I’m awake, so here are your links and quotes
COUGARS
FROM PULLMAN – Not going to bother explaining why I’m up this late. But here’s a hint: it involved snow and a 2002 Honda Civic. Anyway, here’s your morning post, with some additional quotes from WSU’s win over Stanford.
…
Here’s our game story, which focuses on Faisal Aden’s big day. And here’s our usual game-in-review post. Here’s the Stanford perspective from freelancer extraordinaire Ryan Collingwood, who was along on a wild journey through the parking lot of my apartment complex tonight. … Freelancer extraordinaire Howie Stalwick has this game story in the Tacoma News Tribune. … The AP also has a short recap. ... Bud Withers has his column about the game here. … The Stanford women extended their winning streak over WSU. … One football link for you: Mike Leach has hired the same attorney in his case against ESPN as Mike Price hired in his case against Time Inc.
Around the Pac-12: California is now alone in first place after knocking off Washington 69-66. … Oregon State outlasted UCLA 87-84, a misstep for the Bruins. … Oregon held off USC 65-62, making a ton of free throws in the process. … Arizona had no trouble with Utah, dispatching the Utes 77-51. … Colorado handled Arizona State, 69-54, as Herb Sendek was ejected.
...
Here are some additional quotes from last night's postgame.
KEN BONE
“I’m really proud of this group as far as who they are. I think our character’s really good and teams that have good character have a chance to win games like this.”
(On Aden’s game) “That’s what we saw when we recruited him, a kid that can just really light it up and score. He didn’t hit any threes tonight but he scored a lot inside the arc and made all 13 of his free throws and obviously played extremely confident. He was outstanding on the offensive end.”
(On coming back from 13 down) “… What was probably the most critical thing for us was we took care of the ball. … Earlier in the year, that was a huge concern because we had a few games where we turned it over frequently. To play against a team the caliber of Stanford and have seven turnovers, that’s pretty impressive.”
(On limiting Stanford defensively) “Our 3-2 defense was pretty effective. You don’t know is it your defense that hurts certain guys shooting or is it the fact that they missed shots, so then all of a sudden you think your defense is good. I’d believe it’s a little of each.”
(On the number of 3s Stanford attempted) “I wasn’t that surprised because they really have some great shooters and they run some really good things against the zone. They do a good job of freeing their guys up for shots, so it didn’t surprise me too much that they would. Owens was such a beast down low. We couldn’t stop him … 8 for 8 from the field. So we were fortunate there that he didn’t get more looks.”
(On limiting Owens’ touches) “Yeah, we did a better job of getting in front of him, making him a little bit more difficult for them to get him touches.”
(On the physical nature of the game) “I felt that way too. We had a little discussion during a couple timeouts about that. I thought the kids responded well and became more physical down the stretch and really competed.”
(More on the second half turnaround) “I hate to sound so simplistic, but we made shots and they didn’t. I thought our defense was really good in that stretch but we were fortunate they didn’t make shots. On the other hand we were making some and executing well.”
FAISAL ADEN
(On his over-the-backboard shot, and game in general) “I was just playing basketball. I make a lot of tough shots. I can make pretty much any shot. I can fade away, I can shoot floaters, I can get in the lane. I was really just reading my defender, that’s all it was. And when I was fading it was just a shot that we needed.”
BROCK MOTUM
(On the comeback) “We just talked about getting multiple stops on defense, and once we got stops on defense we were able to push the ball and get some fast breaks. Once we build our stops on D and we established ourselves on defense, that sort of frustrated them, and I think that complemented our offense because they were getting frustrated on their offensive end and they weren’t as focused on D. That’s when we got stops and scores and that’s how we clawed back.”
(On Josh Owens and defending him in the second half) “In the first half he killed us down low so in the second half we put more of an emphasis on him and not letting them get second shots, because when they got offensive rebounds they get spread out and our defense would be scattered, and they could throw it right back into him and he could score. We worked on fronting him and then having someone weak side and then rotating after that.”
(On the Pac-12 season) “We’ve lost a couple of tough games. I thought Utah was a bad loss, Colorado we played well but they played better, University of Washington we played well for I think 30 minutes of the game and the last 10 minutes we let up, and I think tonight we played well for the majority of the game. That’s all we’ve got to do is keep getting better each game. That’s all we’ve got to do.”
Christian Caple can be reached at christianc@spokesman.com. Twitter: @ChristianCaple