SB Nation - Nick Witherill

Regarding Redshirts

Grady. — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 17:55:55 -0000

Put me on record as a fan of redshirts. Any time you can give a collegiate athlete - who only has four precious years of eligibility - an extra year on campus, it is a positive. They have an extra year to develop, they don't have to take an excessive course load to graduate (especially if they were to change majors), and they get another year of the college experience. In sports it is especially beneficial, as there is a big difference between a 23 year old and an 18 year old. Medical redshirts are particularly nice, loosening the evil grip of the NCAA's arcane eligibility rules and giving players like Kevin Kooyman another chance.

So when do you burn a redshirt, and when do you avoid it? My feeling is if the player has an opportunity to make an impact this year, you burn it. Jeff Tuel, Reggie Moore, Xavier Thames, these are all guys that make the team better just by their presence on the court. One could argue they'd be even more valuable with another year of experience, but the majority of coaches find that "play 'em while you have 'em" is a good rule, especially with the number of players going pro early.

Still, I can't understand why players who would only see the floor in limited minutes - and, yes, I'm talking about Steven Bjornstad and Anthony Brown - aren't being redshirted. With Bjornstad it may be that we will actually need him. Bone's playing around with lineups so far this season tells me he's not set on a rotation and is even less clear on who else is going to be a fixture in the frontcourt with Casto. Motum, Lodwick, Watson, Koprivica... all are good options, but are all undersized at that position either because they are thin (Motum, Lodwick, Watson) or short (Koprivica).

With Brown, there's even more of a question mark. The depth at guard has been well documented, and with walk-on John Allen playing well, and Faisel Aden committing to play for the Cougs next year, it doesn't make sense to me that Brown's redshirt would be burnt. Some wonder if it's a situation similar to Nick Witherill, where there's so many players in line ahead of him for playing time that he can play this year, since he'll ultimately transfer anyway and burn a redshirt during the one year waiting period (although Witherill changed divisions so no need to sit out). We don't know if that's the case. No one outside of Ken Bone and his staff really knows.

In the meantime, I like Anthony Brown as a player and hope he stays at WSU. Most Pac-10 players aren't going to see significant playing time until they are upperclassmen, unless they are on a particularly young team or a particularly weak team. However, if Brown doesn't have a future in the rotation here, he probably should transfer. Since, again, you only have four precious years and as an athlete you have to make the most of them. Few go on to play in the NBA.

Still, it would be nice if Ken Bone and Paul Wulff didn't mortgage the future in the name of the present. I get that both teams are young. Rebuilding (one more than the other). Five years is better than four, especially at a school where you have to look harder for talent and get the most out of your players that you can. Cougar coaches need to understand that.

I hope they do.

THE MORNING PAPER: Witherill lands with Pennell

Nuss — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 15:54:29 -0000

Well, it didn't take long for Nick Witherill to land on his feet. As predicted by Vince Grippi yesterday, the Arizona Republic is reporting that Witherill will, in fact, join his former AAU coach Russ Pennell in his hometown at Grand Canyon University.

"His favorite basketball experience was playing for Russ," said Mike Witherill, Nick’s dad. "He’s a Christian coach. He’ll be with some of his AAU teammates. It was an easy decision for him to come back. He’s excited. … What is happening at Grand Canyon, it’s an exciting thing for Phoenix."

Want to know why everyone's so excited? Because Witherill is one of five Division I players transferring to the Division II school. Wow. (Hat tip to Grippi for the link this morning.)

The news from baseball hasn't stopped yet. Continuing the Cougars' recent string of high-profile successful student athletes, senior catcher Greg Lagreid has been named the Pac-10 Baseball Scholar-Athlete by the conference. He's a finance major with a 3.48 GPA and, oh by the way, batted .332 while leading the team in doubles (13) and RBIs (42).

Lagreid wasn't the only player to pick up an honor yesterday -- outfielder Derek Jones was named to the Louisville Slugger Freshmen All-American Team presented by Collegiate Baseball. Jones is one of the reasons to remain unbelievably optimistic about Cougar baseball -- the 6-foot-1, 205-pound lefty led the team in home runs with 12, the only player to reach double digits this year.

