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How important is this week to WSU’s postseason chances? Is crucial a good enough word? Is make-or-break a big enough phrase? Probably neither truly apply, but they sure caught your interest, didn’t they? Anyhow, we’ll explain why these games are important on the link, with those thoughts being joined by our spin around the conference this morning. Read on.
It’s hard to say how much of Saturday night’s win over Arizona was a result of better WSU play and how much of it can be attributed to the basketball truism that matchups are crucial. Make no mistake. The Cougars played one of their most complete games of the season. But they also seem to have Arizona’s number, with their defense strengths taking away or severely limiting UA’s best offensive weapons and the WSU offense a tough stop for Arizona’s man defense. Read on for more.
It might have been WSU’s most complete effort of the season. It certainly was the Cougars best defensive effort. And it gave glimpses of the potential of this team. Heck, Ken Bone even sounded a bit like the last coach, talking about valuing each possession, which was a oft-used statement by the previous guy. The Cougars did that tonight, especially on the defensive end, where they used a mixture of man (most of the night) and zone (at key moments) to disrupt UA’s flow. As Bone said, they were locked in almost every possession. Play like that the final seven Pac-10 games and anything is possible. OK, let’s move on to our game story, the unedited version of which is on the link. Read on …
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If Washington State has played a better defensive game this year, I didn’t see it. That, combined with another outstanding effort on the glass against UA and more bench contributions than usual - a lot more - lifted the Cougars past the Wildcats at Beasley Coliseum. The number of players who had a hand in WSU’s fifth Pac-10 win can’t be counted, well, on one hand. We’ll be back in about two hours with more. Untill then …
Bad blood? Pride? Whatever it is, DeAngelo Casto has played his best three halves of Pac-10 basketball against Arizona and freshman post Derrick Williams. The third one came here today, as Casto reached double figures in the first half, the first time he’s been in doubles since the last Arizona game. With his 10 points, six rebounds and two blocks, he’s dominated inside. … The Cougars aren’t shooting well (12 of 30, including 1 of 7 beyond the arc) but they are getting it done on the offensive glass, with seven rebounds. Those extra possessions have really helped. … There’s been a Brock Motum sighting, with the freshman from Australia playing nearly 10 minutes and scoring four points. … The Wildcats’ Josh Fogg and Jamelle Horne each have six points. We’ll be back at the end. Until then …
Before we get into our thoughts about the Arizona game, we wanted to pass on the news WSU’s women’s team won its first Pac-10 game of the season today, defeating ASU 66-62 behind April Cook’s career-high 33 points. You can read more here. Now back to our regularly scheduled blog post. Both teams are on Friel Court getting some shooting in. And we’ve got some thoughts, so read on.
There have been five previous Saturday (or Sunday) games in the Pac-10. In those, the University of Arizona is 5-0 (the Wildcats are 1-4 on Thursdays or Fridays). Which means UA does a great job of handling the quick turnaround. A couple things in Arizona’s favor: No one plays defense exactly like ASU in the conference and the two schools’ offenses don’t look anything alike either. WSU will try to make the quick changeover this evening, knowing that it has figured out how to limit the Wildcats in the past. Read on for more on tonight’s games throughout the Pac-10.
Continue reading WSU faces an Arizona team that is tough on weekends »
OK, we’re back once again. How has your last hour been? Anyhow, while I was away, I’ve put together a short story on tomorrow’s game with Arizona. The Cougars will be trying to chase down the blur that is known as Nic Wise. They did a good job of it in Arizona, now they have to repeat the task if they want to sweep the season series with the Cats. Read on for that and a short note on WSU’s honoree in the Pac-10’s hall of honor.
Continue reading WSU will try to be wise about its defense »
Sorry, was at basketball practice and unable to get this up earlier. WSU has signed another football player, receiver Isiah Barton from Fresno City College, but originally from Westchester High, down by LAX. The 6-foot-1, 190-pound Barton was a first-team All-Central Valley Conference selection last year, catching 48 passes for 715 yards and seven touchdowns. He also averaged 28.4 yards per kickoff return, taking two back for touchdowns. Barton has two years of eligibility left, with no redshirt year. We’ll be back soon with our basketball stuff.
