SB Nation - Michael Harthun

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: CougCenter Podcast, Episode 14

Nuss — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 07:57:52 -0000

Just Grady and I this week, as we had a bit of an issue with our recording time. But to make up for it, we talk extra long -- 42 minutes worth of football and basketball! (Mostly basketball.)

As a side note, we'll apologize again for some of the pops and noises that seem to find their way into the recording through TalkShoe. The good news is that we're actively working on improving our technology to dramatically improve our sound quality. I've been working with Ty Hildenbrandt of The Solid Verbal podcast (if you love college football, it should be required listening) to get ideas to upgrade some things, and you should notice some pretty big differences soon. (You might already notice some small differences if you're listening carefully.)

Also, if you're interested, Paul Wulff's Tuesday teleconference is available via our podcast player on the right side of the page, or on our podcast page. (If you subscribe, you've already got it.) We just didn't put it up on the main page this week.

AUDIO: CougCenter Podcast, Episode 13

Nuss — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 23:12:26 -0000

Like you, we're pretty tired of football season. So, we spend most of this episode talking about basketball: expectations for the team (with particular attention paid to Ken Bone's comments) and a preview of the backcourt and frontcourt. We also submit predictions for the football game, but I'll bet you can guess how that goes.

PLAYER PROFILE: Michael Harthun

Grady. — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 05:31:53 -0000

#30 / Guard / Washington St. Cougars

Height: 6-3

Weight: 181

Year: Sophomore

Major: Journalism and/or Sport Management

High School: South Medford HS

You wouldn't think a young player with a career high of three points in a game would have the opportunity to make an impact this season. Mike Harthun does.

Our two Oregonian sophomores, in fact, stand to benefit the most out of anyone from the transition to Ken Bone and the increased reliance on the three-point shot. One is Abe Lodwick, whom I previewed earlier, and the other Harthun, who made almost half of his field goal attempts from behind the arc last winter.

It's debatable whether or not Tony Bennett should have burnt Harthun's redshirt. He only appeared in 14 of the team's games in 2008-09, and only took 18 shot attempts the entire season. Oddly enough, his most prominent appearance came in the Cougars' final game of the season against Saint Mary's, where he logged fourteen minutes. He went 1-for-2 from three-point range and provided a little bit of a spark off the bench.

Harthun's transition to college ball has been a little rougher than the other freshmen from Tony Bennett's final year. He was in the dog house early, earning a three-game suspension for a "violation of team rules". That violation was almost undoubtedly his brush with the law for suspected marijuana possession. Although no formal citation or charges were ever filed, the incident was a setback for both his playing time and development, and it showed as Harthun lurked in the shadows up until the final game.

Nevertheless, there's a lot of potential in Harthun, and all he really has to do is complete that adjustment to the next level. He was already a phenomenal prospect in high school - more impressive than a comparable Oregon player currently starting at Oregon: Garrett Sim. He was part of the South Medford team that defeated Kevin Love's Lake Oswego team for the Oregon 6A championship. Harthun averaged 22.7 points and 5.4 assists per game his senior season, and was rated a Top 100 prospect by espn.com. There was a lot of hype surrounding Harthun, and with Bone at the helm, we may begin to see the 6'3" guard live up to it.

Best Case Scenario: Harthun emerges as a solid role player at guard, with the ability to knock down shots, pass the ball, and take pressure off freshman guards Xavier Thames and Reggie Moore. Mike scores in the five to ten point per game range, and possibly earns a start or two depending on the opposition. He rains threes in Bone's system, giving us a streaky shooter off the bench in the mold of a Josh Akognon.

Worst Case Scenario: Like so many Cougar sophomores, the worst case scenario is a repeat of last year statistically. If Harthun can't continue that adjustment to the speed and skill of the college game, his minutes will suffer and he'll find himself sitting on the pine behind Moore, Thames, Capers, Lodwick and Koprivica.

