Friel Boos Fall On Deaf Ears Despite Shooting Slump, WSU’S Crosby Ignores Unappreciation Night

It’s pretty common to hear boos floating around Friel Court. UCLA always draws some. Arizona gets a couple more. And for the guys in stripes, it’s almost a constant.

But last week it was Washington State’s Chris Crosby who was drawing the negative reviews from Cougars fans.

The 6-foot-7 junior was booed when he was inserted into the UCLA game. The boos grew louder with every shot he took and missed (five altogether) and even louder when his two in-bounds passes went awry late in the game.

Even during the USC game, the boos continued.

Crosby, who went 3 of 9, said they did not bother him.

“To tell you the truth, I didn’t even hear them,” he said.

But some of his teammates did, and came to Crosby’s defense.

“It wasn’t Chris that lost that game against UCLA,” said Kojo Mensah-Bonsu. “That was a team loss. We made the mistakes. All of us.”

But nobody on the team is struggling as mightily as Crosby when it comes to shooting.

After shooting 40 percent and above for most of the non-conference schedule, Crosby’s percentages have dipped dramatically.

He has attempted 43 3-pointers in nine Pac-10 games (second on the team to Jan-Michael Thomas’ 65) and made only 10 (23 percent). He is shooting 34 percent overall.

The low shooting percentage can be attributed to his shot selection. While Crosby is a very good outside shooter when given time, many of his shots have come too quickly in the offensive set, with a man in his face, or on ill-fated drives to the bucket.

Crosby has attempted more shots than Thomas (98 to 86) in conference play. He averages 8 fewer minutes of playing time than Thomas. And he is shooting 34 percent in conference to Thomas’ 48.

“He has got to be good on shot selection,” said WSU coach Kevin Eastman. “And for the most part he is. But he has got to stay away from doing too much off the dribble.”

But even though his minutes have dipped in the last two games, both the player and the coach remain convinced Crosby can snap out of his slump.

“We want him to shoot open shots,” said Eastman. “And there are going to be a lot of times when he makes them.

“And he’s starting to do some other things,” he continued. “Slowly he is adding some rebounding to his game.”

In two of the last three games Crosby has tied for the team lead in rebounding.

“When things aren’t going well on offense, I just really try and concentrate on other aspects of my game,” Crosby said. “I try and play better defense and sometimes that will help get me going on the offense.”

Whistle blowers

UCLA wasn’t the only university to hear from Pac-10 commissioner Tom Hansen on Monday.

Arizona State coach Rob Evans received a letter concerning comments made by forward Mike Batiste following a 73-63 loss to Stanford.

Batiste had been upset about the way the game had been called. The Cardinal took 43 foul shots to the Sun Devils’ 11.

Hansen’s letter informed Evans he is responsible for his players’ actions and words. It also requested that a situation like this not occur again.

UCLA star Baron Davis was forced to apologize for statements he made following Sunday’s loss to University of Washington at Seattle.

Gill thrill

Oregon State coach Eddie Payne is as surprised as anyone.

His Beavers are 5-4 after the first nine conference games, in a tie for fourth and have not lost at home since last season. This is their best conference start since they went 6-3 to start the conference in 1993. That year, they finished tied for fifth.

“It’s safe to say they’ve exceeded my expectations,” said Payne. “To get the results that we have to this point is a little bit of a surprise.”

It may be a surprise to the coach, who has struggled in his tenure with the Beavers, but he stopped short of labeling this year a dream season. “I sleep relatively soundly, so I don’t have a lot of dreams, but it’s definitely not a nightmare.”

But the Beavers know in order to avoid a nightmare second half they will have to play better the second time around.

“We are not going to sneak up on people anymore,” said Payne. As for postseason possibilities?

“That’s a long ways away,” point guard Deaundra Tanner told the Oregonian. “We could go into the second half and lose every game.

“Then we would sit back and talk about how once upon a time we were in fourth place. We don’t want that to happen.”

Report card

While Washington State has been improving on the court, its grades off the hardwoods have not.

The men’s basketball team compiled a 2.34 GPA, the lowest among the school’s scholarship sports during the fall semester. The football team was next with a 2.38.

“You are going to have some ups and downs,” said Eastman. “I’m not going to get too concerned about it, just like I didn’t get too concerned about when we were at the top.”

Eastman has petitioned to have some grades changed and said some will be changed. But WSU’s compliance office said those changes will not be effective until the spring semester is complete.

“For us, the big thing is the cumulative (GPA),” the coach said. “We will just try and get better.”

Halfway home

The Pac-10 has reached its halfway point and parity continues to be the strongest theme.

Twenty-nine games in the Pac-10 have been decided by 10 points or less, thirteen by two points or less and five in overtime. And it seems as if Oregon has been in all of them.

The Ducks have played three overtime games - their only conference wins coming in two of them - and lost six of their other conference games by a combined 12 points.

The Ducks (10-8, 2-7) are in last place.

“The USC loss just took so much out of us and we never recovered,” said Oregon coach Ernie Kent about the early home loss in which the Trojans scored eight points in 27 seconds to win. “But when I look back, it’s encouraging because we are just a play or two from having this thing turned around.”

At the other end of the spectrum is Arizona. Before beating Cal by 17 on Saturday, the Wildcats had played six straight games decided by two points or less. They were 4-2 in those games, with one loss coming against out-of-conference opponent New Mexico and the other at Oregon State.

All 10 conference teams are rated among the top 100 in the RPI. The only other conference that can claim that is the Big Ten. The Pac-10 is ranked third in the conference RPI.