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Oregon State, the morning after

Posted by Vince Grippi

Feb. 15, 2009 8:11 a.m. • 37 comments

COUGARS

It was that kind of day in the Pac-10. WSU did what it did, blowing a lead and losing to Oregon State. Stanford blew even a bigger lead – 22 points – and lost to Cal. Arizona dominated UCLA, which a week ago looked like an Elite Eight team at the very least. Only Oregon remained consistent. Heck, the Ducks might be the only reliable team in the Pac-10 right now. They play, they lose. Read on for our usual postmortem.

••••••••••

• We’ve got everything you need to wallow in self pity today (and, because it’s February, there won’t even be a Seahawks loss on the tube to drown out the sorrow). From our story as it appeared in the S-R this morning (and the longer blog post from last night) to freelancer Howie Stalwick’s coverage in the West Side papers to the Associated Press piece in the Seattle Times, there’s plenty of coverage. There’s Paul Buker’s story in the Oregonian and freelancer Dan Thompson’s story for the Corvallis Gazette Times. We also had this slideshow of photos from the game.

• Now to the players’ postgame comments. I thought last night I could have written an entire story with just comments about how WSU gave this one away, and that’s probably true. Most of what follows is in that vein.

• Caleb Forrest on why the Cougars lost: “We weren’t as tough mentally as they were.”

• What the successful back cuts did to WSU’s defense: “If you get back cut in the pack defense we play, it spreads the whole game open.”

• The difference between the first half and the second: “In the first half we broke (their zone) apart and in the second half we couldn’t get anything.”

• Taylor Rochestie on the Cougars’ second-half play: “It seemed like we were trying not to lose.”

• The importance of the defeat: “Every game is important. This is important because we’re trying to stay around that peak, trying to get over to the other end. In the Pac-10, to lose this game, especially when you’re going on the road now to LA, two teams we haven’t beat, it’s tough. We had the game. We’re sitting there at halftime, I don’t know what the score was, how much we were up by, but we have the game.”

• How this one hurts: “I’m going to remember this for a while because that’s a game we should have won. Flat out. Bottom line is we should have won the game.”

• Coach Tony Bennett, when asked about the inability of the offense to score in the second half, answered that it was bothersome but wanted to talk about the defense. These are sound bites from a bunch of different comments: “More disappointing was the amount of back-door cuts. … We lacked some soundness and toughness. … You lose a little bit of focus, you relax a little bit. … Our defense is really set up for that, to absorb those cuts. … That just shouldn’t happen. … There were probably six or seven of them they got like that.”

• How the players took the loss: “I know they feel very bad about it. I know the seniors do, without a doubt. Especially when you play a game, I know Taylor and Aron, I know what they’re capable of and to not play up to that ability in this kind of setting, I think that was frustrating for them.”

• Around the Pac-10 it was a crazy day. But nothing was stranger than Cal’s comeback at home vs. Stanford. The Bears rallied behind backup guard Jorge Gutierrez. … Arizona is playing better than anyone in the conference right now – we might have written that about UCLA last Sunday – and the Wildcats dominated the Bruins, just like old times. … The Huskies have put themselves in a position to win the conference title after the victory over Oregon. But the trip to LA awaits. … The Oregonian has its usual trip around the Pac-10. … For you WSU and GU fans, Oregon AD Pat Kilkenny, Mark Few’s old friend, talked with Oregonian columnist George Schroeder. The one question every one is interested concerns Ernie Kent’s future. When asked if Kent’s job is secure, Kilkenny said, “I sure hope so. I mean, if you really evaluate what he’s done … Oregon is not a basketball power. I don’t know why people think we are.” He also added, “But gosh, it would break my heart if we had to make a change there. But never say never.”

• One football note. The Times’ Bud Withers had a column today on Paul Wulff’s tenure at WSU. And, as we posted yesterday, the athletic department put out a release clarifying Wulff’s comments about the NCAA violations at Eastern. You can read what he had to say the other night here.

•••

• That’s about it for this morning. We’ll be back tomorrow with more. Till then …

37 comments on this post so far. Add yours!