Likely Scenario: I could honestly see either of the above scenarios playing out for Harthun, who has the skill to be an impact player for WSU in stretches, but also the weaknesses that could keep him on the bench for extended period of time. My belief is that we see the Harthun from the Saint Mary's game: about 15 minutes a night, some helpful threes, improved defense and a few surprise drives to the basket. He looks smaller than he actually is at 6'3" - part of that is due to the fact we've recruited so many tall guards and forwards in the past couple seasons. Harthun has surprising quickness that will almost certainly be an aid in a more up-tempo system. Look for Harthun to make a name for himself this season, and maybe crack the starting lineup if the other young guards struggle.

Poll

How much playing time will Harthun get in 2009-10?

Less than 5 minutes

4 votes

5-10 minutes

36 votes

10-20 minutes

72 votes

20 or more minutes

12 votes

124 votes | Poll has closed

DAILY HOOPS FIX: Midnight Mayhem tonight, Bone with Furness and more

Nuss — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 21:30:14 -0000

With the start of official practices now just a few hours away (they'll have their first real practice at 5 p.m.), we figured this was as good a time as any to start ramping up the basketball coverage.

There's not a whole lot for us to write this time of year, other than our usual preview type stuff -- be looking for that over the next few weeks -- but what we can do is pass along anything we find to hopefully help quench your thirst for "better days ahead." We'll do that with your Daily Hoops Fix.

First of all, don't forget that the start of practices means -- for the first time in a long time -- Midnight Mayhem for the Cougs, tonight around 9:30 p.m. If you're in Pullman, there's no excuse not to be there, since you get the bonus of watching a volleyball match first. If you're not in Pullman, you're still in luck, assuming your life is as uninteresting as mine and you'll be home: You can watch both the volleyball match (which starts at 7 p.m.) and the Midnight Mayhem festivities (starting at 9:30 p.m. or 30 minutes after the volleyball match, whichever is later) for free via webcast at wsucougars.com.

Since we know you'll want to talk about what you see -- including a 3-point contest, a dunk contest and (especially) a scrimmage -- we'll have a volleyball/Midnight Mayhem thread up for you all tonight.

Next, how about hearing directly from the coach himself? Ken Bone was on with 950-AM KJR's Ian Furness in Seattle yesterday, and gave a quick scouting report on how things are going heading into tonight. He sounds cautiously optimistic, but continues to hit on the youth refrain. You can tell he really likes his core of sophomores, just in the way he talks about Klay Thompson (NBA potential as a shooter), DeAngelo Casto (hardest worker on the team), Marcus Capers (special length and quickness) and Mike Harthun (ready to make a serious contribution).

Take the 10 minutes to listen -- it's well worth your time.

Lastly, we've got a couple of links to pass along:

This was up in the FanShots yesterday, but in case you missed it, Daven Harmeling is continuing his excellent work for Cougfan.com, this time giving scouting reports on the newcomers. He also gives scouting reports on the vets today, but that's premium content. (I can only assume that most or all of the Harmeling content will be of the paid variety going forward, now that they've got us hooked.)
The WSU sports information department released its preseason prospectus today, and it's pretty good. It's full of quotes from Bone, and they're actually a little better than the run-of-the-mill variety you generally are used to with these things -- you know, the "we're really counting on _______ to step up this year" kind of quote.

One assistant stays (the right one); Chadwick out?

Nuss — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 00:15:48 -0000

As promised, Ken Bone is moving quickly to get his pieces in place, announcing today in the studio with Ian Furness on KJR that Ben Johnson will, in fact, be remaining on staff with Bone.

As Grady has pointed out and I have concurred, keeping at least one guy from the previous regime was a pretty important move for Bone. In my mind, Johnson -- roundly considered to be the best basketball coach on the staff -- was the guy I wanted to stay all along, and it sounds like Bone felt the same way.

It would have been nice to keep (Ron Sanchez) there ... but I'm really, really excited about being able to retain Ben Johnson, who I also have a lot of respect for. I think he's done an outstanding job there. He's been very involved with their defense, he's intense, he's detail oriented -- he's a good guy. He's been there a few years, and I'm going to lean on him quite a bit.

