. The Oregon clock-keeper had reset it, but Baynes hoisted up a three-point jumper anyway. Swish.

The rest is history.

The shot almost didn't count; it took a lengthy officials' conference at midcourt to decide a number of things. Including whether or not the shot should count, whether the shot clock had expired, whether the reset was wrong, how many seconds should be left on the clock, etc., etc. Much booing ensued out of the Pit Crew, but our hero emerged victorious. Aron Baynes just hit a three-pointer to give the Cougars a 48-35 lead with 7:01 remaining. It was the back-breaker for an already struggling Ducks' team, who earlier saw their coach ejected for the first time in his twelve Pac-10 seasons.

It's debatable who I am going to miss more this next season: Baynes or Rochestie. The steady hand and leadership of Taylor kept our team in games this past year, and his penchant for hitting game-winners will certainly be missed (for instance: if Klay Thompson gets double-teamed next year, who else would you trust to hit a three for the win? Anyone?). Taylor was the heart and soul of our team last year. Still, I feel he had a fitting ending. He left Friel Court a matter of seconds after the biggest shot of his career. I still can't believe it happened. It was a perfect end to his time at WSU.

Baynes, on the other hand, was the consistent force, the motor that powered the Cougar train for the last three seasons. The power and athleticism were often taken for granted. Tony Bennett's biggest gripe with the officials last year was that Baynes never got credit for all the times he was shoved under the basket. Beat up in the post because he had the size and strength that forced his opponents to bend the rules and drive him out of the lane. Still, Baynes kept coming. Jump hook after jump hook he was our most consistent scorer. He netted a whopping 1.59 points per shot last year. That's efficiency.

He was also one of our most fiery competitors. Everyone has their favorite Aron Baynes moment. The three takes that place for some, for others it was the posterization of Jon Brockman on the Huskies' home floor. Personally, I liked the game against a lowly mid-major two years ago where Baynes dunked on an opposing player that had been giving him some grief for the better part of the game. Baynes dropped the ball on his chest, said something, and the technical foul was called. I know, not the most wholesome play, but still awesome. Baynes is one of the players that the home fans love and the opponents love to hate. As the traditional big man role continues to fade away in college basketball, we won't see many more players like Aron Baynes. It's a shame.

But let's not kid ourselves. I think we all know which Baynes' play stands alone as our favorite:

[hat tip: WSUCougarHoops on YouTube]

Remember kids, that's James Harden, a 2009 lottery pick, that he's stealing the pass from.

And finally, a quick poll, because I'm interested to see what you think:

Poll

Which 2008-09 Cougar basketball player will you miss the most?

Baynes

47 votes

Rochestie

23 votes

70 votes | Poll has closed

Top 10 Cougar Plays: #5

Grady. — Thu, 14 May 2009 16:39:41 -0000

February 21st: Taylor Rochestie pulls up for a transition three.

~~Play in question at the 0:24 second mark; video courtesy ESPN.com.~~
The ESPN video isn't working, so let's go with CougarChris624's highlight reel on YouTube. Play occurs at the 2:45 mark.

I can't say I've done a lot in pickup basketball. But one thing I have done is sunk an open three in transition, even though common sense says you shouldn't even take that shot in the first place. And man, does it feel good.

Needless to say I can't imagine the kind of cojones it takes to take this shot against the #15 team in the country, on the road, with the game on the line.

Of course, this was just indicative of Taylor Rochestie's season as a whole.

In the beginning, Taylor was off to a great start. He dominated the cupcake portion of the Cougar schedule, scoring, passing out assists and resting on the bench after he ensured a blowout win.

Then, in December, Rochesite's performance took a turn for the worse. It even led Nuss to write a post wondering just where on Earth the effective Taylor went. Suddenly, without the steady hands of Derrick Low and Kyle Weaver at his side, Taylor was human. He was missing shots. Forcing plays. Turning the ball over. What happened to the pass-first point guard that ran our Sweet Sixteen squad?

Turns out, while we had reason to be concerned, Taylor had to take over games at certain points in the season. This team was not going to win, and they certainly weren't heading to the NIT, without a Taylor Rochestie that could score and distribute. And so Taylor kept at it. While most of us were about ready to throw the book at Taylor for taking those 10+ shots a night, he didn't care. In Pac-10 games where he shot more than ten times, we were 6-7. I know, not the shocking winning-related stat you'd have hoped for, but in a 17-16 (8-10) season, it was exactly what we needed to stay alive for the NIT.

This was the game of Taylor's career. Not the play of his career, mind you, that comes later in the countdown. But to walk into Pauley Pavilion and drop a career high 33 against one of the nation's premier defensive programs - well, that's pretty special. And Taylor had to do it against Darren Collison, Jrue Holiday and a team filled with the pick of the litter in high school recruits. It was the have-nots walking into the arena of the have-everythings, and matching them every step of the way.

The 82-81 score from this game would have you believed that we flew down to Los Angeles and left Bennett Ball back in the hotel room. As I pointed out after the game, we didn't do that. We took it to UCLA with only six more possessions than we usually have in a game. The offense was just that good. Well, in reality, Taylor was just that good, with an assist from Klay Thompson's fifteen first-half points.

The fun fact of the game? Aron Baynes had four assists. Klay actually led the team with five. Only six Cougars scored in the game, but four were in double-figures.

Looking back at the game, I can also remember how nervous I was when UCLA actually cut the lead to one with under 10 seconds to play. Good thing Klay Thompson had the long arms to prevent the desperation shot from even reaching the basket.

Taylor's line for the game: 33 points, 9 of 16 shooting, 5 of 7 3pt, 10 of 10 FTs, 5 rebounds, 4 assists. And, most importantly, a transition three that just about sealed the game and caused SportsCenter to introduce the nation to Taylor's brother and the good-luck green warmup jersey.

Top 10 Cougar Plays: #7

Grady. — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 14:00:16 -0000

February 21st: Taylor Rochestie makes a one-handed putback against UCLA

Play in question occurs at the 1:37 mark of the video:

We will have more from this game later, so allow me to drop in some random thoughts:

Bonus points to Taylor for (sort of) beating Darren Collison off the dribble. That's something I will never be able to do in my lifetime.
That shot is truly ridiculous. The view from the floor helps me appreciate it even more than when I originally saw it on FSN.
Hat tip to KXLY, the ABC affiliate in Spokane, for the video. But if you watch the whole video.... waaaaay too much hyperbole in this highlight reel. Alfred Aboya "eats the whole wheel of cheese?" C'mon, KXLY, just because you can't have Bud Nameck do both the play-by-play and the highlights doesn't mean you can phone in your metaphors. I fully expected a "boom goes the dynamite", but it never came.
The more you know: The fine folks at KXLY did remind me that despite 15 in the first half, Klay Thompson never scored in the second. And we still won.
Let's take a minute to reflect on how incredibly insane this game was. First off, it was a game in the Tony Bennett era that ended 82-81. That alone would be enough, but then Rochestie had to go ahead and score a career-high 33. Against UCLA. On the road.
The Cougs shot 58.8% in this game. They eFG'd 66.7%. Against UCLA. On the road.

My goodness. We may never see another game as improbable as this one.

And I loved it.