MikeSequim on February 15 at 9:37 a.m.
Not much left to do this year with that loss and hope for the NCAA except get up early, read the blogs, muffins and coffee and get the Horses ready for ED. Looking forward to next year.

Mike, Sequim
Ned on February 15 at 9:37 a.m.
Looks like those of us (including me) that couldn’t wait for Buster to eat crow for that six-wins-in-the-Pac-10-at-most comment are set to enjoy a little crow ourselves. That one hurt yesterday.
gslbball on February 15 at 9:50 a.m.
I admire this team because they never seem to quit. GU could use some of the toughness the Cougs display. But it highlights what a special group was at Wazzu the prior two seasons. I worry if this team has the upcoming talent to win much over the next couple of years. I predicted a .500 season for the Cougs, and I was hoping to be wrong.
Rambler on February 15 at 10:25 a.m.
Painful to watch. Trying to pound a square peg into a round hole. The unwillingness (or maybe its the inability) to change or make adjustments is really frustrating.

By change or make adjustments, I do not mean going one by one down your bench and asking your charges to jump off the same cliff, hoping for a different outcome.

This current OSU team has no superstars, no players head and shoulders above ours, they started a walk on! That game was won and lost by the men in charge. One able to adjust (there’s that word again) and put his team in a position to win or effect the outcome, and the other, left hoping that things will happen the right way. Maybe change it up a little on defense, and try a “box and one”, if your not able to stop the back door play.

We still can not handle any type trap thrown at us. I hope that next year Xavier Thames can bail us out of situations like this.
junurz on February 15 at 10:38 a.m.
Say Mike, Sequim
Are you up to watching a little marathon of Zags(6pm), Dawgs(8pm) and Cougs(10pm) this coming Thursday at Seven Cedars? I’m calling you out. Need to support our NW schools through thick and thin.
I’ll even buy you dinner and drinks of your choice. Cmon don’t Coog it, lol.
MikeSequim on February 15 at 2:59 p.m.
junurz,

Howdy doo! I’ gonna have to Coug it for this week! We will be at Emerald Downs helping get our Horses ready! Saturday, Lord willing, we are off to the Kennel for one of my dream wishes. Anyway, I don’t go there much but maybe I can con the “Grump” to come along for a game up there and She can feed the slots! Let me know down the road.

Mike, Sequim
EllensburgCoug on February 15 at 5:23 p.m.
Gad that was painful to stomach yesteday. I think the Beavs are just as good as the Cougs. After all, it took OT to beat them before.
What was so galling was to squander a 13 point lead. To see them panic when confronted with a trapping defense was hard to watch.
I hope emotionally they can recover. I know I won’t.
Has anyone looked at the next five games on our schedule?
Not good.
Ned on February 15 at 8:46 p.m.
gslball, I think this team has enough talent to win in the upcoming years - maybe not next year, but definetly the year after. Klay, Capers and Casto are definetly better athletes than Low, Weaver and Cowgill and I would venture to say that as a group, they are better basketball players as freshman than those three were. Time will tell, but I think they can win with the talent they have and the talent they have coming in.
avboden on February 16 at 9:27 a.m.
On a plus side, Capers is getting confidence in his ability to drive to the hoop. Those of you that have seen my posts before know i’ve said it all along, Capers needs to drive the hoop. He’s the only one fast enough but big enough to do it right now.
garlandcoug on February 16 at 10:11 a.m.
Capers is looking more and more comfortable. You are right about his speed, for his size it is impressive to watch. Now if Tony can get Harthun to relax and let his game flow, handle the ball the way he is suppose to, and make a shot…the Cougs need that now, but next year… well… I don’t want to think about that right now!
jimmyball on February 16 at 10:39 a.m.
On the offensive side one of the problems for the Cougs is that CTB plays such a slowdown game that the natural ability of some players is hampered. Capers, Casto, Thompson, Harthun, even Rochestie have and can play an uptempo game. The Cougers often pass up the opportunity to “push the ball” and even pass up a good shot early in the shot clock and are then often forced to take a worse shot as the clock runs down. Many teams play lock-down defense and uptempo offense and IMO Bennett can take himself and the Cougars to the next level by considering this idea. CTB is stuck in a method that gives his team a chance because the game is low scoring but hampers the natural ability of a lot of his recruits. I doubt many kids like to play this slow-down offense as we’ve seen with losing some good transfers in the past couple of years. IMO CTB has yet to prove himself as an innovative coach.
Ted on February 16 at 11:47 a.m.
I also think that bringing the ball up the court slowly when being pressed is an advantage to the defense. Get the ball up the court and don’t give the defense time to get set up. They can still go through their sets on offense.
jimmyball on February 16 at 11:52 a.m.
Ted,
I agree entirely.
TommyCoug on February 16 at 2:22 p.m.
Let’s see if I have this correct? For the last few years we have been building a program and during the last 2 years we won 20+ games and won several NCAA tournament games.