While some people might point to his .232 average and the fact that he strikes out in nearly one out of every four at bats as reasons to knock him, I'll summarily point to his .363 OBP (thanks to his team leading BB%) and .226 ISO (second on the team behind Alex burg) as reasons why he's going to be an all-Pac-10 player next year. He's only going to get better, and I'm going to go ahead and say right now that he'll become the all-time home run leader at WSU -- the record is 40, held by Jeff Hooper -- before he leaves. (He'll be hard pressed to break Casey Kelley's single season mark of 25, though. I watched many of those home runs while I was in school back in 1998, and that is a lot for a college season.)

Last thing. If you still can't get enough of the uniforms, here's some video of the uniforms in action as someone snuck a recording of the new game at a recent conference. (Hat tip to Sedihawk at the WSU Football Blog.)

NCAA Football 10: UW vs WSU (via pastapadre)

Grippi expands on losses of Boeke, Witherill

Nuss — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 21:21:27 -0000

Vince Grippi has a nice peek behind the curtain regarding the losses of Fabian Boeke and Nick Witherill. Basically, it sounds like Boeke could really play but his body wouldn't let him, and Witherill just really couldn't play at all -- at least, not at a Pac-10 level.

How much would Boeke have helped last year's team?

The Cougars missed (Boeke's) presence last year. If he could have been healthy and able to match up inside, he would have helped the WSU attack considerably. Believe me, there was no better 3-point shooter on the Cougar roster last year. Boeke would stand at the 3-point line and rain down shots (I counted 22 consecutive from different spots one practice before being distracted, so that streak could have been longer) while the Cougars ran through half-court drills. But it was not to be.

How many times last year did we lament our lack of just one more legitimate 3-point threat? I don't even want to think about that anymore.

And a little more on Witherill:

Privately, Tony Bennett admitted Witherill didn’t fit. Though a great kid who worked hard, Bennett felt Witherill wasn’t quick or big enough to guard Pac-10 guards. So Bennett felt Witherill would be better off transferring somewhere he could get minutes. ... The conversation was coming, with Bennett saying he would do everything he possibly could to find a school that would be a better fit for Witherill’s talents. And a transfer would free up a scholarship Bennett knew he needed.

Last night, I'm afraid I might have made Tony Bennett sound like a bad guy with Witherill. I don't think that's true, and I believe what Grippi says. I just think the situation could have been handled much better.

If Witherill heads to Division II Grand Canyon University to play for former Arizona coach Russ Pennell -- who also was Witherill's AAU coach who convinced Bennett that Witherill was a good fit at a time that the program was still struggling -- he'll only have three years to play, where he would have had four with a redshirt. I just have a hard time believing that Bennett didn't realize all these things about Witherill before he burned his redshirt. It's not like he ever made it into a Pac-10 game.

Like I said, I don't think there was anything malicious going on there, but the way it ended up was unfortunate nonetheless. Perhaps the biggest mistake was that WSU ever showed interest in a borderline high-major prospect like Witherill in the first place.

THE EVENING PAPER: Witherill out, Anderson dominates again, budget and more

Nuss — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 04:15:56 -0000

You know, for it being firmly in the offseason of Cougar sports, it sure seems like the news just refuses to slow down. It was a busy weekend, which we haven't had the chance to catch up on until now, and there is some news breaking tonight.

We'll get to the news you're probably most interested in first. You know how we all have been wondering just how it is that the Cougs seem to have a ton of offers out there for the 2010 basketball recruiting class? Part of the mystery has been solved tonight, as guard Nick Witherill has been granted his release from the program.

It's not real surprising, given the glut we've got at guard right now, and Ken Bone's noted preference for faster guards who can push the tempo. What is surprising is this little tidbit from Vince Grippi:

During the waning days of Tony Bennett’s tenure in Pullman, the Cougar coach made it clear he was going to ask Witherill to look elsewhere.

This is the dirty side of collegiate sports, ladies and gentleman, and while we all wanted to think Bennett was above it -- long since disproven of course -- no program is immune.

I'm pissed about this. Not because I think this makes the Cougars worse; I think there were serious questions about whether he was ever going to be a meaningful contributor. No, I'm mad because Witherill deserved better.

By all accounts, Witherill is a great guy. He was the first player to commit to that amazing class of last year, a guy the Cougs were on a long time ago. You can read all about it in a story Grady wrote for Cougfan about a year ago. He believed in what Bennett was doing. He appeared to be the quintessential Cougar.

