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USC loss, the day after

Posted by Vince Grippi

Feb. 20, 2009 8:26 a.m. • 23 comments

COUGARS

For the first time in the Tony Bennett era at WSU, the Cougars have fallen to the .500 mark. They hit that point last night, losing 61-51 to USC in a game that wasn’t that close, then was, then wasn’t. The loss, WSU’s seventh in its last nine games, also dropped it to 5-9 in Pac-10 play. For our usual day-after post, read on.

••••••••••

• As the season winds down, looking more and more like it will end by March 12, there is fewer and fewer stories. But maybe that’s a good thing. Anyhow, here’s what we found, besides our story of course, the longer version of which you can find here. … There’s freelancer Howie Stalwick’s gamer in the P-I and other papers and the Associated Press piece in the News Tribune. … On the USC side of things, the LA Times’ Chris Foster had this story, spending some time covering an upcoming ESPN piece that features Daniel Hackett and his dad.

• Around the rest of the Pac-10, Oregon State moved a game ahead of WSU in the conference standings by blasting Stanford early in Corvallis. Speaking of the Beavers, they picked up another win over WSU yesterday, when highly regarded Australian forward Angus Brandt committed to attending OSU. The Cougars had Brandt in for a visit but he told them a long time ago Pullman wasn’t in his plans. … UCLA reasserted itself in the conference race with a workmanlike victory over UW at Pauley. … And Oregon continued its march to 0-18 with another defeat, this one at home to Cal. Is Saturday the Ducks best chance for a win?

• A couple of other WSU notes. The Cougar baseball team opens the 2009 season in Arkansas today, and the Democrat Gazette had this Jared Prince feature. … Former Cougar basketball player Jeff Varem has found a place to play: The Philippines. … And former WSU coach Dan Cozzetto has left ASU for Washington, where he completes Steve Sarkisian’s staff.

• OK. That’s it links-wise. Now from some more comments from Bennett and USC’s Tim Floyd.

• Bennett on the slow start: “We started out a little sluggish. That was hard. I like the way the guys in the second half fought back, showed some life and energy. They really, really scrapped hard.”

• On the subs: “I liked what DeAngelo (Casto) and Marcus (Capers) gave us. … Some guys picked up the slack. … Those guys played so hard they had to come out and that’s what I like, when they give that kind of effort, but I was going to go with them as long as they could stand. … It was nice to see DeAngelo score in the post a little bit. Marcus got a couple offensive rebounds, but we didn’t capitalize at the free throw line. That hurt us. … We pretty much have either our seniors or our freshmen. That’s pretty much all we’ve got.”

• On Thompson’s troubles: “Whether it was coming back home and feeling pressure or the nerves, he certainly, you know he’s been playing well but this was not one of his better games.”

• Floyd on the game: “We’re happy to get a win. It’s been a while. We played long periods of time defensively and didn’t lose concentration. … We did a good job on Thompson, we guarded the 3-point line, we got to the line and we rebounded offensively and defensively.”

•••

• That’s it for this morning. We’re headed to practice in Westwood this afternoon, we’ll be on the Dennis Patchin show at 4:05 and we’ll be writing our advance for tomorrow’s S-R. Other than that, there will be the 3 hours or so we’ll be on the freeways. That’s it. We’ll be back later. Until then …

23 comments on this post so far. Add yours!

coug79 on February 20 at 8:48 a.m.
Vince—you nailed the two game keys: the seven minute stretch in the 1st half where the Cougs (again) offense went into hibernation and the very quick 3 point attempt by Taylor (missed) when the Cougs had clawed their way back and were about to take the lead.. USC grabs the rebound, scored a 3 and we never got close again. What a momentum shift.

