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WSU looks forward to OSU

Posted by Vince

Jan. 1, 2010 4:46 p.m. • 9 comments

COUGARS

Attended practice today to watch the Cougars get ready for Oregon State. Much of the conversation, as you might guess, centered round the end of the first overtime last night. It’s part of my story for tomorrow, the unedited version of which is on the link. Read on.

••••••••••

• Here’s the story …

PULLMAN – Ken Bone’s cell phone and computer have been busy.

Washington State University men’s basketball coach said Friday he’s received more than 30 messages since last night from coaching friends and “even a couple of officials about what took place.”

“The topic isn’t about ‘oh, what an exciting game,’ ” Bone added. “The topic is about the obvious.”

Bone isn’t just referring to Thursday’s 91-89 double overtime defeat to Oregon at Friel Court, of course. He’s referring to the technical foul called on the WSU bench at the end of the first overtime, allowing the Ducks to overcome DeAngelo Casto’s basket and a 80-78 lead with .3 seconds left.

He appreciates the concern, but added “it makes it even more difficult to put it behind you when people keep bringing it up.”

And Bone did all he could at practice Friday to move beyond the Pac-10 opening loss and get ready for today’s challenge, Oregon State.

“We’ll find out tomorrow,” said Bone when asked if his team had been able to forget the result and bounce back from 50 minutes of basketball. “You always talk about how to deal with adversity, turn the page, put things behind you and all that (but) it’s a lot easier said than done.”

“We’re fine,” said sophomore guard Klay Thompson, who struggled shooting (6 of 19 from the floor) but still finished with 33 points by converting 19 of 21 free throws, both career highs.

“It’s the past,” Thompson said. “You can’t dwell on it or it’ll affect (today).”

And today means the Beavers (6-5 overall, 0-1 in the conference), who are also coming off a loss, 76-70 to Washington on New Year’s Eve.

“They’re well coached and they have great players,” Bone said. “But they (also) play a unique style. The more time you have to prepare, the better chance you have to compete against them.”

OSU plays mainly zone defense, a 1-3-1 after the Beavers score and a more conventional 2-3 when they don’t. To score, the Beavers run the Princeton motion offense, featuring backcuts and misdirection. They have two players scoring in double figures, Seth Tarver (12.9) and Calvin Haynes (11.6).

“They’re real similar to Air Force,” said Thompson, referring to WSU’s recent Spokane opponent, “and the way they play. We got a lot of experience against them. And a lot of us played against them last year. We’ll be ready.”

One player WSU (10-3, 0-1) needs to be ready is freshman point guard Reggie Moore.

Moore struggled Thursday, getting into first-half foul trouble – he fouled out on the game’s final play – and having trouble on the defensive end. He finished with 10 points in 33 minutes.

“He wasn’t himself,” Bone said. “Maybe it had to do with his first Pac-10 game, I don’t know. He didn’t have one of his better games. But I think he’ll bounce back. He’s a competitor.”

Which is the same thing Bone’s hoping for from all the Cougars. Asked if he replayed the Oregon game in his mind throughout the night, Bone said it wasn’t any different than every game, with a small twist.

“I hardly slept at all,” Bone admitted. “There’s just one thing I wish had been changed. We didn’t play a perfect game by any means, but we played well enough to win. And thought we did win. But we didn’t.”

•••

• That’s it for today except for a couple links. There’s this Sporting News piece on the technical call last night. And freelancer Howie Stalwick caught up with Taylor Rochestie for Cougfan. We’ll be back in the morning. Until then …

Nine comments on this post so far. Add yours!

blotto on January 01 at 5:41 p.m.
Namek–- A nice guy, BUT, less commentary, less theatrics, more frequent score updates during the game. Hard to know if the Cougs are ahead or behind.
bradley010a on January 01 at 6:46 p.m.
Feels like a little sweet redemption to see Oregon lose the Rose Bowl. Normally, I can’t stand Ohio State, but not today. Freakin’ Ducks!
seattle_cougs on January 01 at 7:00 p.m.
I know it’s easy to blame Oregon but let’s not forget it was the refs—not the Ducks—that did this. Never in my life have I emailed the Pac-10 but I attached the email of the guy in charge of basketball.

In 30 years of watching almost every Cougar basketball game played I’ve never seen anything that bad. It won’t change without a few emails to the Pac-10 (even that will probably not make a difference). Can you imagine what would have happened in LA, Tuscon or Seattle if they called that? It would have been a serious safety issue. I’ve sent my email and can now move on to tomorrow as it sounds like the team has, as well. Go Cougs…it’s just 1 loss. Thanks for the great work, Vince!

dhirsch@pac-10.org
Bino on January 01 at 7:37 p.m.
I’ve watched the replay of the end so many times it is etched into my brain — trying to figure out why the whistle blew. As has been noted elsewhere, a slightly different reaction time of the timer and it is over. A foul called (maybe), and it is over. Even without those whatifs it was over. Oregon never even made a move to inbound the ball; it was in the hands of a player several feet from the hoop, who wasn’t even looking to toss it to someone for the inbounds. The Oregon players, like everyone else in the building, everyone that is except at least one of the one refs, thought the game was over.

And it was…

Nobody makes that call.

…Oh well.

In the end you’ve got to give the kids credit for making a game of it after their slow start. I hope they’re ready to lay one on OSU.
coug79 on January 01 at 10:52 p.m.
I can imagine that Bone couldn’t sleep after the Oregon game. I couldn’t sleep either. I was so pissed that I tossed and turned all night.
rufus on January 02 at 7:11 a.m.
pac-10 basketball ref’s must be trained by the pac-10 football ref’s.
wazzuwyatt on January 02 at 7:45 a.m.
Good message, seattle_cougs. I emailed my complaint about the PAC 10 ref call against the Cougars to the email he listed.

I was disappointed in WSU’s not-so-good early game playing against UO, but I was VERY disappointed/angry about the ref call that took away a game-winning brief victory.
blotto on January 02 at 9:18 a.m.
Would that call be made against Kansas, Carolina, or Duke at home?!
kaddy on January 02 at 9:49 a.m.
Thank you, Mike DeCourcy of TSN.

Mike DeCourcy
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Friday, Jan. 1, 2010 - 4:51 p.m. ET
Sporting News’ Mike DeCourcy analyzes what Friday’s buzz means to college basketball.
Technically a travesty
The technical foul has been a part of basketball for so long people don’t even bother to examine how truly ridiculous it is, but it remains one of the most atrocious rules in any sport. Don’t believe me? Ask the Washington State Cougars. In overtime of their Pac-10 opener against Oregon, WSU’s DeAngelo Casto scored a layup that gave his team an 80-78 lead. The WSU bench exploded in delight. According to officials, the Cougars exploded too far onto the court with all of .3 seconds remaining, which led the crew to call a technical foul—and a couple of Tajuan Porter free throws forced a second overtime, where the Ducks won the game. It’s a farce of a result, and, of our major team sports, it could happen only in basketball. In baseball, umpires cannot award runs to a team because their opponents violated conduct rules. Football refs can issue a 15-yard penalty for unsportsmanlike behavior—but can’t line up the kicker up for a chip shot that changes the score. Basketball invests such power in its game officials, for no other reason than somebody put that dreadful idea into the rulebook awhile back and nobody’s had the wisdom or courage to change it.