Had Bone kept Sanchez, it probably would have been easier to placate a guy like Xavier Thames, who it sounds like was pretty tight with Sanchez. But you have to think bigger than just keeping one recruit who might or might not not be able to play at this level, and the very best thing for the program overall is keeping Johnson. (Never mind the fact that we'll probably end up being able to convince Thames, anyway.)

First off, Bone has made it clear that he's not going to institute wholesale changes right away; we'll probably notice smaller changes rather than larger ones immediately. Johnson is key in that respect.

Comparatively speaking, it's easier to change an offense than it is to change a defense (at least if you want it to be any good), and it only becomes that much more so when you're talking about a mediocre offense and the No. 6 defense in the country. So it makes sense that you'd want some continuity on that half of the floor. And if Bone's anything like most coaches -- at least those that don't have the last name Bennett -- he's a lot more willing to be flexible with his defensive philosophy than his offensive philosophy.

Bone also reiterated that all the current players are staying, and then spoke about the four guys who signed in the early period. He's spoken with all of them via telephone, and Anthony Brown is fully on board. As for the other three, he said he planned to fly down to Sacramento in the next week to meet with Thames and fly to Australia to meet with Brock Motum in the next couple of weeks, sounding optimistic that he'd be able to sell them on the program. There's some weird conflicting information out there on the fourth recruit, though.

Cougfan.com is reporting that power forward David Chadwick has received a release from his letter, attributing it to Chadwick's high school coach. That seems odd for two reasons:

Bone said in the interview that he was also planning to fly out and visit Chadwick.
Jim Sterk said no one would get a release for at least a few weeks until the new coach had a chance to get to know the players.

We all know Chadwick is the most likely of the four to want out of his letter; his family is friends with the Bennetts, and he's from North Carolina. The whole thing just screams bad fit with Bennett gone. But those other factors seem strange -- especially given that Grippi's been eerily quiet today -- and makes me wonder of someone hasn't jumped the gun a little bit.

One last thing of note that will get overlooked by a lot of people. I listened to this interview with Bone and also listened to Bone with Kevin Calabro on the new ESPN 710. In both interviews, the hosts kept asking him about the "Big Three." And in both interviews, he made it a point to mention how high he is on Mike Harthun. He thinks he's got a lot of talent and maybe just had a tough freshman year.

I've said it here before, and I'll say it again: If I had to put money on one guy having a "where the heck did that come from?" kind of year, it's Harthun.

The End?

Grady. — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 06:07:52 -0000

NCAA Basketball Stats

Well, that could've been it. It sure doesn't feel right, but then again it didn't feel right when the clock wound down last March against North Carolina. At the end of the day, a loss is a loss, courtesy of all our usual deficiencies. Long scoring drought? Check. Giving up a huge run to an opponent that we can't come back from? Check. Shooting woes? Check.

For a while, several times this season actually, we allowed ourselves to believe that our team was better than this. The fact is that the Pac-10 tournament put us right where we were. Clearly better than the worst team in the conference (Oregon), and clearly not consistent enough to run with an elite team (UCLA) every time we played them.

The NIT allows 32 teams. We know the Cougars aren't one of the 65 NCAA tournament teams. Clearly, though, they are one of the top 97 teams in the nation and that means they should be allowed into the tournament.

However, with Arizona losing tonight, and potentially losing a tournament spot in the process, the outlook starts to become grim for WSU. USC, also with a win tonight, should be a sure thing for at least the NIT. Last year two Pac-10 teams were selected: California and Arizona State. This year I would expect the same. So you better hope USC wins the whole tourney (not likely) or Arizona squeaks into the Big Dance (more likely, even if they don't deserve it). A small market team.like WSU is likely to receive a snub if those two teams are in first.