Now suddenly, the coach is bad and those players weren’t as good as the current young crop. Plus we/they need an up tempo game because they like it? Or do you like it?

I would suggest that the players know what type of a game they are going to play…that Klay Thompson, in particular, and others have been shooting earlier and more frequently when the opportunity presents itself.

It is apparent that Thompson, Rochestie and Baynes can score in double figures (and often in the same game)…this indicates that the offense can and does provide adequate scoring opportunities…however, even they have gone dry on too many occasions. The rest of the club has to be shooting about 25% at best…the reliable bench of the last couple of years isn’t there and the new starters aren’t producing enough on offense or defense.

So, thanks…I’ll stick with Coach Tony Bennett and his system.

What has occurred too often, post halftime, is one part of the puzzle…poor defense in many situatIons,along with the shooting problems of Harmeling, Koprivica, Lodwick, Harthun plus others and some opponents converting 50-70% of their shots all too frequently.

This years team just doesn’t have it…it was evident early and consistently with the 2nd half collapses. Next years recruits are indicated as very good, maybe a few of the current youngsters will mature and be better. So, 2-3 years from now we could be back into post season play.

However, this year is over…and the result has been trending that way for the last couple of months…it’s too late to resurrect the season with these last 5 tough opponents and the Pac-10 Tournament. Any win streak now would be a miracle! That’s not negative…that’s facing the reality that has been showing itself to us all year.

Still…GO COUGS!!
coug79 on February 16 at 3:05 p.m.
Right on Tommy Coug. Look to the future. Stay strong behind Tony. And get your butts in Beasley in two weeks for senior day (ASU) and let’s cheer on the final game for Taylor, Aaron and Forrest for a season sweep from the Sun Devils.
avboden on February 16 at 6:32 p.m.
Rumor has it the entire lower student section will have trees for forrest….if I get around to making them all with some other friends
jimmyball on February 16 at 6:42 p.m.
TommyCoug,
You made all my points. I didn’t say CDB was a bad coach just not innovative. A good example would be the Pittsburg team that plays a similar lockdown defense and in past years slowed it down on the offensive end. This year Coach Dixon has them much more uptempo and they are as good as it gets because they have a good bunch of athletes. There are examples all over the country, coaches have to use the talent that they have. Past two years Cougars could play slowdown and be very competitive with the roster they had. This year not so good. If CTB stays in this mode with this group of athletes I don’t think you’ll see much improvement. That’s what I mean by innovative.
Why do you think they shoot so poorly, because they wait until the end of the shot-clock and often then don’t have a decent opportunity. IMO. They are predictable and the other teams know it.
Beiron on February 16 at 10:59 p.m.
Simple fact is that the freshmen aren’t capable of playing lock down defense because it relies on much more than just athletic ability. That coupled with loose ball handling make a quick offense and lock down defense an impossible task this year
wazzuwyatt on February 17 at 6:44 a.m.
You sure are consistent, TommyCoug, in making excellent sage comments on the Cougs’ performance and future. I agree this year is over but the future has promise and the coach and team will return to the Low-Cowgill-Weaver type days of glory—maybe even better.