But he became a victim of circumstance. Klay Thompson and Mike Harthun committed. Then Marcus Capers committed extremely late after Taylor Rochestie ... well, you know. Suddenly, there was a glut in the backcourt, and as Jo-Jo pointed out multiple times last season, someone was probably going to have to go.

Turns out, it was Witherill -- the guy who believed in Bennett, only to see his redshirt burned for a handful of meaningless minutes and then shown the door. He'll land on his feet; even if he'd redshirted he'd still be sitting out a year wherever he went. But I guess that's the point -- Witherill wasted two years of his basketball career. It's terrible, and a shame.

Bone said he's not going to use the open scholarship this year -- no big surprise there.

OK, now that I'm off my high horse, let's move on to other news.

Jeshua Anderson continued his march to repeat as the NCAA 400-meter hurdles champ last weekend, winning the event in the West Regionals. His winning time of 50.31 seconds was nearly a second-and-a-half off his season best, but it still was almost a half-second better than the second-place finisher. Not bad, as Anderson simply has his eyes on the prize.

"I think the race went well today. It was pretty windy on the backstretch but I just cruised through and tried not to push it so I could get healthy for the NCAAs," Anderson said. "If you don't take these (regional) races seriously, it can be bad. I try to stay hungry, stay humble. I will do my best to defend the NCAA title. The Olympic Trials gave me experience and helped out with the rounds. I'm taking this is in stride, and hopefully I'll run smarter and faster."

Also winning a regional title was senior Justin Woods in the 200-meter sprint. Anderson and woods will be joined by nine other Cougs in the NCAA championships, next weekend at the University of Arkansas.

Now on to more mundane news. The athletic department was supposed to have its budget for the upcoming school year finalized by yesterday, but like everyone else, they received an extension from President Floyd. Freelancer Howie Stalwick checks in with this piece for Cougfan.com, notable because it's the first time (that I know of) that AD Jim Sterk has gone on record as saying no sports will be cut for next year, but that he can "never say never" about 2010-11.

The one sport we don't have to worry about?

"There’s been no talk of baseball at all as far as being cut," Sterk said.

That's welcome news.

Additionally, the athletic department is still exploring its options with Phase III of the remodel of Martin Stadium. It seems counter intuitive, until you note what's going on in the construction industry right now.

"Some of my alums have sent articles that Washington State DOT [Department of Transportation] projects in January, February and March have been 29 percent below estimate, 26 percent, 22 percent," Sterk says. "That's a pretty significant savings if you're talking about a $40 million project."

"We think there's an opportunity there," says John Johnson, WSU associate athletic director and its chief fundraiser. "It may be, oddly enough, a time when that project becomes more affordable."

Of course, the key is securing financing, something that will be tough to do without ... donations!

Speaking of football, do you realize training camp is now just two months away? That means it's time for meaningless preseason predictions and lists, kicking off today with Phil Steele's all-Pac-10 teams. Believe it or not, there are six Cougs in there, led by second-team center Kenny Alfred. It's a well-deserved honor for a guy who could be a big time pro sleeper come next April. Remember, he was on the fast track to becoming one of the league's dominant interior linemen until injuries sidetracked him. He's been playing through a lot of pain the last two years; seeing what he can really do this year would go a long way toward shoring up our o-line issues.

Also honored by the magazine on its fourth team are Anderson, kick returner Chantz Staden, linebacker Andy Mattingly, safety Chima Nwachukwu and punter Reid Forrest.

Last item. Cory Mackay has gone home from the hospital, and has a new goal in life: Returning to campus in the fall. It won't be easy.

"He has to wear this body cast for about two more months after he gets home," his father said. "Anytime he's up above 30 degrees [of body incline], he has to put that on first. That supports the spine so the weight of the upper body doesn't compress the repairs. "It's not a fun thing for him to wear. He says, 'I look like a Ninja turtle.' "

Once the swelling goes down, they'll be able to determine just what the actual damage is and what kinds of limitations (if any) he might have for the rest of his life.

That's it for tonight.

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.

PLAYER PROFILE: Nick Witherill

Grady. — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 05:15:06 -0000

Last, but cetainly not least, in our series of player profiles for this season is Nick Witherill. Witherill is fairly well-known from my standpoint, as I wrote a Cougfan article centered around him last April.

