Hello Followers:

Well, tonight our young Cougs overwhelmed a decent Idaho team in the middle half of the game and then held on for a 76-64 victory.

A few thoughts before Longball checks in with his (hopefully) first hand takes.

1) A bad win? 

At the start of the game, I was sure that this was going to turn into a rare "bad win."  The reason?  Defense.

For the first 12 minutes of the game, we played the worst team defense that I've seen out of us in the past five or six years.  While I understand why Bone wants to see us extend our defense, the rotations were beyond absymal early on. In addition, the only reason why Casto didn't foul out in the first 10 minutes was that he was so out of control, he took himself away from Idaho's penetration.

Thankfully, we stopped overplaying as much helpside and were able to provide better ball pressure after Idaho beat us off the dribble.

But man, when you factor in our lack of size, it sure would be nice to see more pack and less high trap.

2) Thompson needs a twin.

Klay sure is special.  But, we're still living and dying too much on what he does or doesn't do.  Simply put, when Klay gets it going, others on the team start to reek with confidence.  We saw it when Abe got hot with Klay at the start of the second half, and we also saw it through Moore in spurts. 

But for us to get better, Capers is going to have to become more aggressive--especially from the baseline.  In addition, we HAVE to get guys like Thames and Harthun more touches early in the game so we have more options to go to throughout the game (and especially with 5-12 minutes left in the second half).

3) Offensive execution.

Love Bones sets--for the most part.  But, we still have too many stretches where we free Klay with cross screens that get him open, but also have him catching the ball either with his back to the basket or faced square to the sideline.  Given Klay's still slow first step, that set doesn't leave him with much to work with save that low percentage turn-around.  Conversely, when Klay catches the ball off of a curl (e.g. facing the basket), he and we become instant money.

Also, our offensive spacing plays nicely for Casto to come off of the high screen weak side to crash the boards.  I just hope that come conference time, he doesn't start picking up some ticky tack fouls on the offensive end when he crashes.

4) Moore's distribution.

Reggie sure is sweet with his penetration and feel as a scorer.  But as a distributor, he still has too much of a tendency to start the offense on one side of the floor. For him to take his game to the next level, and to better faciliate consistent access into our offense, he needs to start the offense from the center of the floor. And that applies to our transition game as well.

That all said, things look good for us heading into our first and last must win non-conference game against LSU in a couple of weeks.

Lets all hope we can hold onto a big lead in the next couple of contests so guys like Thames, Watson, and Motum can get more time.

We'll need them to finish third in the conference--which is a very tough, but doable goal for this team.

Amazing, but only three weeks til we begin our conference slate.

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Comments (18)

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written by Nuss, December 10, 2009

Love the breakdown of the sets. Nice insight.

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keep it coming
written by gp, December 10, 2009

I like the basketball stories and recaps. Change the name to the WSU Sports Blog?

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GP
written by WSU91, December 10, 2009

That was exactly my thought before I read your comment. I agree...

I thought this was much like the Gonzaga game, where we played well, then immaturity caused us to lapse defensively. The obvious difference being Gonzaga is way better than Idaho, hence we lose to the B-dogs, and hang on to beat Idaho. We'll need to clean that up before conference play.

We could be one year away from something really special.

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written by LucasCoug, December 10, 2009

Man we did get killed early on our rotations. They always had somebody open under the basket for the easy lay-up / dunk!

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Thoughts...
written by Chris '04, December 10, 2009

Well, not so much thoughts but more like a singular thought: the Cougs look good, but damn it if they don't go balls-to-the-wall for 40 full minutes. It's like they flip a switch at some point in their heads and decide to play some of the sloppiest basketball I've ever witnessed. I'm talking Paul Graham-sloppy, folks. I was at the game last night and witnessed it with my own two glorious eyes. These guys may be great, but Bone really needs to instill some discipline in that team or they're gonna get away from him.

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Great work
written by SeanHawk, December 10, 2009

Thanks to Sutra getting his BASKETBALL JONES off, I now know more than I ever did about WSU hoops. It's like going to school!

The only thing I will say is to agree on the inconsistency. It's the curse of youth, no doubt about it. Serious excitement one moment, WTF was that the next! Like it or not, that's probably going to be the way of things this year.

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One more thing
written by SeanHawk, December 10, 2009

Oh, and GP and '91? We'll never change the blog name or anything like that. We'll stick with the WSU Football Blog in name, of course, but we'll step into other things at times. And you better believe Sutra will be on the hoops scene!