Four teams tied at the top at 6-4. Nine teams within two games of first. All 10 within two games in the loss column. The Pac-10 is an enigma wrapped in a riddle this season. The new motto: Get hot, win a regular season title. For no one is that more true right now than Washington State. This is a team that has morphed into one that depends on its shooting to win. Thursday night that formula failed. We have thoughts, notes, links and quotes if you want to read on.
The shooting stats from beyond the arc tell the tale. Klay Thompson, 2-10. Nik Koprivica, 1-6. Reggie Moore 0-1 (only one?). And Derek Glasser, 3-3. The Cougars, at home, couldn’t find the bottom of the net. ASU’s Glasser, on the road, could, and that was a big part of the difference. Read on for the unedited version of my S-R story.
Washington State is a team that may have to play near perfect basketball if it wants to be successful in the Pac-10 season. There is more margin of error, of course, at home because the tangible elements that come with playing in front of its fans can help a team overcome mistakes. Well the Cougars made too many to overcome even at home Thursday night. They made them early and dug a hole that reached 14 in the first half. They made them early in the second half and saw the lead grow to 19. Then they did whatever they could to come back, clawing within four a couple times in the final 10 minutes. But when they needed to make stops, they couldn’t, with Derek Glasser hitting a 25-foot 3-pointer from behind big Eric Boateng the final time WSU got within four (59-55, which should have been three but Reggie Moore missed a free throw). That triggered a deciding 10-3 run. We’ll be back in about 90 minutes with our game story.
In a nutshell, it was a half of runs with Arizona State having more. Simple, but not really. WSU contributed mightily to ASU’s runs – a 12-0 one that built a 30-17 lead, then an 8-0 one to end the half – by missing seven of 10 free throws, turning the ball over five times and shooting 35.5 percent from the floor. Klay Thompson contributed to the latter, hitting 2 of 10 shots, missing all six of his 3-pointers, many wide open. … The Sun Devils are shooting 62.5 percent, with many of their shots as open as the ones Thompson is getting. The difference is their shots are going in. … I usually don’t say much about this, but we’ll discuss the officiating in our post-game blog tonight. … We’ll be back at the end of the game.
We’re a little behind due to the football news (see below). But we’re scrambling to catch up. We’ve got some news and notes prior to the non-televised ASU game. Read on.
We talked with former Washington State running backs coach Steve Broussard and have a story for tomorrow’s S-R on the link. Broussard made it clear the main motivation came because it gives him a chance to be closer to his family. Read on for the unedited version of our piece.
Talk about a time-eating process this morning. Between football items and basketball stories, I’ve been chewing through websites like a termite in Tahiti. But we’ve gotten to the core of the information now. Which brings a question. How to present it? We’ve figured out a way. Read on to discover our choice.
OK, we’ve cobbled together our story on the football recruits signed today. We actually put together a more in-depth one for you blog readers, so read on.
COUGARS • UPDATED: 1:30 P.M.; 3:15 P.M.
A quick post about the LOIs, with more to come after talking with WSU head coach Paul Wulff later today. There were some surprises, some positive, some negative. Read on.
UPDATE NO. 2: We just got out of Wulff’s press conference. The Cougars have signed 22 players, with Wulff expecting one or two more before school starts, with a JC wide receiver waiting on paperwork and possibly a JC defensive tackle signing as well. With 25 initials available, he mentioned Casey Hamlett, the walk-on transfer from Western who played quite a bit at defensive end last year, having been awarded a ride. We’re headed to basketball practice, then will be back with our recruiting story this evening.
This morning’s post has to serve two purposes: Catch you up with basketball news – this weekend does kick off the Pac-10’s second half – and kick off the letter-of-intent coverage. We try on the link, so read on.
• UPDATE: There is always one who gets away. Tight end Asante Cleveland, who committed to WSU in September and seemed to fit in perfectly with WSU’s schemes, signed with the University of Miami this morning.