What’s really amazing is we had 20 more shot attempts from the field than USC….and still lost by 10. 2/18 on 3 pointers for a whopping 11%? This team needs a pychologist not a coach.
Tom_R on February 20 at 9:14 a.m.
It has become clear to me that Tony Bennett’s successful first two years was largely the result of the foundation put in place by his dad, Dick Bennett. In viewing Tony’s coaching decisions to date, I think he is at best a mediocre coach. That became highlighted a couple of weeks ago against UCLA, when he had Capers in the game and the Cougars were behind by two points and were taking the ball out under the Cougar’s basket with 3.9 seconds left. There have been, in my view, countless although perhaps less glaring similar types of poor decisions by Tony. He has not been able to put in a combination of players that would be on the same page, but keeps experimenting. The experimentation for this season should have ended long ago, for the most part.

Having said this, I think Tony is a man of excellent character, and I am happy for him and his family that he got such a great contract. The school owed that to Dick Bennett. Strangely, I hope that Tony remains the head coach of WSU for a long time. I don’t think he has the innate abiltiy to be a good coach, but he is probably the best that WSU could reasonably hope for. Under Tony, it will no doubt be a very clean program.
Rambler on February 20 at 9:20 a.m.
Unfortunately more of the same old story. 2-18 on 3 point attempts, that is truly sad.

I hope, this off season the coaching staff spends every NCAA allowable minute teaching Thompson & Capers to create off the dribble, as well as developing an inside game plan for Casto.

Next year we have to try something different, 2 of 18 from the 3 point arc is not an offensive game plan.
wazzuwyatt on February 20 at 11:00 a.m.
In regard to the interesting and likely correct comments you 3 guys said, it makes me wonder if Tony had this season planned as a training year for the future. So many of the game plans and rotations he’s done seem curious and unexplainable.
unclemike on February 20 at 11:06 a.m.
Tom R : I, too, question Tony’s substitutions and lineups,
but he has a plan, makes a million bucks a year, knows more
about basketball than I will ever know, has 3 assisitants whom are more knowledgable than me, and HATES to loose. He
just doesn’t show his emotions..that’s his personality. I think we are a little too quick to shoot him..did he become a bad coach
over night, or does he not have the players he had?
Last year he started three guards….Derrick, Kyle, and TR.
When one passed the ball to the other, they each LOOKED for a play and had the ability to MAKE a play each time they received the ball. Now, TR passes to two freshmen and Nik
who look to UNLOAD the ball and he is left trying to get everyone involved. I’m gonna give him the rest of the season
and try to follow what he is doing…and leading the country in
defense and GREAT free throw shooting are plusses.
Look at Oregon.did Kent becaome a bad coach overnight?
I think he is looking to 2011 when the new arena opens, so
he has freshman playing (and loosing) who will be jrs. and srs.
for that season.
Anyway, it has been a LONGGGGGG football and basketball
season, and I have been am about out of Crimson blood, but
I just believe there is real hope in the NEAR future. TB and PW
are too good of coaches to let this go on too far.
bson25 on February 20 at 11:16 a.m.
Tom R.

Maybe you need to face the fact that we just are not that good. We only have 3 players who can score on a consistant basis. How do you expect coaching to improve that? Tony has given many guys opportunities to come off the bench, and nobody has even been able to score a bucket.

Tony is not perfect, but he is a great coach. To say that his success was mostly because of Dick is pretty ridiculous. First of all, Tony was the main man in recruiting that group of players, so scratch that argument off the list.

Second, look at all the teams that get hyped up at the beginning of the season and then do not come close to the expectations. Look at Notre Dame, Baylor, Texas, Miami, and Gonzaga all off of the top of my head. These teams are really struggling and they are pretty loaded.

Tony not only pulled the surprise season out of nowhere two years ago, but he followed it up by living up to the big expectations. We were the “hunted” last year in possibly the toughest Pac Ten of all time and we had a great year.

Take off your crimson colored glasses and understand that this team is not that talented. Tony is not perfect, but there really is no coach who could take this team to the tournement.

