I'm trying to max out my push-ups and sit-ups for a military PT test. I had great progress in my first month, but I seem to have hit a plateau. I"ve got 7 weeks to add about 20% more to my scores. I am a personal trainer but training myself has always been more difficult than training my clients. Any suggestions on some training methods to shake things up would be greatly appreciated.

were just the lead bumper on the prime-time Sportscenter.

Hell yeah. I think that might be a first.

I'm tryin' hard not to get too excited about what's going on, but going to the game next weekend with Nuss will be the highlight of the winter for me. If they win, I might run naked through the UW campus ... who's with me? I know Nuss will do it.

GO COUGS, DAMMIT!

I'm curious to see what our little community values in its players. Take a vote, and then take a guess at who is who. Be straight about it, don't look up player stats before you vote or comment, just use the numbers in the poll. This way we can leave romance and emotions out of it. I will give a little wrinkle and the results a few days from now.

Vote/discuss/enjoy.

A late night film study of the UCLA game last night revealed an amazing number to me. It is no secret that I've been lobbying for Marcus Capers' PT over the past few weeks, and I'm very happy to see him pushing 30 minutes per game over the last three contests. It is easy to be critical of the kids offensive inabilities in his current phase of development, but one thing that cannot be denied is his defensive contributions to this team.

The number that amazed me was the number "1". One. Uno. One, singular field goal was scored against Marcus Capers in 27 minutes of play. That number is even more impressive when you consider that at least 20 of those minutes was while he was defending Mr. Shipp, who certainly isn't some spanky reject from Oregon State, or a fundamentally special needs player like Vinoy Overton.

All his weaknesses aside, if this team had an equivelant to a "lock-down corner," Capers would be it. Add in his rebounding and I think that it is obvious why he has taken minutes away from the upperclassmen. If Rochestie, Thompson, and Baynes are scoring, then this team doesn't need much O from Capers, and his defensive abilities will contribute in a large way to the success of this team in the Pac-10

Disclaimer: You all know that I am long winded. This post is big. If you are not a die-hard or a Cougar Basketball junkie, you might want to avoid the fallowing.If you are going to delve into this abyss, go to the bathroom first, and get a snack.

Here it is folks. This is where we get to talk personnel and tactics all at the same time. And it is true that those two things go hand-in-hand because there are some things that you just can't get done when some players are on the floor.

Let's start with this:

With some slight variations, this is the basic offense we've seen from the Cougs most of the year. This is the offense that is run when Daven Harmeling plays at the 4. It made perfect sense with the personnel that Coach Bennett had to work with, and against the lesser opponents, it worked beautifully.

The basic function of the 4-1 motion is two fold. First, the focus is obviously the 5. And we all know that getting Aron Baynes as many shots as possible in the paint is a big deal. Secondly, the perimeter players are in constant motion, keeping the defense moving and on their toes. Patience is at a premium and eventually the defense will break down and you get a driving lane or an open jumper. Simple enough, right?

Well, in the Cougs case, it became simple enough to defend. One would think that this would give all the room in the world for Baynes to work inside while the perimeter players swarm and confuse the defense, but good teams (especially our Pac-10 foes) know that Baynes is the number one option, and many Pac-10 teams have encorporated elements of the Bennett Pack Defense into their schemes. Teams have sagged down to Baynes and that is why his shot attempts have been so low. But like every good offense their is always a counter adjustment:

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Here are Jo-Jo's player grades for the game against Stanford, which I've combined into one post and promoted to the front page. There's a lot of good stuff in here, so enjoy. -- Nuss

The Frontcourt

Aron Baynes - B+
I think that it is safe to say that Mt. Baynes is the foundation around which the Cougar frontcourt is built. We know that, the coaches know that, all of the Pac-10 knows that. Which is why it is going to be increasingly more difficult to get him shots in the remaining 15 games this season.

Saturday night Stanford did an excellent job of limiting Baynes to four shot attempts, and though he struggled from the field against Cal (2-9 from the field) he served as his usual efficient self on Saturday, making two baskets and hitting 3-4 from the line. But don't let his low scoring fool you -- the dude collected 9 rebounds, had a beautiful post move and was solid as a rock throughout the entire game. The only reason why I don't give him an A is because he did have a couple of ball handling miscues that cost the Cougs some buckets and botched the recieving end of a couple gorgeous DeAngelo Casto interior passes. But the B+ is nothing to be down about; defensively, he was always there and when paired with Casto created an interior defense that was all but impossible to break.

