WSU’s win over UW, the day after
COUGARS
It seems as if it should be Sunday morning. But it's a Monday, and a pretty cold one at that. Not that many of those in Beasley last night probably care much. I'm thinking there will be a few empty classes on campus this morning, after WSU's nationally televised 87-80 win over Washington last night. For more, read on.
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• Washington State: As you would probably expect, most of today's links will have to do with the game in Pullman, as it was the only one in the conference last night. The win left WSU at 5-4, tied for fourth with California (you can see the standings here). But before we get to the links, more thoughts and notes from the game. ... As you'll see in a few of the links, the crowd last night, though not a sellout (it was announced at 10,579), played a big role in the win. And those thoughts come from the participants, not from some old guy sitting halfway up and being pelted by balled-up newspapers for the first hour. It was loud all the time, rude some of the time and just plain funny others. But it also lifted WSU's spirits when the Cougars needed it. This was probably not a game they win on the road. Heck, no probably about it. With all the foul trouble, there is no way they win it on the road. ... I tried to find this last night in the compressed time I had to write, but couldn't. However, after further examination this morning, found the Huskies 24 turnovers were not only twice as many as they average, it was four more than they've had in any game this season. The previous high was 20 at Texas A&M, another road loss. Heck, against athletic Kentucky and physical Michigan State, they had 14 and 15, respectively. Those were both losses. On the flip side, in an 80-52 win over USF, which is among the WCC leaders, UW had twice as many blocked shots (eight) as turnovers (four). So if you are desperate to find one stat that explains WSU's victory, the turnover number would have to be it. ... My choice would be a few other numbers from the box score. They are 58, 24, 10, 5 and 2. No, those aren't the numbers from Lost, though you might want to play them in the lottery sometime. They are, respectively, the minutes, points, rebounds, assists and turnovers the bench contributed last night. From the usual (sixth man Faisal Aden, who played with more energy than he has at anytime this season) to the little used (Charlie Enquist, who Ken Bone singled out for special notice afterward as did Klay Thompson) to the much needed (Patrick Simon, who hit a big 3 and set a monster pick that freed Thompson for another, and Brock Motum, who had a couple timely hoops and picked up a key stop with a charge late in the game), the bench allowed the Cougars to weather the storm caused by foul trouble limiting DeAngelo Casto, Thompson and Abe Lodwick. ... I mentioned in the story Reggie Moore had a season-high 18 points, but that wasn't the only reason he seemed to play more like freshman Reggie Moore than sophomore Reggie Moore last night. I lost track of the times he attacked with the ball, but he got to the line 10 times, and a couple of them were to complete pretty acrobatic three-point plays. He only took three 3-pointers (making one) and made half his eight shots. ... And the dunk? Remember how he had the one last year and flexed, firing up the Huskies and their crowd? Well this one served a similar purpose for the home crowd, and seemed to deflate UW, though the Huskies did come out of Lorenzo Romar's time out and cut into WSU's 11-point lead. ... It was appropriate the dunk come off an assist from Aden. He had four, matching his career-high set against Arizona. And yes, that was the last game. But with Moore, Aden and Thompson's 13 assists leading to at least a half-dozen dunks, WSU did the one thing that makes its offense purr. It shared the ball, with 18 assists on 30 baskets. That makes the Cougars 11-1 when they have assists on at least half their baskets. ... One last note. If you want to note the biggest difference in Klay Thompson, Version 3.0, all you have to do is watch the final 6 minutes. When he came off the bench with four fouls, Bone didn't tell him to take over. He didn't tell him to be careful. All he told his star was to stay aggressive, keep attacking but to watch out, because UW is great at taking charges. So what was Thompson's first bucket after returning? A driving, pull-up 5-footer that hit nothing but net. Two years ago Thompson would have tried to lift WSU with long shots coming off screens. Last year he might have been so angry he would have attacked the rim, picked up a charge, thrown his hands in the air and stalked to the bench. This year he stayed focused, he was smart offensively, played enough defense to not be a liability but not too much to pick up a foul and didn't pout. He led. "I think I made a big jump from my sophomore to junior year," he said, "just working hard in the offseason, just taking my game to a new level. To not be so one-dimensional as I was last year. Ya, and just being a lot mentally tougher, not having bad body language and just trying to hunt my shot as much as possible." The emphasis was mine, but it is interesting Thompson mentioned it. As the season wears on, Thompson is showing that new personality. And, over the next nine games to finish the regular season, he'll get more chances, as things won't always go his or WSU's way. If he responds as he did Sunday night, the Cougars will be a much better team. ... Now to the links. ... We had our game story up last night before we hit the sack at 1 a.m., along with the version that appeared in the S-R. ... John Blanchette had his column from Beasley. ... From CougCenter, there are the-always-appreciated postgame charts. ... Braulio Perez had this story for Cougfan. ... Jim Moore was in the house (though his dog was stuck in the truck) and filed a column for the P-I, which also had this blog post. ... Don Ruiz had his game story for the News Tribune and Percy Allen the same for the Times. ... Allen followed up with this blog post, while columnist Jerry Brewer, watching on TV, added his thoughts. ... And, finally, here is the Associated Press report from the game. ... And here are some highlights, courtesy WSU's video department.
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• Around the Pac-10: There's not a lot, but there is some. ... Tied atop the conference standings with UW, Arizona is feeling confident heading down the stretch. ... Oregon, which begins the second half by hosting WSU on Thursday night, plays five home games in the next 23 days. ... And Arizona State is lamenting its loss to UCLA.
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• That's all for this morning. We'll be back today if events warrant. Until later ...
