Eastman Says Coaching Cost Cougars The Game

If we didn’t get the message as Washington State was doing another Rocky Balboa against the UCLA Bruins in the Spokane Arena on Thursday night, Cougar coach Kevin Eastman made certain it was delivered afterward.

No expectation too great.

No rationalization acceptable.

Mark Hendrickson on the bench wearing a Brooks Brothers suit, a protective clamp on his broken left hand and a cranky expression? Tough. Carlos Daniel and Tavares Mack beside him with five fouls? Too bad. Kareem Jackson unable to make it back from his grandmother’s funeral? Everyone’s sincerest sympathies.

But what’s your point?

The defending NCAA champion Bruins took their split-decision 78-73 victory and, with a rush of relief, hightailed it for their Coeur d’Alene hideaway. But were the Cougars - undermanned and overmatched as they were - supposed to radiate a good-show glow just because they went 15 with Apollo Creed?

Apparently not.

Look, there was a familiar feel to this one. Near-misses against the Bruins are approaching critical mass. In the past decade on the Northwest swing, the Cougars have beaten UCLA once and lost by 1, 2, 4 twice, 7, 8 and twice in overtime.

But if you don’t think there’s a different face on this failure, look again.

And listen.

“Let’s first of all put blame where blame is due in case we didn’t see what happened out there,” said Eastman. “Probably the worst display of coaching by a coach in the history of Washington State.

“Why is it that way? Because we could not as a staff keep our guys in an attack mode, and that’s part of coaching. When we get a lead on a team that’s arguably better than us, we get tentative. And that’s simply a case of a coach not doing his job in practice and not getting that rectified.

“I’ll work hard at that, but it’ll be plain and simple. (I) don’t get it done in a few years, you get somebody else in here that can get it done. Real simple.”

Hmm. I guess “Good game, coach,” would be the wrong thing to say at the moment.

Well, it’s raw but refreshing.

Eastman is not the first coach - Cougar or otherwise - to stand up and face the fire, but he may be the first to rub the two sticks together himself.

And he’s right, sort of.

When Wazzu suddenly found itself up nine points with 4 minutes to play and the sellout crowd of 11,897 finally decided to similarly rise to the occasion, the Cougs didn’t exactly press the bets.

In fact, they didn’t make another field goal before the horn to end regulation play - and only one thereafter.

The Bruins, meanwhile, made every bucket that mattered. And none mattered more than the pair of 3-pointers by Toby Bailey - the first an immediate answer to that nine-point WSU lead, the second the dagger that forced overtime.

Without them, there is no flip off the glass by J.R. Henderson with 42 seconds left in overtime to break the final tie and 11,000-plus hearts.

Speaking of those 11,000-plus, for a time it was the most silent 11,000 you never heard. But the Cougars voiced no complaints, even if they had to do some prompting, and UCLA coach Jim Harrick called it “a great environment to play in - I wouldn’t hesitate to play some games up here if I were WSU.” And Cougar athletic director Rick Dickson estimated the revenue swing to be upwards of $100,000 - figuring on an audience of maybe 3,000 in Pullman with school still out.

As for the performance reviews, well, these aren’t the same Bruins who finally scaled the Great Wall of Wooden last April, but they aren’t chopped liver, either.

Nor are the Cougs.

“They’re a team that with Mark Hendrickson,” insisted Harrick, “could win the conference championship.”

And without him?

“Teams rise up and play,” Harrick said. “We knew they would play good. We played good without Tyus Edney one game last year, if you’ll remember. That can happen to a team.

“Playing in the conference is different. Five ranked teams got beat yesterday, on the road in (their) conference by teams below them, supposedly. You’re going to see some crazy scores.”

Few as crazy as 65-56 - WSU’s lead before Bailey’s alarm sounded. Or even as crazy as 72-72 with 1:08 left in overtime, by which time both Cougar forwards had fouled out - leaving 6-foot-7 Cameron Johnson as the only Coug taller than 6-3 on the floor against the Bruins, who usually played with five guys 6-5 or better.

So much for the physical facts. Even more unlikely was Wazzu hanging so tough while shooting just 30 percent.

And yet Eastman’s only regret is that with the game there for the winning, the Cougars got soft - “and I got soft with them. I kind of let a couple of non-aggressive plays hang when I should have gotten on them.”

And rarely has soft been such a hard way to go.

, DataTimes MEMO: You can contact John Blanchette by voice mail at 459-5577, extension 5509.

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