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WSU not happy with split

Feb. 1, 2009 5:16 a.m. • 25 comments

COUGARS

You would think a split in the desert would have made the Washington State basketball team happy. You would be wrong. “We’re in a position where you can’t split anymore,” senior Daven Harmeling said. “We’ve dug ourself such a big hole, splits on the road it’s not good enough. It’s the kind of stuff that will let us have a spring break instead of playing postseason basketball. We don’t want that.” For more from Arizona, including all the links, read on.

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• The upset of Arizona State faded in a sea of turnovers Saturday afternoon, with WSU throwing away – almost literally – a chance for another road sweep and an opportunity to be come relevant in the Pac-10 race. Now the Cougars must regroup and make some noise in the second half of the conference season if they, like Harmeling said, don’t want to spend spring break in Pullman. We’ll start our morning-after post with links, first to our story, which appeared with some more content on this site. Freelancer Howie Stalwick had coverage in the Olympian and other papers, while you can read the Associated Press story here. Otherwise, you can read more, including the Arizona Daily Star gamer from Bruce Pascoe, a column from Greg Hansen and Steve Rivera’s Tucson Citizen story.

• Around the conference, the Huskies bounced back with a win at ASU, riding Justin Dentmon’s career-high 30 points. … Oregon State is on a roll, and the Beavers rolled over Oregon. … USC handed Cal another road defeat and still thinks it has a shot at the conference title. … UCLA would beg to differ after routing Stanford. … Finally, a couple of Pac-10 roundups, first from Nick Daschel at Buster Sports and this one from the Oregonian.

• Now to some football links. The News Tribune examines WSU and UW’s recruiting, while Stalwick catches up the Olympian’s readers on Peter Tuitupou.

• Our last item, or items if you will, are comments from those involved with the WSU loss yesterday.

Bennett on the meltdown: “We put the ball in spots we probably shouldn’t have. They trapped us in the corner, sideline. If we just could have handled the trap and got it out, then you’re 3-on-2, 2-on-1 but we couldn’t.”

More on the stretch: “I was disappointed we got rattled like that. We work on sureness with the ball, we work on trapping and against pressure.”

What the offensive woes do on the other end: “That puts more pressure on your defense, plays on your psyche. I didn’t feel like we were out of the game, if we could just handle their pressure, we’re going to get a clean look. … We couldn’t do that, for whatever reason. Whether it was stepping out of bounds or getting down in the corners and picking up our dribbles.”

Rochestie on the meltdown: “It was us. They’re a good team. They’re long, athletic, they’re active. The same press, same style of press, first and second half, they switched it up, but we were knew what they were going to do coming into the game, it’s up to us to execute and just get the ball to the right people and attack them. We’ve got to make a team pay for pressing. We didn’t do that.”

The loss itself: “We kind of let this one slip away.”

What WSU needs to do in the second half of the Pac-10: “We have to continue learning. … Once we start having these big lapses, where the defense starts giving up easy shots, or offense is missing shots, we can’t let teams go on those big runs.”

Arizona’s reputation: “They’re a second-half team. You saw their explosion against UW. We know they’re very capable. In the first half had a little glimpse of it, they went on a run, we know how fiery they can get. Last year when we came in here they went on a big run on us.”

More on the meltdown: “If we’re turning the ball over, which we shouldn’t be, or we’re missing shots, we still have to get back and get stops. That’s what we weren’t doing.”

Harmeling on the meltdown: “They cranked up the heat defensively with their pressure, and instead of attacking it we just kind of cowered down and were loose with the ball. There’s a big difference between being poised and attacking and being scared and turning the ball over. That ultimately killed us.”

His shooting: “Wanted to be aggressive (today), I was more confident. Still, shots that feel good are just not going in. Worked hard, tried changing things, for the life of me I don’t know why they’re not going in.”

Arizona: “They’re a really explosive team, especially in the second half. We knew that, so the way we just kind of spoon fed them with stepping out of bounds and handing them the ball, is disappointing.”

The Wildcats run and dealing with their pressure: “We feel like a lot of those mistakes were in our control and we just lost it. Gave it away. … We’re college basketball players; we’re 20-something years old. If you can’t handle, you know you’ve been trapped since you were 6-years-old. They were good at it, but at the same time it’s not like … we didn’t know they were going to trap us.”

Guarding Budinger, who was 1 of 14 before the run: “With a guy like that, even when I’m at my best, I’m still kind of at his mercy, whether or not he’s going to make his shots. Thankfully for me and us, he was off a little bit tonight.”

On Rochestie scoring every WSU point in most of the second half: “It would be one thing if he was talking all the shots, but I know for a fact he wasn’t taking all the shots. That’s a sign something’s wrong.”