One potential outcome: A birth in the CBI, which takes sixteen teams and includes a four team West Regional. This could be a double whammy in that the Cougs could earn both a postseason slot and another home game. But still, and I may be selfish for saying this, I kind of enjoy the idea that our last image of Taylor Rochestie in Pullman was "The Shot". A first-round game against a fellow NIT snub just wouldn't feel the same. But let's face facts: we sure as heck aren't hosting an NIT game; so if it's a home game you want, the CBI may come through.

(Another potentially huge problem with the CBI: it happens over Spring Break. Bye bye student section)

On to the awards, because I really don't want to say anything else about this game:

Player of the Game: Aron Baynes, as the only Coug in double figures with 22 points on 8 of 15 shooting. We'll miss you, big guy.

Unsung Hero: Was there one? Taylor went 1 for 11. Klay went 2 for 11. Capers 2 of 7. Forrest 2 of 6. Casto 2 of 5. Suddenly I'm wondering how we only lost this game by nine. I'm going with a shocker here - Mike Harthun, who at least shot 50% (1 of 2), made a three and had one assist with no turnovers. Mike was also on the floor for the majority of the final valiant (yet way too late) run the Cougars made.

Play of the Game: Another downer. Let's go with the Baynes lay-up that gave us our only lead at 5-4.

It was over when... Let's not kid ourselves. The Jrue Holiday three-pointer that made it 23-5 with 10:48 to play in the first half. Bud Nameck's call: "And of course it goes in."

Stat of the Game: Every Cougar not named Aron Baynes shot 10 of 45 (22%) from the field.

Right now, I need one of those Men In Black things that erases your memory from a certain period of time. This team has seen much better days. Remember those, because this sure wasn't one of them. But hey - the regular season has to end somehow.

An open letter to the WSU freshmen

Nuss — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 23:14:14 -0000

Dear freshmen --

First of all, let me take a moment to introduce myself. My name is Jeff Nusser, and if you haven't been a frequent visitor to CougCenter, you might not know that I've been one of your biggest supporters this year. At every turn, I've stumped for your increased playing time, believing that we needed your superior athleticism on the floor to compete with the Pac-10's best night in and night out.

I even went so far last week as to call one of the most revered men in all of Cougar athletics -- your coach, Tony Bennett -- crazy for not playing you guys more. Now that's faith in your abilities, right?

But I have to admit that even my blind faith has its limitations.

Klay, you can stop reading at this point, unless you just want to provide some moral support for your classmates. You've been all we could have expected -- and more. Some might quibble about your seeming aversion to the rim, but you've already had the greatest impact of any freshman in the history of WSU basketball. While it hasn't always been a storied history, it's still a long one, so that's saying something.

Beyond that, you've provided the two most memorable moments of the entire year: That insane fastbreak dunk against Stanford and unreal shooting performance against Arizona State. You play like you've been in the program for years, and I don't want you to think we take that for granted. We don't.

But Marcus, DeAngelo and Mike ... I must admit that after this weekend, I'm feeling a little bit silly for having your back all year long.

Sure, there have been flashes of brilliance. DC, we won't soon forget your game changing defensive efforts against Stanford and Arizona State. Marcus, you don't exactly have a defining moment this year, but your defensive prowess -- which already has us drawing comparisons to a Coug favorite who's now playing in the NBA -- and rebounding ability hasn't gone unnoticed. And Mike ... well ... never mind. We'll just trust that there's a reason that you were once considered the jewel of that recruiting class, and leave it at that.

However, I feel as though my love has been unrequited, for the most part. Here we are, four months into the season, and you still haven't figured out a way to consistently wedge yourselves into the rotation. It's tempting to blame Coach Bennett for not giving you more of a leash -- and I'll be first in line to say that he hasn't always put you guys in the best possible position to succeed -- but any honest assessment of your performance to this point would find it lacking more often than not.

Look, everyone understands that you're freshmen. And we understand that there will be a certain amount of mistakes that come along with that. But those mistakes ought to be diminishing after 23 games, and Saturday was an absolute disaster on that front. Bennett put each of you in the game at different junctures, and each of you in turn made major mistakes that simply should not be happening in February -- freshmen or not.