Shameless self-promotion aside, Witherill is an intriguing player for a number of reasons. First, he committed to WSU in 2006. As in, ancient history 2006. A time before the Cougars were a tournament team and the Husky fans were starting to compare their program to the likes Duke, North Carolina, Kansas, and others. (It was just as ridiculous then)

Witherill is also your classic Dick Bennett player, who just happens to be playing under Tony today. His coach at Gilbert High School in Arizona said:

“He came from a situation [Saguaro High] where he shot the most, scored the most, but he's been team-oriented and selfless, trying to make us a better team. He deserves a lot of credit for us being good."

And there you have it: he's a scorer if you need one (16.9 ppg in high school), but can also play D and get you a few assists. If you watch him play, you'll be instantly impressed by his composure. He is one of several WSU freshmen who don't look like freshmen out on the court. He handles the ball well, doesn't get rattled by tight defense, and can make a pass or shot within the offense.

He's also vital to the future - remember, next year the Cougars will return only one upperclassman guard. That being Nikola Koprivica, who is in some ways more forward than guard. And that's when Witherill's best chance to make an impact will arise. He won't be the offensive player Klay Thompson or Mike Harthun will. He could, however, pass and defend his way into the role of a starting or backup point guard. If he turns out to be a true shooting guard he may find himself buried a little deeper on the depth chart.

Even though Witherill was supposed to be a late bloomer, Tony's decision to pull his redshirt right off the bat says a lot. Witherill has gone from recruiting class sleeper to potential rotation mainstay starting in 2009-10. That's not to say he'll start next fall, but he'll certainly need to play when Capers, Thompson or Thames need a break. The question is: will he be ready? Clearly, Tony wants him to have the experience now so we can find out.

Worst case scenario: Witherill becomes the J.T. Levenseller of the basketball team: having his redshirt burnt, but sitting on the bench so much we wonder why Tony didn't just give him an extra year.

Best case scenario: Nick works his way into the rotation, spending most of his time spelliing Taylor Rochestie at the point. A few mintues, a few points, a solid contributor on both ends of the floor.

Likely Scenario: For now, Witherill figures to be a reserve with sporadic playing time. Much of that time will be decided in practice, but don't be surprised to see him out on the court during a big game or a close game. Tony may not change up the starting lineup like his father, but like Dick he's not afraid to go deep in the bench when the rest of the team is struggling.

Can Witherill have an impact this season? Next season? Beyond? Ultimately he'll determine that by how well he develops in practice. Give us your best prediction in the poll question.

Poll

In what year will Nick Witherill start to have an impact for the Cougs?

Freshman

2 votes

Sophomore

22 votes

Junior

35 votes

Senior

7 votes

66 votes | Poll has closed

It's too early to get excited. But...

Grady. — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 06:37:45 -0000

Take a look at this roster.

I know, it's the 2003-04 Gonzaga Bulldogs. But look at the names. If you're even remotely familiar with Gonzaga basketball you know how stacked that roster was: Blake Stepp, Ronny Turiaf, Adam Morrison, Cory Violette, Derek Raivio, Sean Mallon, Erroll Knight, etc.

Someday, we're going to look back at this year's roster and say the exact same thing about Washington State.

But here's the catch. That Gonzaga team (although they look like a national title contender) fell flat in the NCAA tournament; blown out in the second round by 10-seed Nevada (in Seattle, no less). Morrison, Raivio and Mallon were too young; Stepp was arguably the worst big-game performer in GU history, and Turiaf drew more phantom fouls than just about anyone I've ever seen, including Baynes. It was a top-heavy and bottom-heavy roster, in terms of the team's experience. Sound familiar?

If it does, it's because I think it's as close a mirror to this year's WSU team as you're going to find. Now, I'm not saying this team is going to the tournament. It's too early, and we haven't seen how this team performs against comparable talent. But the Cougars looked incredibly impressive in a 76-31 dismantling of Lewis-Clark State College, the lone exhibition game for this season.

First, let me credit the opponent: LCSC actually played Dick Bennett's Cougars tight a couple of years back. And they are a NAIA school. That means in addition to playing a "rivalry" game against the nearby Cougars, the game also counts in their win-loss column. So don't think they were underprepared or disinterested in facing WSU. They wanted this one.

And that's partly why it was so darn impressive. And the final score doesn't indicate what a thrashing this was. Freshmen players made up the majority of the lineup for about two-thirds of this game. The benches cleared, right down to Ryan Bailey, who may not even be on the opening day roster (more on that later).

