Basketball news from WSU

COUGARS

Wanted to wait a while today before I posted about basketball coach Ken Bone’s press conference and a couple other things, just to let the Bill Moos news percolate a while. We will, of course, have a little more on that tomorrow afternoon, but you’ve got everything I’ve been able to uncover on the link below. Now we move on to basketball.
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• The fine folks at CougCenter are kind enough to post the audio file of Bone’s press conference today, so I don’t have to (and anything that saves me time, especially now, is a good thing). But I do have some thoughts about today’s question-and-answer session. … We’ll be looking at Nik Koprivica’s career this week and how it’s been bookended by his impact as a freshman, until his knee injury, and this season, when he’s emerged as a key part of WSU’s attack. So we asked Bone about Koprivica, just letting the coach riff a little on his lone senior. He talked more about Koprivica the person at first, then went into his contributions on the court and as they pertain to leadership. … With it being senior night and the Huskies being in town, I asked Bone if he felt there might be too much adrenaline in the building Saturday night. He said he had no idea, criticizing the crowds from last weekend – and yes, Thursday seemed like a morgue and Saturday, despite it being a tight game all the way through, funereal. Bone then went on to say he hopes it is full of craziness, because that usually helps the home team. … I asked Bone about Quincy Pondexter’s comments and he said he didn’t know if that would help fire up his team or not. “People can say what they want,” Bone said. “People have made comments like that in the past, sometimes they’re right and sometimes they’re wrong. Quincy’s a great kid and he’s had a great year and I’m sure that’s what he believes. And that’s what he should believe.” … And yes, a win over Washington is bigger than a win over ASU or USC. Bone admitted it today. … I asked if he thinks his team might be finally figuring out if they play hard and focused, they can play with anyone in the conference after last weekend’s down-and-up games. He wishes he could say that, but he’s not sure. They have competed with the best teams in the conference when they’ve focused and played with energy. Of course, they’ve gotten blown out when they haven’t played that way. … Bone was asked about Klay Thompson tossing the ball into the air after he missed the second free throw late in the game Saturday. Bone said he hadn’t talked with Thompson so he didn’t know what he was thinking. My view of the play was probably better than Bone’s so I believe Thompson thought he was going to go out of bounds, so why not throw the ball up high, kill some clock and not let USC get set at all? Makes sense. … Bone then talked about Thompson’s potential as a defender, comparing him to Brandon Roy, who was at UW when Bone was. He’s not the first person I’ve heard make that comparison. The other was an NBA scout earlier this season. … One goal for WSU right now: Stay out of the Wednesday night game in the Pac-10 tourney. … Finally, I asked about Koprivica starting on senior day and if he was worried about it, in that Abe Lodwick started Saturday and WSU won. Bone said Koprivica will start. And Lodwick might too. I believe he was joking about the last part. … On the Pac-10 call, one thing Bone added was some praise for the energy James Watson brought to the court against USC. We covered some of his hustle plays in the story and posts.

• Earlier today we posted a note about Jamal Atofau, a defensive back from Bellevue. The usual response in these type of situations – Atofau, who redshirted last fall as a freshman, was arrested for fourth-degree assault early Saturday morning – is for the player to be suspended. That hasn’t happened here. Which tells me Paul Wulff and the coaches, after looking into the situation, don’t believe Atofau’s actions deserve that response. We’ll keep an eye on the situation and see if, as was the case with Brandon Jones’ first arrest, the charges are dropped.

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• That’s all for now. We’ll be back in the morning. Until then …