At some point, you guys have to all prove that you belong out there -- not just because of your tantalizing athleticism and not just every once in a while, but every night for 20-plus minutes. At some point, you've got to force Coach Bennett to play you by making the right plays at the right time more often than not. At some point, you've got to take your playing time into your own hands.

That time came, but it certainly hasn't gone.

DC, you've got to concentrate on every pass that comes into your hands on offense, and you've got to stay in ready at all times on defense. Marcus, you've got to stop thinking so much on defense and just stay in front of people -- the guy you're guarding should be uncomfortable at all times. Oh, and looking to drive on offense once in a while wouldn't hurt, either, since we all know that jumpshot is still a couple of years away. And Mike, you've simply got to make a shot. Carry yourself like you actually belong out of there, because you do.

Guys, it's time to grow up. You're not kids anymore. You're veterans now, and its time to start playing that way. Reward the faith I've had in you this year by stepping up your game over these final eight or so contests. Because I hate to say it, but if this team is to have any aspirations of postseason play -- whether it be the NCAA Tournament, the NIT or otherwise -- it's on your backs. That much was made clear on Saturday.

We need you. Won't you bring it for us?

Sincerely,
Nuss

The recruiting services probably missed the boat on last year's class

Grady. — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 20:00:08 -0000

In all fairness, it's hard to be a recruiting evaluator. WIthout the inside information that the division 1 coaches have, you're supposed to evaluate raw high school talent and assign them a value. Stars, usually, but ESPN gives them a little "grade" number and fun things like that. So it's unfair to expect perfection from them on every recruit. It's also hard to evaluate tens of thousands of kids, so the under the radar type players that Tony loves to go after remain, for the most part, under the radar.

Still, I think we've seen surprising results from this year's freshman class. Going in, here's how the three big recruiting services ranked our class:

Player	ESPN	Scout.com	Rivals.com
Klay Thompson	95	4 stars	4 stars
Mike Harthun	91	3 stars	3 stars
James Watson	40	3 stars	3 stars
Nick Witherill	76	2 stars	3 stars
DeAngelo Casto	40	2 stars	3 stars
Marcus Capers	40	2 stars	3 stars

Klay Thompson was a no-brainer. You have the NBA pedigree, the magnifying glass that is prep sports in California, and most importantly, when you watch Klay you just know he's going to be good. It's no longer a shock that he may lead the team in scoring this year. The only thing the recruiting guys might change in retrospect is upping him to a five-star player. Which would be a fair evaluation, in my opinion.

The rest of the class, well, this is where there was considerable disagreement. ESPN gave three of our recruits a "40", also known as "we didn't evaluate these guys". Surprisingly, the worldwide leader evaluated one of our less highly-touted recruits, Nick WItherill, and liked what they saw. 76. They didn't get a good look at Capers, Watson or Casto.

Rivals.com took a more conservative approach, and probably ends up looking the most accurate because of it. Everyone got 3 stars except for Klay. Scout made an interesting decision to give 3 stars to the one guy out of this class who may actually redshirt, James Watson. 2 stars for Witherill, Casto and Capers.

If you had to rank the recruiting class 1-6 in terms of actual value to the team so far, this is how it would look:

Thompson
Casto
Capers
Harthun
Witherill
Watson

Mike Harthun was highly rated in large part because he got some of the spotlight from the Kyle Singler sweepstakes (they were on the same high school team). He was also, as our FSN guys pointed out last night, the MVP of a state championship game that featured Singler and Kevin freaking Love. That's pretty good. He may yet live up to that 91, but it has been a relative surprise how little he's done this year considering the recruiting hype. Part of that is just the adjustment to college, and part of it is the suspension that set him back 3 games. But don't write him off yet - he's still incredibly talented.

