For the third time in just over a year, Gonzaga and Tennessee will square off. Tennessee won last season in Seattle, Gonzaga won five weeks ago in Orlando. The third meeting is Wednesday night at 6 PST at Tennessee’s Thompson-Boling Arena, which hasn’t been too hospitable to visitors.
More below an unedited preview that will run in Wednesday’s S-R.
(Apologies for the late post, but no free wireless connection at two airports en route to Knoxville, where it is pouring rain.)
The Bay Area teams come into Pullman this weekend, starting with the Cal Bears on Thursday night. Cal and Stanford are two of the surprising teams in the Pac-10 this season, so we thought we would take a look at their success. Read on for the unedited story that will appear in the S-R tomorrow.
Not a lot in the way of links this morning. Now rain, that we’ve got a lot of. Piles of snow one morning, ice all afternoon and rain the next day. How fun. Anyhow, read on for the few links we do have and a couple of thoughts.
As promised, I’ve attached an unedited version of the Then & Now yarn on former EWU center John Randa that will appear in Tuesday morning’s S-R below.
From his painful on-court encounter with Kevin Duckworth to his wedding on The Rock of Gibraltor, Randa has some entertaining memories to share.
Spokane continued to adjust its roster, adding two players, DB Damon Jenkins and OL Hercules Satele, and trading LB Blair Boynton to Amarillo.
More here.
Media day this afternoon at Gonzaga, so I’ll post an unedited notebook that will run in Tuesday’s S-R. I’m catching a flight tomorrow for Knoxville, but I’ll try to post my GU-Tennessee advance sometime mid-morning.
Meanwhile, here’s the latest Bracketology (GU is seeded No. 7).
Read on.
Earlier on this blog a poster was keeping tabs free throw shooting and lamenting the inability to convert. There is no questioning that 70-plus percent is vital to the outcome of a game. Back in the day, when Jud Heathcote was at West Valley, players were taught proper form and had to shoot them every day at the end of practice. Make 20 or 25 in a row and you got a milk shake. Ron Adams (of the Spokane Stars) made his reputation on teaching free throw proficiency, his girls often shooting in the 80 percent range. And while free throw shooting may in some eyes have become a lost art - people wonder how players so adept at making 3-pointers miss so many gift attempts from 15 feet - at almost every game I’ve attended this year, a player when fouled shooting a 3-pointer has made all three of his free throw tries. I’ve never seen it happen so regularly.
Let’s hope the winter weather is behind us and the games can get back in a regular pattern.
What an interesting weekend in Pac-10 basketball (and you guys had a lively conversation about it, that’s for sure). UCLA and Cal (yes, Cal) emerged from the first week atop the conference standings. Oregon State earned its first Pac-10 win in more than a year – 21 games in fact – by stunning USC in overtime. Arizona, filled with talent but obviously lacking leadership, settled into the cellar after a lost weekend in the Bay Area. And of most interest to you folks, WSU started 0-1.
Let’s take a spin around the conference and see what’s being said, then we’ll wrap up with a football note. Read on.
Continue reading Cal atop Pac-10? OSU wins? Stay tuned for a strange Pac-10 year »
Gonzaga’s three-game losing streak has cost the Bulldogs a spot in the ESPN/USA Today top 25. The Bulldogs dropped out of the rankings and received just 27 votes, which puts them tied for 36th (Note: corrected from 37th). Tennessee, Gonzaga’s opponent on Wednesday, stayed in the poll at No. 25.
Saint Mary’s is 29th with 43 votes. More here and here.
UPDATE: Gonzaga also dropped out of the A.P. top 25. GU is 30th with Tennessee No. 15 (how’s that for a gap between polls: Tennessee is 15 and 25). More here.
Eastern Washington’s junior point guard Benny Valentine erupted for 33 points Sunday afternoon and the Eagles picked up an important Big Sky road win over Sacramento State.
You can read the game story published by the Sacramento Bee here, check out the game details provided by EWU’s sports information department here, and take a look at the post-game report posted by Sac State sports info crew here.
As I was looking back at the box scores from the past couple year’s worth of WSU/UW basketball games yesterday, I was struck by how often Washington State had played 40 minutes of basketball against an aggressive, physical team without turning over the ball more than a handful of times.
In fact, in the past two years, the Cougars had more than 10 turnovers vs. the Huskies only in last year’s double overtime game. Last night, WSU passed that mark midway through the second half. And defeat followed. Such has been the case throughout this season, and probably will be the rest of the year as well. If WSU takes care of the ball, is efficient on offense and shoots respectably, it will be in games. Fail on any one, it won’t.
There isn’t a lot of margin of error available for the Washington State Cougars this Pac-10 basketball season. This isn’t a group right now that’s going to come roaring back from a big deficit to win a game. This isn’t a group that can get by without executing for 40 minutes. And this isn’t a group that could handle the Washington Huskies on Saturday.
The Huskies played better, especially in the second half. They played more poised, especially in the second half. And they played more physical, all game long. It adds up to a 20-point win. You can read the unedited version of my game story on the link.
Another quick burst by the opposition to open the second half. Another home loss. That’s what happened again Saturday as UW scored nine consecutive points right after halftime and went on to defeat WSU, 68-48, in the Pac-10 opener for both. Yes, it seemed a lot like the Gonzaga game, WSU fought back but there was too much Justin Dentmon and Quincy Pondexter and everybody else for the Cougars. We’ll be back in a couple of hours with the game story.
WSU trails 30-28 at the half, with the Huskies dominating the boards and nailing just about every open look they have from 3. The Cougars are staying in the game because they are perfect from the line, hitting all seven they’ve taken.
Both teams started slowly, with the score just 6-6 after 8 minutes of play. But the offense down the stretch was better, with WSU committing just one turnover in the final 12 minutes and UW hitting four of its last six shots. Isaiah Thomas and Quincy Pondexter lead UW with eight points apiece, Pondexter’s two free throws with less than a second left giving UW the halftime edge. Aron Baynes has eight for WSU and Caleb Forrest has seven. We’ll be back.
The Washington Huskies walked onto Friel Court today and Beasley Coliseum was silent. Really. No boos, no catcalls, nothing. What a difference without a majority of the students. There are a few, about a couple hundred right by the court, but they didn’t acknowledged UW’s presence. I wonder what Jon Brockman must think of this. Three years of being booed taking the court and his senior year, nothing. Read on.
The Pac-10’s first four games went pretty much as expected Friday night, with USC and UCLA winning easily in Oregon, Cal showing its nonconference record was for real and Stanford showing is wasn’t. The first wave of conference games ends today with WSU hosting UW. Click the link for more.
Gonzaga Prep romped over Ferris leaving four 4A boys teams in the race for post-season separated by a mere game with University falling two games further back.
North Central continued its penchant for close results (but five of them victories) to remain a game behind fellow 3A team Shadle Park as the closest pursuers of the unbeaten Bullpups.
Lewis and Clark’s girls rallied from a 21-7 deficit to defeat Mead in the first place showdown of unbeatens.
Here are my stories: Don’t be afraid to register with us and return to the conversation.
Eastern Washington’s second-half scoring woes were a key factor in Friday night’s lopsided Big Sky Conference road loss to Northern Arizona.
As promised, I’ve included this link to the game story posted by EWU’s sports information department and this link to what the folks at NAU had to say about the game.
Northern Arizona held Eastern Washington to just 17 second-half points in Flagstaff, Ariz., on Friday night and cruised to a 72-49 win over the Eagles, who lost for the fifth time in their last six games.
You can get at early look at the final box score here, and don’t forget to check back for more details on the game, as supplied by the EWU sports information department.
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