Baynes on not touching the ball in the UA run: “It was tough. I have to find a way to help our guys out in that situation. Arizona put pressure on them and we have to find a way to get the ball across half-court for them. It’s tough.”

Guarding Jordan Hill: “They’ve gone to him every game. They try to pound the ball into him every game. … I didn’t want to have to trap him, because our guys had enough pressure on them.”

•••

• That’s it for today. We’ll be back if any news breaks. Otherwise, I’ll be in Pullman tomorrow as we get closer to football signing day. We should have something for you on that. Till then …

25 comments on this post so far. Add yours!

Tom_R on February 01 at 6:48 a.m.
I think Tony needs to consult with his dad on this team and its future strategy. His dad, in the view of many people, was one of the best college basketball coaches in the country. Tony should make use of his father’s knowledge. Dick Bennett’s savvy will improve the team; and thus, make life a lot easier for us Cougar fans.
couglarr on February 01 at 7:48 a.m.
Good grief Tom R, if I didn’t know better I would think you were trolling or maybe you are.
When the opposing team is pressing and trapping you must make them pay, you’ve got to make them pay and when you do they will take the press away very quickly. Believe it or not this was a valuable lesson for the cougs. Looks like they need to practice this aspect of their game.
I still think all of the pieces are there for winning games it just needs to all come together, maturing of the frosh is a key component but the seniors need to play like seniors.

Regroup for next week Cougs.
Leo_Z on February 01 at 10:55 a.m.
I’m sure Tony speaks with his dad often. I don’t think that’s exactly an untapped resource
garlandcoug on February 01 at 10:57 a.m.
The frosh took a step back, they have not been in Pac 10 situations before and it showed yesterday. They’ll come around, but I wish for Daven’s sake that he’ll be able to look back at his senior year with satisfaction rather than wondering where his shot went. I did see that he had some assists, played his heart out on defense so he is contributing in other ways.
Tom_R on February 01 at 11:23 a.m.
Coug Forever:

Teams pressing and trapping are very elementary aspects of the game of basketball, and as Tony has said, his team practices constantly in defeating such defenses. Certainly experienced players, generally, handle such defense better than true freshmen. Even though Harmeling is not considered a great ball handler, I think his experience and savvy would have helped the Cougars overcome the trapping defense that AZ put on. But, of course, Harmeling got his fourth foul, and went to the bench.

As I have mentioned time and time again, the Cougars need another 3-point shooter besides Rochestie and Thompson. Watching Harmeling’s touch during this past game, I think he is able to handle that responsibility. His misses were, for the most part, barely missing. His touch and the roll of the ball were excellent. It looks to me that he has got it down. All he needs to do is start shooting whenever he is open. That will open up Baynes, Rochestie, and Thompson. In my view the game turned around when Harmeling went to the bench with four fouls. AZ immediately went on a 15 - 0 run.

The Cougars have had some missing parts on this team. The crucial one was the need for another 3-point shooter. I think Harmeling, with the help of Tony, can fill that need. Nik K. and Capers are lucky if they can hit the rim from the outside, and the PAC-10 coaches now know that. They play off of those guys when they are on the outside and focus on Baynes, Rochestie, and Thompson.

Lodwick and Harthun seem to go into a panic when they attempt a 3-pointer during their one or two minutes in the game. When Harmeling was sent to the bench with his fourth foul, probably the answer was to put Lodwick in the game. Once he got over his panic attack, he may hae been able to stroke some 3-pointers. Also, with his ball handling skills and his being a redshirt freshman, he should have had considerable experience at beating the pressing and trapping that AZ installed.

To consult with a very successful former college coach, in my opinion, could hardly be considered trolling, but rather looking to quickly correct and improve a few things. There is certainly still a decent chance for the Cougars to get very good soon, and make the NCAA tournament one way or the other, but they can only do that with a smart strategy.
avboden on February 01 at 11:43 a.m.
I think the statement that Caper’s can barely hit the rim from beyond the arc is absurd and uncalled for. That isn’t his job on the team! He creates the shots for other players and is pretty darn good at it. You can’t judge his shooting based on the few shots he has actually taken.

Although I’ve said it once and i’ll say it again, I think Capers is our best hope at driving to the hoop. Great ball control. He’s tall enough and damn fast. Rochestie is great but he’s just too darn small against the tall teams.

I think this was the first game we truly saw that Klay was a freshman. The stepping out of bounds two possessions in a row was killer. He’ll learn and bounce back.

Koprevitza needs to be benched and only come in as a last ditch effort. He doesn’t make shots and I find my self about to pee my pants when he touches the ball. I know i’m not the only one. What is his role on this team? He doesn’t come down with rebounds, sure he’s okay at defense but so are a lot of other players.