Brian
gocougs05 on February 20 at 11:24 a.m.
I think it is ridiculous to say Bennett is a sub-par coach after his first down year. I didn’t hear anyone say that last year or the year before. Let’s not forget, this WSU team is the youngest in the nation. It isn’t Bennett’s fault that open shots aren’t falling. I think this team will be much tougher next year. He is getting some great kids and it is going to take a while before we see the next Kyle Weaver or Derrick Low. Thompson is going to be that type of player, but he is still learning. People can gripe about rotations all they want, but the bottom line is, this is a learning year for all nine freshmen on the roster. Mistakes and poor execution are going to happen. The Seniors can only do so much. I think what has to be remembered here is an idea the Bennetts take to heart, which is, they have to have kids they can lose with before they have kids they can win with. Keep up the support, GO COUGS!
avboden on February 20 at 12:18 p.m.
Holy crap, how can you even say that TB is at best mediocre?!

We have what, NINE FREAKING FRESHMAN

get that through your head, you won’t be complaining when we’re in the final four in 3 years
garlandcoug on February 20 at 1:16 p.m.
Last year and the year before people were saying geez how bad of a coach must the father be when his son can do better with the same line-up. So it is with Tony, the team is down, the magic half time adjustments don’t work so well, people say it was the father all the time. The truth is closer to what Price would say; ‘it’s not the X’s and O’s it’s the Jimmy’s and Joe’s” WSU is not settling for a “clean program coach” WSU will always compete well with Tony at the helm and every few years WSU will compete for championships.
coug79 on February 20 at 1:51 p.m.
It’s interesting that our one signature win of the season (ASU) we saw player execution for a full 40 minutes. In virtually all other games, we’ve seen multiple players failing to execute (turnovers, missed open shots, defensive lapses, etc.) for significant portions of the game. When the players execute TB’s plan, we win, or at the very least play very competitively. When the players fail to execute, we just aren’t that good. Is Tony failing the players or are the players failing Tony?

John Woodin himself would have looked like a pretty poor coach with players shooting 30%.
OlyCoug on February 20 at 2:22 p.m.
coug79,
You said it. Bennett can’t be out there shooting three pointers for the team, no matter how much we’d like him to be (I’m pretty sure he’d hit better than 11%).

He’s shuffled the deck with lineups because he’s searching for a team that can score.

Seriously, I’m sure he’d take blame but I don’t think he deserves it. The guys on the floor have to make smart plays and make shots. What choice does TB have but to plug players until someone gets hot? And if there’s no one to get hot, well—he’s screwed.

The thing that kills us as Cougar fans is that the team has its best years ever and then falls off a cliff. There’s no such thing as a graceful landing in Cougarville. Three ten win seasons in football and it’s back to the cellar. Two NCAA appearances and here comes the plummet to ninth place in basketball.

This year I’m sure most of us would have killed for an 18-12 season. Or, heck, how about a .500 season? Is that too much to ask? Apparently, yes.

The nature of the beast. WSU will never be UCLA or Arizona. But we can be good every couple of years under Tony Bennett.

Let’s see what happens next year with the highly touted recruits before we label TB a mediocre coach.
TommyCoug on February 20 at 2:24 p.m.
Wow, a “very” few folks want to hang The Coach!

I believe we better wait and judge him over time…like after 10 years as head man. Then we will have a better idea of what he can deliver. I would seriously doubt that all those “super” college basketball programs, like Indiana and LSU, that showed interest last year in seeking his talents as their coach would not show that same interest this year.

This team was just a concern, or should have been, to most of us from the start. Now they have completed the circle and had a first half collapse. 3 pretty good players (1 a freshman) Baynes, Rochestie and Thompson along with another Senior in Caleb Forrest (who has had some outstanding outings on both offense and defense) that just gives his all game in and game out can’t overcome the lack of scoring and other abilities of the remainder of the club. Will it be better next year and years to come? We will see.

Sorry to see the Aussie go to the Beavs at OSU. Especially, if Bennett and the boys really wanted him. I do hope the others that have committed, for next year, are as good as advertised as I have been critical of some of the current youngsters performances this year.

GO COUGS!!…GO BENNETT!!