Now, how everyone missed out on Casto is beyond me. I said before the Zag game that I had the chance to see Adam Morrison, Josh Heytvelt and Sean Mallon live in high school. All three turned out great. But here's the thing: Casto looked better in high school than all of them. Maybe not a pure scorer like Morrison, but Casto's play screamed high-major recruit. He looked like a men among boys in the strongest league of Washington basketball (4A). I have him ranked second in value to us so far, because of the importance of the position he plays, and the good minutes he's been logging so far. Casto rules.

The big surprise of the class is Marcus Capers. ACC schools are going to kick themselves when they look at the roster and see that a kid from Florida is backing up Taylor Rochestie, and looking pretty good doing it. He's already a fixture of this year's rotation. Not bad for a 2-star, not really evaluated player. Then again, not a lot of people traveled to Beloit, WI to watch Kyle Weaver play either.

Witherill is about what we expected, although I had been higher on him than a lot of people were coming in. It's surprising, but not shocking, that he had his redshirt burned. I am worried that he could've benefited from the extra year - but Tony knows more than I do. Still, you have to wonder why we burned it when he doesn't seem to be in the "fourth guard" competition that Lodwick and Harthun are in right now. Nevertheless, I like Nick. He's a heady, skilled guard who should benefit us in a couple years, if not right now.

James Watson may have been a little overvalued, but I think those ratings were based on potential. Watson has loads of it, but is too raw to play right away. He'll benefit from the redshirt (unless of course Tony burns it, which seems entirely possitble), but it's a bit of surprise he isn't battling with Casto for a rotation spot. That says more about how good DeAngelo has turned out than it does about Watson. James will turn out fine, and heaven knows we'll need him with Baynes on the way out next fall.

Return of the Cougs

Grady. — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 05:45:43 -0000

Washington State 60, Idaho State 41

Stats by StatSheet.com

For the majority of the game against Pittsburgh, the Cougs just didn't look like themselves. Defensive lapses, turnovers on offense, and a total lack of ability to get to the foul line.

Tonight, the Cougs we know and love, or at least the Cougs from the first four games, returned.

How'd they do it? By dominating every aspect of the game against Idaho State. Some of it was the opposition, but a lot of it was the Cougars getting their groove back.

They outrebounded the Bengals 32-23. They not only got to the line, but made the most of it with a 13 for 17 evening at the charity stripe. Aron Baynes only had four shooting attempts, but still managed to control the paint with 11 points, 3 blocks and 8 rebounds of his own.

This game was not as close as the final score indicates. After a slow start and a scoreboard frozen at 16-9, the Cougars closed the first half on a 14-6 run. Then kept the momentum flowing right on through to the second half, where WSU played superb defense and solid offense throughout.

The only letdown for WSU in this one was at the end where the reserves matched up evenly with the Idaho State squad. We got our first look at Fabian Boeke, who spent a lot of time in the post but missed his two shots, including a shot for three. He looks a little unrefined out there, but he's only a sophomore and still has a lot of potential. Remember too that he's still coming back from injury.

Mike Harthun also came back, from his three-game suspension, to play nine minutes. Tony showed a lot of faith in him tonight - let's hope Harthun makes the most of it, and is ready to play hard on the court. Because if he does, at least in my opinion, he has the chance to improve more than anyone else on the floor this year. There's tremendous talent here, he just needs to be disciplined and let the game come to him.

Taylor Rochestie is back as well - 5 assists, 1 turnover and 9 points. And to think he actually had us worried for a second.

Player of the Game - Klay Thompson. Game-high 14 points on 5 of 8 shooting (2 of 4 from three), with 2 rebounds, 2 assists and zero turnovers. Klay played one of the best games of his young career - efficient on offense, and playing great defense on Amorrow Morgan, ISU's leading scorer coming in (Morgan finished 3 for 10 from the floor).

Play of the Game - Charlie Enquist's turnaround jumper that banked in off the glass, drawing a foul in the process. Don't sleep on Enquist. There's a Robbie Cowgill/Caleb Forrest-type quality to him that the coaches, and now the fans, are really starting to appreciate. He finished with six points on 3 for 3 shooting. Two offensive boards as well. How about we find this kid some more minutes?