Yesterday, Gonzaga's interior players were simply too much for the Cougars to handle in the paint.

We covered that angle in today's game story. There's a lot more to dissect from yesterday's 81-66 loss to the Bulldogs, however, so follow the jump for our day-after post.

…

-- By and large, the Cougars played some inspired ball yesterday on the defensive end, which kept the score tight until a GU run to end the first half. The Bulldogs are strong in both the frontcourt and backcourt, so the Cougars had to pick their poison.

They conceded the frontcourt in the first half – likely deciding that because of GU's size advantage there was little they could do to gain an edge down low either way – and refused to double-team GU's post players. The strategy worked, kind of. The Bulldogs did what the Cougars wanted and consistently fed the post.

The problem was that Przemek Karnowski proved to be too much to handle down there, making shots and drawing fouls on his way to 18 first-half points. WSU's defense was able to limit GU's guards, however, until they were forced to adjust and send an extra guy to help on Karnowski, opening up lanes for Byron Wesley to knife his way to the basket for layups.

(*I should also note that GU guard Kevin Pangos never really looked right on offense or defense after taking a hard spill in the first half.  After the game a glassy-eyed Pangos said that he felt an elbow hit the side of his head and it's not hard to imagine that it affected his performance. But, the Bulldogs kept sending him out there so that's what they got.)

-- Offensively, however, WSU's issues with unforced turnovers and getting into their offense prevented the Cougars from really making a game of it. In the first half WSU guards lost the ball off their foot a few times and a couple traveling calls cost the Cougars. In the second half untimely turnovers ended a WSU rally.

"That small lineup, we tried to speed the game up a little bit," Ernie Kent said. " It brought us back in within 10, then -- boom, boom -- a couple turnovers and they made you pay again. They're too good of a team -- you have to take care of the ball. If you turn it over, they will make you pay."

I initially thought that the Cougars were intentionally trying to slow the game down at times by starting their offense later in the shot clock, in order to limit the number of possessions and keep the game low-scoring and close. Often, Ny Redding or Ike Iroegbu would be stationary with the ball just across the half-court line while Kent would yell instructions until WSU began an action with around 15-20 seconds left.

After the game, however, the Cougars said that the slower offensive periods were not intentional and that they need to do a better job of creating motion. They also made the point that when the other team is scoring frequently (both teams shot above 50 percent) it limits their ability to do the fast-break style that they are comfortable with.

"We wanted to run," DaVonte Lacy said. "When you don't get stops and with everyone trying to rebound, we all tried to collapse and rebound, and when we did they had two or three guards back. It's hard to do our game plan when we don't execute on defense."
 

-- There was kind of a funny moment in the second half when freshman Ny Redding lost his shoe. He quickly put it back on and it didn't seem to affect him further, but when he came to the bench Kent pulled him aside and jokingly said, "You need to learn to tie your shoes better. You want the Velcro?"

-- One area where I thought Karnowski did the most damage was rebounding, and he only finished with eight. But simply trying to body him down low took a visible toll on WSU's posts and they struggled to grab boards against the rest of GU's front line.

Junior Longrus, for example, was impressive in the enthusiasm he showed defending Karnowski and gamely tried to match the bigger posts' physicality. But he gives up half a foot and 45 pounds to GU's center, and when the Bulldogs began feeding their post on every possession, his back-downs wore Longrus out, making it difficult to rebound against the already bigger, stronger players.

The Cougars had to cycle posts regularly against GU's big bully and it affected all of them as the Bulldogs outrebounded WSU, 36-23.

-- The Cougars actually climbed five spots in KenPom's ratings after the game, likely as the strength of schedule perception begins to meet the reality. WSU has played a tougher schedule than what most prognosticators expected based on last season's results. TCU, for example, has already matched last season's nine wins. In fact, the Frogs are 9-0, and have risen from No. 130 in Pomeroy's rankings to No. 62. 

---

---