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My fears...
written by Soze, December 10, 2009

Chris '04 brings up Paul Graham... and this is exactly my fear of where this program is heading. I'm sure Bone is a great coach and all, but if you can't get the recruits to play the system, we'll be heading back to the 0-fer days in the Pac. The Bennett's had it right, and that was recruit like the football team. Get the overlooked guys, the guys that fit into systems, and just build a TEAM. Trying to get "athletes" into a run-n-gun offense in Pullman just isn't going to work, in my opinion.

But my fingers are crossed...

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Soze
written by LucasCoug, December 10, 2009

So a run and gun can work elsewhere? But because we've run a halfcourt offense the last 6 years, and now we have the talent to do differently, we cannot succeed?

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Soze
written by gp, December 10, 2009

I agree with Lucas it could work. I mean lets not overreact just yet we start 4 soph. and a freshman and we are 7-2.

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System's A-Go
written by Coug-A-Sutra, December 10, 2009

Folks. At this point in time, we really don't need to be worrying about our system.

The reason why Bone is spreading the D out is to take advantage of Casto's mobility around the basket and to keep other team's big men from being able to push us under the basket.

The rub is when our rotations suck as they did last night.

The other HUGE factor for our team is the lack of another quality big man.

For the next two years, that is the ONLY recruit we need to worry about.

If we make the Sweet 16 as we should in the next couple of years, then recruiting should not be a worry for us.

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written by Soze, December 10, 2009

Let me clarify... I think we'll be around .500 in the Pac-10 this year, because we have 1 senior (kinda, if you can call Kraprovica a senior) on the roster. I think we'll compete for Pac-10 titles in 2010-11 and 2011-12 (if Klay stays). But after that is when I get worried. I'm still giving Bone the benefit of the doubt right now and am hoping for the best, but as Chris '04 said, I'm seeing similarities that I don't like. Until I see Bone recruit the type of players that he wants (instead of inheriting them), I will have reservations about the hire. But I'm behind him 100%.

Also, I'm not putting words into Chris '04's mouth either. He may not share the the opinion that we are heading into Paul Graham era v.2, but rather just saw glimpses of it last night.

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written by Longball, December 10, 2009

Paul Graham? Really? Umm, there is no way we are going to end up like that while Bone is here.

There is so much hand wringing about not being able to recruit the athletes for a faster pace system, but I have no idea what these people are talking about. There are plenty of athletes out there (Just ask Utah State) that can run in any system, as long as its run well. The system itself is a recruiting tool because kids want to play in it. any talk of insurmountable recruiting challenges and Paul Graham are just ridiculous.

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Is it true Wulff was given a one year ultimatim?
written by Saltspring, December 10, 2009

Per friends today from Tri-Cities in their paper Sterk was quoted to the effect Wulff has only one more year to turn this program around whatever that means. True?

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that young team
written by norcalcoug, December 10, 2009

can you imagine if we still had Baynes on the court with the rest of these guys??? wow!!!

There's no reason to freak out, the program is in good hands with Bone. They're just young, and there will be plenty of head slapping moments for the fans this year. We will win some games we probably shouldn't and lose some we shouldn't. And we may get blown out a few times.

I TOTALLY agree, we need a BIG!!!

We have some guys with great wing span, they're just so thin physically it just screams "add some beef on this dude!!!".

As a fan I think it's difficult for us to make the transition from thinking primarily about D which has been the focus these last years. But let's face it guys, the lack of O in the Bennett years sometimes was equally painful.

Let this coach implement his system, his style, his strategy and develop these players. I have confidence he will be good for us. (I'll say I'm underwhelmed about his understanding of our rivalries, etc., and I don't think coach has become a true coug yet, but I'll give him time to get that).

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written by Soze, December 10, 2009

Ehhh, I don't think its "ridiculous." Just an opinion.

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Nah
written by Chris '04, December 10, 2009

I wasn't saying that this team is going down the Paul Graham route, not at all. All I was insinuating is that I was seeing the same sloppiness that I saw during that time, in spurts.

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To: SaltSpring RE: Wulff
written by Chris '04, December 10, 2009

I just read that article you were talking about here: http://www.tri-cityherald.com/...21828.html

Let me tell you what, that newspaper sure knows how to create a controversy that likely doesn't exist. NO WHERE in there was Sterk quoted as saying Wulff only has one more year. In fact, here is the direct quote, ""He has to show improvement next year. And he will," Cougars athletic director Jim Sterk said Monday night, moments after speaking to about 40 season-ticket holders and donors to the athletic department from the Puget Sound area."

I wouldn't get to upset about it considering the TriCity Herald is the only rag in the state making these assumptions.

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