I think harmeling’s problem is he has to create his own shots right now. Last year he had the other teams always watching D-Low running the base line all day and it left harmeling with very very open shots. This year he’s having to find his own shots a little bit and it seems it wasn’t working.

However, these past few games I really like that the Cougs are starting to change up the offense, kicking it to baynes kicking it out and around for an open shot. They didn’t do this that much at the beginning of the year. I still want to see more people run the base line though, so far only rochestie and klay do this occasionally.

I’m really excited to see where this team goes. Brock Motim next year will be a really big player. He’s a big who supposedly can hit 3’s.

Meanwhile the Cougar Women got their second conference win yesterday, putting them ahead of UW and Arizona! We’re not the Pac-10 floor mat this year!!! The Women seem to be making big improvements. Jessica (the 6‘8” frosh) has been starting and getting better every game. She can’t jump to save her life and is still sloppy handling the ball but she’s going to be a powerful post pretty soon.

holy crap that was long
TommyCoug on February 01 at 12:55 p.m.
Yes, it was, Avboden!

Sorry, what little I have seen of Capers…says he can’t score, can play some defense and some rebounds. He is not Taylor R. in any capacity yet. Maybe, I hope, in another year…otherwise we are doomed!

Thompson scores, but thows the ball away a bunch, not a great rebounder and quits on some drives, etc., if he feels he’s fouled and doesn’t get the call…Casto tends to have some hand and pass issues and yes, he can play defense and rebound.

Nick K. shoots bad, throws the ball away and commits fouls…and that was just in the first few minutes he was in…and in most games too…thought he would be better than that.

C. Forrest gives it everything he has, most games…and usually it’s good. He and others missed a some layups and put backs that could have increased our leads.

Harthun I haven’t witnessed any of…but, Lodwick, who’s suppossed to be a shooter…shot completely over the basket the other night and then hit the side of the backboard against Arizona. What’s with this junk?

Freshman have had a lot of playing time…maybe too soon to ask them to grow up…however, I think they should have “grown” in a couple of areas…not panicking, throwing the ball away and securing the ball before reacting is not too much to expect and that would help our cause right now.

D. Harmeling, if he can get his shot back, he looked better Saturday, the rest of the year, can play some defense and rebound and give us that other “starter scoring threat” we need.

Enough, I am long also…which Cougar team will show up on Thursday…Stanford won’t be happy with the UCLA bashing.

GO COUGS!!
Ted on February 01 at 2:47 p.m.
Maybe Harmeling should try that brace on his hand again. He seemed to shoot well last year with it.
EllensburgCoug on February 01 at 3:39 p.m.
Speaking of 3 point shooters. It’s too bad we lost Josh Akognon(Yeah, I know he’d have to have redshirted) and Chris Matthews( he would be a senior). Of course that is water under the bridge.
Harmeling will come around. It’s good to see him play because he can’t get out of his slump unless he plays. Harthun, Lodwick et al are freshman and just need to work thru it. I’m optimistic
Go Cougs
Leo_Z on February 01 at 8:52 p.m.
Don’t forget Mac Hopson either. He’s making a splash for Idaho right now instead. He would have been great this year for WSU.
wazzuwyatt on February 02 at 6:16 a.m.
Nick K even looks a bit bewildered at times. I can’t figure out why TB even puts him in the game, but he at least takes him out soon when she fails to perform well.

Lodwick was a real star shooter when he was a high school player here in Bend. Something’s happened to the poor kid in his shooting and he commits fouls too easily and often when he plays defense.
MikeSequim on February 02 at 8:16 a.m.
I don’t think we’re out of it yet! Just look at this league. OSU beats USC at home, CAL and STAN on the road, gets beat by WSU and UW at home? ASU loses by 30 to STAN, loses to WSU and UW at home? ARI beats WSU loses to STAN and CAL? UW beats UCLA loses to ARI? WSU beats STAN, ASU and loses to UCLA by 2 and USC by 2.

Except for UW, UCLA and possibly ARI, anything can happen! We seem to be playing better on the road, don’t know why? Every so called BB Guru in the country says the PAC-10 is average this year, maybe they’re right! I don’t know if I’d call UW and UCLA average though. Anyway, I still think we got a chance with some breaks. JMO

Just keep trying hard Coug’s!

Mike, Sequim
ECoug01 on February 02 at 1:23 p.m.
Kopravicia needs to be benched. Weird to me how Tony will pull Casto for 1 turnover yet Kopravicia can stay in the game. He brings almost nothing to the table. Harmeling is almost as ineffective but a better defender and takes care of the ball better.