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Much has already been commented on what we all witnessed the other night. I think it is safe to say that everyone noticed that something was different. I decided to do an extensive breakdown of the film from the other night's game to try to put into words exactly what it was that we saw. While all of us have obviously noticed the change in personnel, I am going to try to stay away from that as much as possible and just talk X's and O's (I will have an individual player grades and commentary on both the frontcourt and backcourt coming later), but the personnel issues do play a part.

To start with, I think it safe to say that the Cougar offense has been absolute garbage for quite a few weeks running. Comments have flooded CougCenter about the effectiveness of Taylor Rochestie, lack of a perimeter shooter, lack of free throw attempts (which is a direct result of the lack of ability to penetrate), and of course which combinations of players give this team the best opportunity to be successful on the offensive side of the ball. It has been my (unpopular) opinion that coach Bennett has put way too much of a straight jacket on this group of players to this point in the season, and that while the offense has been increasingly unproductive, Bennett has refused to waiver from his discipline. Until halftime Saturday night.

Watching this team all season, you can see that these guys have all of the talent and ability to have an effective offense. But they continually look hesitant, unsure, lacking confidence and down right afraid to take the shot. At first it was hard to notice, and I remembered watching Dick coach this team when Harmeling was a freshman. I remember thinking that this year's team was similar in their look of confusion. But it really came home to me when Grady posted this video (go ahead and watch it, you'll see what I mean). We all look at that and think "damn, I miss Low and Weaver." But there is more there than that. That is a team that took advantage of opportunities when they had the chance.

Perhaps that is what Rochestie has been doing with his untimely pull-up jumpers with 20 seconds on the shot clock. But you can see it in this current group; they never push the ball when they get the chance. Now I know that we have all come to love the slow, half-court efficiency of Bennett ball over the years, but part of being efficient is taking the easy, high-percentage shots that are there for the taking. And fast break opportunities are some of the highest percentage shots you can get. And the Klay Thompson dunk served as proof positive of that. But was Klay acting alone? Who does this kid think he is? Nobody has pushed the ball like that all year. Surely coach Bennett wouldn't approve!

Well, before that destiny-changing dunk occurred, I found something on the film that showed me coach Bennett had finally taken the leash of these kids. No, it wasn't the sweet post move that DeAngelo Casto had to get them going, it actually occurred at the start of the Cougars second possession of the half. It started with a beautiful help side block by Casto, Thompson retrieving the ball in the corner and charging hard up the floor. The Cougars were running? The possession eventually ended with Rochestie missing a layup, but what I saw was very subtle. I missed it when I was watching the game live, but noticed on the replay. Casto blocks the shot, and starts to pursue the loose ball. Thompson picks up the ball and as he starts to move up court Casto weaves in front of him and motions with his hand, as if to say "LET'S GO! LET'S PUSH IT!" It was evident that this was by design in the fact that all of the Cougs were screaming down the court (even the Baynes Train was sprinting). And it wasn't the only time we saw it either, it happened several times through the course of the second half.

The good Lord knows that I would have loved to be in that locker room at halftime, but since I wasn't I can only speculate. Thus, having to guess by the evidence seen in the second half I believe that Tony finally came to the conclusion that enough was enough, and that this team isn't going to win without scoring some points and it's just not coming in the half court. Now that's not to say that they are going to be running up and down the floor like Louisville, but that video from years past shows that the Cougar teams that have made the Tournament haven't been afraid to push the ball when the opportunity presents itself. If nothing else, a new approach was entered into the fray Saturday night, and at the minimum it produced "The Dunk."

I know this team is young. And I know that it takes time and that the Bennetts, though they offer freshman minutes, don't often let freshman have much freedom. That was certainly the case under Dick. But for as great as that class was, four years ago, this year's freshman class is even better. You can see it in their facial expressions, they have been frustrated. I believe that, to this point, the Bennett handcuffs that were meant to serve as a teaching tool while the upperclassmen carried the team have served to terrorize the confidence of the freshman. And when it became obvious that we couldn't count on Harmeling, Koprivica, and to some extent Rochestie to carry the scoring punch for this team, the wheels came off the wagon.

Coach needs to let these kids play a bit. I think it makes the upperclassmen more effective and that is what a team is all about. This is Tony's first go as a head coach bringing in a huge class full of talent. And I think maybe he has held them back just a little bit. But I think that the second half against Stanford showed that there are at least two freshman on this team that have ability to play fulltime minutes, along with the freedom to make some plays happen.