COUGARS

After a game at Gill Coliseum, you talk with the visiting players and coach in a hallway outside the locker room. To one side is a bedsheet hung from the walls as a screen. To the other is the media room. WSU coach Ken Bone came out from behind the curtain Thursday night and tried to explain another poor first half by his team. He reminded me just a few weeks ago we were talking about how the Cougars were struggling at the end of games. And now it's poor first halves. Maybe Bone has it right. "We showed our youth once again," he said and that might be the crux of the matter. The Cougars have four underclassmen starting, rely on two freshmen, either true or redshirt, for depth and the lack of experience shows. Consistency isn't the hallmark of most young collegiate players in any sport. The star for OSU on Thursday night, true freshman Jared Cunningham, has had games like last night and games where he was putrid. But OSU has a strong group of upperclassmen to fall back on. WSU doesn't. We have more on the link. Read on.
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• Washington State: We'll start off with a couple more notes I missed late last night. ... The Beavers' Omari Johnson somehow worked his way inside for five offensive rebounds and eight total. That number tied Klay Thompson for game-high honors. Thompson had just one offensive rebound, and it came with 3 minutes, 10 seconds left and WSU down eight. I told him I don't think I had every written "follow own w/22-footer" on my play-by-play before and he smiled. "I can't believe I missed that layup," he said, shaking his head. He was reminded he made the 3. "Wow, that was nice, actually." ... The Beavers missed 11 of 23 free throws, including one late that, if WSU had been able to corral the rebound, would have given the Cougars the ball with 27 seconds left and trailing by just one. But Cunningham's miss was tipped back out, grabbed by Seth Tarver and the senior made his ensuing two foul shots. OSU was actually 7 of 19 at one point from the line. ... OK, on to the links. ... We had our story in today's paper and more on this link. ... Freelancer Howie Stalwick had this piece in the Olympian and other papers. ... From down here, Paul Buker had his gamer in the Oregonian, Curtis Anderson this story in the Register-Guard and Kevin Hampton his coverage in the Gazette-Times. ... One last WSU link. Promised an old friend I would link his piece on a former Cougar baseball player. In my dotage, I forgot, so here it is.

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• Here's our quote book from last night ...

• Bone on the second half: "We tried to spread it out more in the second half and move the ball and continue to be aggressive. I think by having better spacing we were able to accomplish just completing passes. It's hard to score if you can't complete passes."

• Bone on the Beavers' defense: "Oregon State deserves the credit there. Their defense really bothered us, more than it did the first game, which really surprises me. We had a day to prepare for them two months ago and this time we had a few days to prepare. You would have thought it was a doubleheader."

• The first half and more on OSU: "We just came out very lackadaisical, careless with the ball and, on the other hand, Oregon State did a great job with their defense. ... I just think it’s a good defense. There's a reason why they were picked to finish in the upper half of the league maybe, middle of the league. They have a number of upperclassmen. They're a good basketball team."

• Bone on if he told Thompson anything different at halftime: "No. We tell him the same thing every game. If you've got a good look, take it. Nothing changed from the first half to the second half there. We continue to encourage him to look for his shot, we continue to tell our guys to look for him, we continue to tell our guys to screen for him."

• Bone on his team's last two slow starts: "It wasn't that many weeks ago we were talking about just the opposite. A great first half and then what is it. 'Are guys hitting a wall?' or 'are you not playing enough guys?' 'what's happening the last four, five minutes?' So, I have the same response. I'm anxious to see at some point – and it's getting pretty close to the end of the year – I'm anxious to see, can we put 40 minutes together? Or real close to 40 minutes together. Because when we do, we'll be real good."

• Thompson on his second half: "You can never lose confidence, because that's the worst thing you can do for yourself."

• Thompson on a discussion he had with Mike Harthun on the bench late in the first half: "It was about trying to get better looks and moving without the ball. (Against) that zone, it's easy to be stagnant. In the second half we did a way better job of moving, playing off the dribble and trying to find open teammates."

• Why the looks started disappearing midway through the second half: "They guarded the 3-point line better. In that situation, we have to take advantage of the driving lanes, try to make plays off the bounce."

• His rebounding: "I just got lucky and the ball bounced off the rim my way. That's always nice."

• Nik Koprivica on the second half: “We came out in the second half firing, but we used so much energy coming back, we couldn’t get over the hump.”

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• Around the Pac-10: WSU is in Eugene to face Oregon in the last Pac-10 game scheduled for Mac Court. That's tomorrow night. Last night, the Ducks assured themselves a spot in the 8-9 game next Wednesday in Los Angeles, losing to Washington 86-72. ... By winning the Huskies assured themselves at least the No. 3 seed. If ASU loses Saturday and UW defeats Oregon State, Washington would be the No. 2 seed. ... The Sun Devils defeated USC 59-54 in Tempe behind the 24 points of Rihards Kuksiks. ... The Trojans faded down the stretch again. ... Arizona rallied to defeat undermanned UCLA, 78-73

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• That's all for this morning. We'll be back later with a story, though the subject is still to be determined. Until then ...

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