WSU falls to Arizona 65-63
COUGARS
We're done with our game story about WSU's tough 65-63 loss to Arizona at Beasley, but we have a couple of items we couldn't get in that I want to share tonight. So, if you want, read on.
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• The biggest area I didn't get into was the biggest guy on the court – in about three senses. That would be Derrick Williams. He's easily the most physical guy and the court and I asked Casto how you keep him off the offensive glass – Williams had 9 offensive rebounds as UA had a 40-30 edge overall. Casto, no small man himself, said it was darn near impossible. "I thought in the game of basketball, that was a foul," Casto said. "But I'm not sure. Because it was real physical down there. What are you supposed to do? I'm down there battling as hard as I can and so are my teammates. You know. We got moved out of the way in some possessions, or he fought harder, or he pushed or whatever it was. I guess, at that point you've got to do the same thing back. But you've got to be smart because usually the second guy gets called." And there is no one better at it in the Pac-10 than Williams, so trying to compete at that level is going to leave just about everyone at a disadvantage. Casto did a damn good job, just as he did both times last season, but it wasn't enough. After UA had 13 offensive rebounds in the first half, the Wildcats had just two in the second. The first didn't hurt, as MoMo Jones, who finished with 11 points and five assists, missed. But the second led to the Marcus Capers' intentional foul, which I describe in the story. The two points Arizona scored off that ended up giving it the lead for good as was the final margin. ... WSU opened in a zone and it worked for a while. But Sean Miller made a change, moving Williams down to the baseline and he started to dominate the offensive glass from the short corner. So WSU went man, changed back to zone in the second, but tweaked it a little, having the guards be more aggressive on the reversal pass then crash the glass, and Williams wasn't as effective down low after intermission. As the game started to hang in the balance, WSU switched back to man and had trouble containing Jones' penetration. It led directly to both of Jamelle Horne's big 3-point shots, though the second one went through Williams in the post first. ... And that's about all I have for tonight. You can read my game story here.
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• We'll be back tomorrow morning with more. Until then ...
