Arrow-right Camera

Color Scheme

Subscribe now
WSU Men's Basketball

WSU blown out in road loss to San Francisco, Cougars’ fourth straight loss

SAN FRANCISCO – Even in his team’s best moments, David Riley has wondered about Washington State’s mental fortitude. He’s pushed the Cougars to build more mental toughness, to push through the tougher stretches, to take care of the ball when the game speeds up and to keep opponents off the offensive glass.

WSU has taken steps in the right direction on those fronts. The Cougars hung with first-place Saint Mary’s last week. They carved out a win over San Diego earlier this month, and they followed with a home blowout over Portland.

But the Cougars’ season has capsized recently because of their worst habits. Sometimes they lose too many turnovers. Sometimes they allow too many offensive rebounds. Sometimes they lose their composure. And sometimes they do all three at once, which led to a 75-51 loss Saturday night to San Francisco, the Cougs’ fourth straight loss, their sixth in eight tries.

“Really disappointing game, and really disappointing week for us,” Riley said. “I thought we had some good stretches. Obviously started off the game the right way. We had some good defensive stands in the second half. But we gotta get more consistency. I think we had some good talks, we had a good film session. But you gotta go practice and work on this stuff to see the results, so I think that’s what we need to get back to this week.”

About four weeks after soaring to the top of the WCC with a home win over the Dons, the Cougars’ season has cratered. This latest setback came to a USF team operating without its best player, guard Malik Thomas, who tallied 34 points in these teams’ first game. Even with Thomas sidelined for Saturday’s rematch, the Dons had few problems dispatching the Cougars (15-9, 5-6).

WSU’s flaws all coalesced in a span of some two hours. The Cougars lost 18 turnovers, leading to 20 Dons points. The visitors yielded 14 offensive rebounds, which USF turned into 16 second-chance points. WSU was also whistled for one technical foul and one flagrant, the team’s third flagrant and second technical in the past two games, perhaps an indication that the group’s mental toughness isn’t where it should be.

The Cougs, who committed 15 turnovers in the first half, were only in the game for the first few moments. Up two with about six minutes left in the first half, WSU yielded a 14-0 run to close the half, giving USF a 38-26 lead. The Dons needed only five minutes to stretch their lead to 20. It didn’t have to spell the end for WSU — but after that, coach David Riley went away from several starters.

Sophomore wing LeJuan Watts, who totaled nine points, six rebounds and five turnovers, subbed out for good with some 14 minutes left. Point guard Nate Calmese, who totaled two points in 20 minutes, checked out for the last time with 12 minutes left. The Cougars who got the most minutes in the second half were the youngest: freshman guards Kase Wynott and Tomas Thrastarson, plus reserve guard Parker Gerrits.

“I thought we were guarding,” Riley said of his decision to sit two starters. “Those guys have been banged up a little bit. Just went with those guys when the game was at that point.”

Calmese had been sick with the flu since Friday, a source confirmed to The Spokesman-Review. By the time Saturday’s tip-off rolled around, Calmese had not eaten in about 24 hours, throwing up off and on during that time.

With or without Calmese, though, WSU had not found ways to solve its turnover issues all season. After Saturday’s game, the Cougs are now averaging 15.2 turnovers per game, No. 346 of 355 Division I teams. They’re losing 10.3% without the defense forcing a steal, per KenPom, which ranks No. 349. On Saturday, LeJuan Watts lost five, which is his sixth time this season committing five-plus turnovers in a single game.

In perhaps a strange development, things went south for WSU most when reinforcements arrived. Transfer wing Ri Vavers made his return from a monthslong injury absence on Jan. 23, when the Cougars absorbed a 28-point road loss to Santa Clara. On Thursday, WSU welcomed back sophomore guard Isaiah Watts after a 10-game absence – but that’s when the Cougars dropped a second game to Pacific, whose only two conference wins have come over WSU.

WSU’s two tangles with San Francisco align in even stranger ways. In the first, back on Jan. 4, Thomas was in action, tallying 27 of his 34 points in the first half. Watts and Vavers, two of the Cougs’ best scorers, were on the shelf with their injuries. In terms of personnel, USF was in a much better spot than WSU, which remains without star wing Cedric Coward and freshman guard Marcus Wilson — but the Cougars switched up their defense in the second half and won going away.

Four weeks later, the Dons lost their best player and the Cougs got two of theirs back. But it was USF that looked better, getting 17 points from guard Marcus Williams, 16 from backup forward Junjie Wang and 14 from guard Ryan Beasley, his season-high in points.

The Cougars get the chance to turn things around Thursday on the road against Oregon State. Until then, Riley said, he wants to see his team avoid “cutting corners.”

What did he mean by that?

“Whether it’s being ready to go for practice, ” Riley said, “competing on every play in practice, making sure that we’re getting our right defensive rotations, and not saying, ‘Oh, I messed that one up,’ and just kinda moving on — we gotta take it serious. It’s gotta hurt us a little bit more.”