A little different late Tuesday post for us – and for you. We put together a notebook for tomorrow’s S-R from Ken Bone’s press conference and some conversations after practice. That’s available on the link. Read on.
An eclectic group of items from around the Pac-10. Nothing too important, but a lot of interesting reads. Today is basketball media day at WSU, plus Pac-10 coaches get on the phone with the media. Tomorrow is, of course, football’s Christmas Day, or as it is officially known, letter-of-intent day. Read on.
A short story on a hire in the football office. You might recognize the name. Read on.
Despite there being only one Pac-10 game – it was a pretty fun game to watch, don’t you think? – on FSN yesterday, there is a decent amount of news available. We’ve got a few links available, so read on.
Before the game, I turned to Howie Stalwick and pointed to my note pad. On it was something I rarely, if ever do: a prediction of the final score. I had UW winning by 15. Boy was I ever wrong. The 92-64 shellacking (gotta love that word) by the Dawgs was hard to envision before the game and even harder to see at halftime. But it happened. We have some thoughts about how it came about along with links to chronicles of what occurred. Read on.
Headed to Sea-Tac to catch my flight home. On the link you’ll find my unedited game story, which probably has more in common with the way WSU played in the second half than the first. Read on.
If you watched, you saw what happened. The Cougars combined their worst defensive half of the season with an offense that became more and more selfish as the clock ran down. The result was a blowout, to say the least. UW outscored WSU 56-24 in the last 20 minutes. Quincy Pondexter, attacking from the high post against the Cougars’ 2-3 zone, led everyone with 29 points. But he wasn’t alone. Isaiah Thomas started stroking it from the outside in the second half and finished with 19. The Huskies got their fast break going – fueled by WSU missing consecutive shots to open the second half along with a handful of turnovers – and just kept pulling away. WSU went almost 7 minutes without a basket to open the half and trailed 55-42 (a 19-2 UW run) before DeAngelo Casto scored on a post move. Nik Koprivica had 13 points and 11 rebounds in his last Hec Ed appearance while Xavier Thames had a career-high 14 in his first. We’ll be back in a couple hours.
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The first half was basically split in half. The Cougars, taking advantage of UW’s aggressiveness on defense, scored three times on back cuts. That made UW basket aware and led to wide-open looks from 3. Nik Koprivica, making his first start of the season, took advantage, hitting three 3-pointers. On the other end, WSU’s 2-3 zone slowed the Huskies to a crawl, with UW unable to hit from the outside. Read on for more.
With football letter-of-intent day coming up Wednesday, we had some time this week to look at Washington State’s recruiting. I talked with WSU coach Paul Wulff as he was riding down the highway in California, where he’s spent a lot of time this past offseason. It’s seemingly paid off, what with 14 players from the state having already given WSU a commitment. The Cougar coach didn’t talk specifics – he can’t until the players sign – but he did talk about the process and how he felt it went. Read on for the unedited version of the story that will appear in Sunday’s paper.
Student sections pride themselves on being able to get into the head of the opponents. The UW group is no different. Marcus Capers told me some of the antics the group did last season and how it made him laugh. But one of the pranks this year wasn’t funny. Read on for that and our look at the game.
• UPDATE: Klay Thompson won’t be starting today. He was late for a team activity yesterday and will be benched as per team rules. Xavier Thames will replace the Pac-10’s leading scorer in the lineup. Nik Koprivica is also replacing Abe Lodwick, though that is a coaching decision, not due to discipline.
Two things you can count on in Seattle this time of year: It will be raining (it is) and the Huskies will play tough at home (they are). It’s game day, so let’s get to it. Read on.
Steve Bergum covers EWU football and men's basketball, college baseball, and writes weekly golf column during the summer.
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Vince Grippi covers WSU sports and invites readers to share their thoughts on the sports news of the day.
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Greg Lee covers high school sports throughout Inland Northwest.
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Jim Meehan covers Gonzaga basketball, Whitworth football, Spokane Shock football, college volleyball and prep softball.
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Dave Trimmer covers a variety of high school, college and professional sports and is the primary writer on the weekly Then & Now series.
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