I want to break this down player-by-player, because I was seeing a lot of the freshmen and redshirts for the first time, or at least the first time in a non-practice situation. Let's start at the top and work our way down.

Taylor Rochestie is Taylor Rochesite. He orchestrates the offense as well as any point guard in the nation. Many people expect Taylor to have to shoulder the scoring burden left behind from Weaver and Low. After tonight, I'm not too sure he does. All Taylor has to do is handle the ball, pass, and sink the occasional bucket. He is the best player on the floor at this point. That shouldn't surprise anyone.

Aron Baynes is still getting better, if you can believe it. The big Aussie has improved so much over the past four years it's ridiculous. He will be one of the best centers in the Pac-10 in terms of scoring. But he also looks better in rebounding and defense. He had a double-double tonight (10 points, 12 boards) despite limited playing time. He avoided cheap fouls and played smart. That's encouraging.

Klay Thompson is as advertised. He doesn't play like a freshman and is as close to Kyle Weaver offensively as anyone on this team. In fact, that was an emerging theme tonight. The freshmen, some of them, were playing like seasoned veterans. I'll note the following: Thompson, Capers, Casto, Lodwick and Enquist look more experienced out on the floor than Robbie, Derrick, Kyle and Daven did their freshmen year. I can't even begin to tell you how exciting that is.

One fault with Thompson, at least early on: he tends to be a little too confident in his shot to the point where he made some bad decisions in terms of shot selection tonight. One thing seems to be clear: we will need him to take, and make, some of those shots to help replace last year's scoring leaders. I don't think I'm out on a limb saying that he can break 30 in a game this year. He wants the ball and therefore will be vital to the team's success.

His big aid to the team is his versatility and feel for the game - he threw a beautiful assist to Baynes and has a good handle on the ball. I think he will be a starter when the season officially begins on Saturday. Speaking of that, here's how I think the rotation will pan out for this season:

Starters/key contributors:

G- Rochestie
G/F - 3 of the following 5: Thompson, Koprivica, Harmeling, Forrest, Casto
C - Baynes

Helpful Reserves:

Lodwick, Capers, Harthun, Enquist

Not ready for primetime players:

Watson, Witherill, Boeke (I'm still concerned about his health), Allen, Bailey

Daven Harmeling: Like Nuss said earlier, you know what you're getting from Harmeling. But he's a key to this season and here's why. Bennett started the game with this lineup: Rochestie, Koprivica, Thompson, Harmeling, Baynes. Yep - that means Daven at power forward. If he's going to spend some time in four-land, he will have to be able to defend bigger, more athletic guys while still finding ways to contribute on offense. His three-point shooting can be a huge help, but we may not need him as much as last year. I'll explain as we go on.

Nikola Koprivica: Not only does he finally look healthy, but he even drained a three. Welcome back, Nik. Not a lot of slashing to the basket tonight. He played a lot of minutes with the reserve teams, which I thought was interesting. His defense could help ease the loss of Kyle Weaver.

DeAngelo Casto: Ladies and Gentlemen, the pleasant surprise of the evening. I thought college teams were shy about Casto because his talent was raw and needed some refining for major conference play. Now I'm wondering what the heck teams were thinking when they passed on him. The reigning Washington 4A player of the year is surprisingly polished offensively and will draw instant comparisons to Ivory Clark on defense (and offense). He plays smart, too. Instead of going up to try to dunk on a poor LCSC player, he was often patient and opted for the lay-in or the bounce off the glass. At one point he caught his defender in the air and used the advantage to go right back up for an easy deuce.

Casto is a huge get for us because it means we aren't as thin as I thought at power forward. He looked college-ready in high school, and he is. His 18 points led the way for WSU tonight. Tony's first big recruit from Washington is a great addition for the Cougs.

Caleb Forrest: What can I say that hasn't already been said? He hit a trademark mid-range jumper and plays the role of Robbie Cowgill beautifully in this offense. He may have some of his playing time eaten away by Casto, but probably not too much. He's still fun to watch.

Marcus Capers is the answer to Nuss' poll question. The one about which player will spend the most time backing up Rochestie. At least in my opinion. Capers doesn't get rattled and handles the ball well. Passes well too. At 6'4" he looks like a forward, but plays like a guard. I really like that. It used to be a mid-major team could match up with WSU height-for-height. Not anymore. There's not a single player on this team listed below six feet. Twelve players are 6'3" or taller. Think about that for a second.

