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Tuesdays with WSU

Posted by Vince Grippi

Feb. 17, 2009 10:12 a.m. • 13 comments

COUGARS

The last couple days have been somewhat thin on WSU news around the web. But we’ve found a couple things to pass on. You can find them on the link.

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• There is actually more basketball items than football, but we’re going to start with the latter. KXLY’s Dennis Patchin talked with Paul Wulff about the NCAA sanctions. You can watch the video here (just click the TV camera on the right). I don’t believe there’s much different than he said on his conference call. … OK, on to basketball. Todd Milles of the Tacoma News Tribune talked with former Cougar Kyle Weaver and had this feature. … The Oregonian has its power rankings. … Mike Tokito has this commentary concerning the poor calls in Arizona over the weekend. It’s a decent piece, but it does have one factual error. In the USC game, the official who called the charge, David Hall, was underneath the basket, while Randy McCall was out front holding his arm up to signal a block. Tokito had it the other way.

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• That’s it for this morning. We’ll be back this afternoon with our usual piece concerning Tony Bennett’s conference call and practice. Let me tell you, though, I’ve been working on another story and it’s impossible to get in touch with some people on a semi-holiday weekend. We’ll be back …

13 comments on this post so far. Add yours!

MikeD on February 17 at 11:28 a.m.
Hi Vince - All of the recent news about Weaver has got me wondering how Low is doing. Last I heard he made his way into Europe. Have you, or anyone else on this blog, heard how he is doing? Does he have a chance to make it into the NBA at some point down the road?
avboden on February 17 at 12:38 p.m.
This is the last I heard on low

“Derrick Low recently moved to Rouen, a historic city of 110,000 located 1 ½ hours northwest of Paris on the River Seine, after his Australian pro team ran into major financial problems and stopped paying players.

The Sydney Spirit was able to continue operations when some players agreed to major pay cuts, but Low said he couldn’t afford to risk injury at the reduced salary.

The Sydney Spirit was able to continue operations when some players agreed to major pay cuts, but Low said he couldn’t afford to risk injury at the reduced salary.

As luck would have it — for Low, anyway — Rouen had just lost starting point guard Kevin Houston to a season-ending knee injury. Low said he figures to make more money in France than Australia, aanyway — Rouen had just lost starting point guard Kevin Houston to a season-ending knee injury. Low said he figures to make more money in France than Australia, and he’s scored 31 points in his first two games as Rouen’s new starting point guard. ”

http://washingtonstate.scout.com/2/831980.html
coug79 on February 17 at 12:54 p.m.
Vince—the commentary on the officiating is interesting. There have been wacky calls all season in multiple games that appear really strange to my untrained eye…and I’m not talking about just WSU games. What is really frustraing is what appears to be an overall lack of consistency—within crews in the same game and among the various crews working the conference…some guys call games loose, some see phantom fouls and call everything. Some refs do both on consecutive possessions. As a result, it wrecks the flow of the game. Other times, it’s just weird. Like the USC/WSU game, with 12 minutes or so to go in the 2nd half, USC is already getting two shots on the double bonus at 10+ Cougar fouls while (supposedly) only committing TWO fouls as a team. I was at the game and USC plays tough, aggressive defense just like the Cougs. So how is that explained?

Maybe these challenges exist in every conference, but it just seems like Pac-10 officiating is consistently called out for being just a little screwy (basketball and football).
MikeD on February 17 at 12:58 p.m.
Thanks avboden, I guess I somehow missed that on CougFan. Anyway, I hope he is right about working and improving the areas he needed to develop so he can make it into the NBA; he sure deserves it!
rufus on February 17 at 3:22 p.m.
wonder how wsu football season tickets are going for 2009 season ?
garlandcoug on February 17 at 4:34 p.m.
The charge block calls have always been tough, but that one against USC the other night was so bad, and had such a huge impact on the game, it begs for action by the Pac 10. I like the idea of the half circle under the basket, but that would not have directly impacted this travesty. I do not know how the official could not see the ASU guy moving, and the official making the right call should have tried to state his case before letting a bad call stand. I am no SC fan, but that was horrible.
garlandcoug on February 17 at 4:34 p.m.
The charge block calls have always been tough, but that one against USC the other night was so bad, and had such a huge impact on the game, it begs for action by the Pac 10. I like the idea of the half circle under the basket, but that would not have directly impacted this travesty. I do not know how the official could not see the ASU guy moving, and the official making the right call should have tried to state his case before letting a bad call stand. I am no SC fan, but that was horrible.