I think Klay Thompson may get a good look, occasionally, at point guard. But I like Capers at the moment and think he's a good fit for Taylor's #2.

Abe Lodwick is Chris Matthews. For those of you who don't know, that means he's a lights-out three point shooter who will likely spend more time on the bench than he should. I'm about ready to annoint myself president of the Abe Lodwick fan club. I was wondering if his textbook form would translate to the speed of a real game. It does: he wen't 3 for 3, including one from where the professionals shoot.

I don't know if he can do much else than shoot. I don't care. Abe Lodwick is awesome.

Mike Harthun: Of all the freshmen on the team, I think the most improvement from start to finish of the season will be had by Harthun. He's got tremendous potential, that's for sure. However, of all the big guns of this year's recruiting class, he looked the most nervous out on the floor and was occasionally out of sync with passing in the offense. Having said that, he has a quick release, sweet pull-up jump shot, and will be a star before he's done at WSU. If we had Carolina-type talent I'd redshirt him, but we don't, and we need him. I'm really looking forward to watching this kid play.

Charlie Enquist: And now I know why the coaches are so high on this kid. The redshirt freshman plays like a younger Caleb Forrest, and looks extremely comfortable out on the floor. He still shows some strange posture from time to time, but makes up for it by playing like an upperclassman reserve. One to watch for in the future; he may yet earn that scholarship.

James Watson: He's raw, but he's fun and arguably the most athletic freshman on the team. My feeling is he could use a redshirt. If he polishes up his game, watch out. Possibly the best dunker on the team, but we can't know that if you don't hold a slam dunk contest. Right, Tony???

Regardless, he gets the award for tremendous upside potential. He may not be a contributor this year, but I have no problem with that.

Nick WItherill: Another player who should be redshirted because he will play out of his mind by the time he's a fifth-year senior. He could probably start for Oregon State. For now, he should take the time to develop into the player that I saw glimpses of tonight: a smart, skilled guard with the ability to see lanes and make shots. Like the other freshmen, he doesn't back down from the competition. He's great insurance if (KNOCK ON WOOD) we have a couple injuries at the guard position.

Fabian Boeke/John Allen: Neither played, presumably due to injuries. I'm legitimately worried about Boeke - he could turn out to be the next Chris Henry or Rodney Edgerson, sidelined by back injuries. And back injuries are notoriously tough to come back from. I really, really hope he can do it. Allen falls more under the realm of Nuss' expertise, but I think he'll be a good reserve who should be redshirted for the time being.

Ryan Bailey: Suited up tonight, although I think he could be replaced on the opening-day roster by John Allen. The crowd would have gone nuts if he had scored, but he didn't. Such is the life of Ryan Bailey.

And now, after all that, a statement so bold that I have to make it in bold typefont: This team is deeper than last year's squad. Yep. We've added two great three-point threats, Thompson and Lodwick. We have shot blockers in Forrest, Baynes, Casto, and Watson, to the point where a couple of shots were blocked by two Cougar defenders at the same time. The freshmen are young, and that showed a couple times tonight. But not as much as I thought it would. Some of the reserve-type freshmen showed their age in moments. The ones that will contribute rarely did. This roster, top to bottom, looks stronger than last year's. Not necessarily a better team, not necessarily a more successful one, but deeper. There's all sorts of promise as you head from 1 to 15.

And the team defense: exceptional. WSU opened on a 30-4 run. They allowed 15 in the first, and 16 in the second. Sure, some of it was LCSC, but these Cougars were executing like seasoned vets on both ends of the floor. They shot the lights out, they ran plays to perfection, they held on to the ball. The real test is whether or not they can do those things against Oregon, or Baylor, or Gonzaga.

It is too early to get excited, but this team looks good. And they'll only get better.

Cougar Basketball Fun Fact No. 13

Nuss — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 23:10:03 -0000

In our continuing effort to look forward to better days, we'll be bringing you one fun fact about the Cougar basketball team (almost) each day until the season officially tips off on Nov. 15. Some will be silly, some will be serious, but all will be vital to your knowledge as a Cougar basketball fan.

Did you know ...

... freshman guard Nick Witherill's AAU coach in Phoenix was new Arizona coach Russ Pennell?

Hat tip to Jessica Schmick and the WSU Sports Information Department.