I would say a lot of that loss MUST hall on Coach Bone's plate. Yes, the missed free throws were inexcusable, and yes TaJuan Porter hit about 4 or 5 circus shots, CKB is going to need to suck it up and accept the blame on this one.

13 minutes of playing time for Xavier Thames, in a win or out game, is inexcusable. Marcus Capers was having a career f***** night. 16 points and 6 boards (5 offensive) and not in foul trouble.

Not to mention the look of confusion on James Watson and Michael Harthun's faces was pretty comical. When Casto and the other guards are effective, playing at a high level, again in a loser-out game, they should not be sitting in my mind.

Oh, and how about that play Bone drew up for the final 7 seconds of OT?

That last play in OT was completely ridiculous. What the hell were they trying to do? This team appears to have a lot of talent, and I think that they will be very good before it is all said and done, but what a disastrous season. I cannot believe that we finished LAST in the Pac 10. Missed free throws absolutely killed us last night, and many others this year.

how when you play and practice basketball everyday you can be sooooo bad at free throws. I'm just an average dude and I can consistently knock down 8 of 10 it really blows my mind.

At least Sterk is gone and we can stop with these awful coaching hires.

Put 5 losses at minimum on Bone's head this year. He can't seem to coach down the stretch. He can't seem to motivate, let alone even try.

Apparently WSU was his golden D1 opportunity. Which he has ruined with incompetence.

Good riddence...I guess we can start stockpiling our athletic donations for the post-Wulff/Bone era.

Free throws are about focus and discipline. And I am not sure I have seen much of that out there on the court the way they have been so careless with the ball. These kids are conditioned well enough that they should be hitting them not only throughout the game, but also at the end. No excuse for such poor shooting.

On good note, that was the Capers that I expected all year. Not sure if he was told not to shoot this year so KT could launch anything and everything from anywhere, but what I saw last night is what we caught a glimpse of late in the season last year. I have always thought Capers had a decent, not great mid range jumper (despite all the critics), and last night seemed like the first game where he was not afraid to shoot or do something with the ball, and it worked out well for us.

And then there was Motum. This kid has more experience than half of the Pac-10, yet when he has done something significant, he gets lost on the bench the following game (thinking of his play vs. Arizona at home where we killed them by 20). He has shown that he can be a positive contributor, and last night he played pretty darn good. I just wish Bone would have given him more of a chance earlier in the season.

I agree with Longball, Enough Already! It has been a frustrating season.

GP, hitting 8 of 10 at the gyms is one thing, in the PAC10 tourney on TV is quite another. I know, I know, they're pac10 players, but that doesn't make it easier. There's plenty of NBA players that can't make 60% at the stripe. Its just a quality, some guys can't go left well, some guys can't stay out of foul trouble, and some guys just can't shoot foul shots.

I'm willing to write the year off since it was CKB's first year. Next year better see some improvement, and I think they will.

Casto needs to quit trying to block shots at the square on the backboard EVERY TIME and instead use some judgement on when they'll probably miss and just get the rebound instead of flying out of bounds after his jump.

Moore should have seized the moment after the play broke down at the end. I'm surprised he was so timid after he'd played w/ so much confidence all year. I was hoping he'd pull a Jimmy Chitwood and hit the jumper at the buzzer.

I think Bone will be fine in time, but he needs to own this loss. Him and him alone.

I agree with you that the pressure is tough, but it did not seem to phase the Oregon team, and they were presumably under the same pressure. What I am really wondering is that if we even spend much time practicing on this important part of the game? Have you seen Watson launch a free throw? He is in the same category as Will Foster of Gonzaga. The sad thing is, we have all seen Watson shoot above average from 17 to 18 feet, why can this coaching staff not translate that into decent free throw shooting? Not that he was the one missing last night, but if it is not important to the coaching staff, it is not important to the team.

Shooting is a skill, but we have greatly skilled shooters, and it is called a "free" shot for a reason, no defense.

Free throws are definitely not always that easy to make. When watching the game and focusing on how hard Casto was fighting all night and them see him at the line, he just looked exhausted and his attempts clearly showed it! On the other hand the misses by our normally good free throw shooters was unconscionable. When Nik missed his free throw you could tell by his look that he missed it.

BTW, Singlers' put back as time expired shouldn't have counted if the refs would have called the obvious over-the-back when he had his hand on the Coug and used it as leverage to tip in the ball. Of course Porter should have never gotten that far if the first place.

As for CKB, this is first year as "the man" and it showed that he has some growing pains to get through as do some of the players. Look for them to have foul shooting practices to the wee hours of the mornings in the off season to correct their obvious deficiency. Plus, I wouldn't doubt if we see an assistant coaching change to help with more D or our lack of focus down the stretch.

Singler definitely was over the back, another crucial call muffed in this series.

But what was with Bone calling a time out to ice his own free throw shooter and allow Oregon, who was behind with no time outs, to settle down and talk strategy to the players. Did not like that coaching decision.

I don't know if you noticed but they were pretty much shooting free throws in an empty gym last night. Can't chalk it up to crowd noise or crazy fans, sorry, flat out choke jobs.

We were screaming at the tv. WTF Bone. Icing your own guy? You can ask for a timeout after the 2nd free throw. A D1 coach should know that.

Run after run this season, Bone just let them implode. The critical timeouts weren't called, or were called to late, and this group of kids were left to themselves.

Come on Bone. Better see some improvement next year.

I'm going to chalk up the poor free-throw shooting to the poor overall discipline. Which is Bone's issue, not the players. The fundies that the Bennett's brought have been lost with this coaching staff that that's the biggest problem right now. No D, tons of turnovers, and terrible free throw shooting. Yes, its all up to the players, but the coaches have to hold the players accountable. And they clearly aren't since its the same problem week after week.

Free throws are a fundamental part of the game. Comparing our poor FT shooting to the pros is off base, as the pros as a whole are abysmal as well. There is no reason why they shouldn't be hitting 80% or more. It is a part of the game that is overlooked in this one on one era of basketball.

Last night was the capstone on a long series of poor performances and inability to be consistent. If its not one thing (like shooting 20% from the floor) it another (less than 50% FT shooting). Its clear that they just lack the focus and concentration of a team comprised of veterans.

Next year, anything less than finishing 5th in league and an NIT appearance is not acceptable.

Free throws are harder when the pressure is on and people are watching. I can hit 10 out of 10 in a practice setting, but I shot about 60% in game situations. Its just different, and unless you've played in front of 15,000 people (or in the case of last night, 500), don't talk shit about being able to shoot a higher percentage.

that they play and practice almost every single day. think about that. almost every day. shouldn't it be somewhat automatic at least above the 50 % mark?

I don't think I will ever understand the thing about free throws in basketball.

Yes, there is a lot more pressure in a game situation with fans watching. The same pressure is on batters in baseball and kickers in football, yet you don't see half the guys in the rec center able to hit the same pitches as reliably as Ichiro, or kicking 50 yard field goals with the same percentage as Stephen Gostkowski.

What is it about free throw shooting that makes it so hard for a D1 or even a pro player to do it better than the average guy on the playground?

I agree with what you all said, they are incredibly important. I can think of some big ones made during the Low-Weaver-Cowgill era that put away games vs UW, etc. But really, I don't think anyone will ever crack the code of what makes people great at the line and what makes someone shoot 50% or whatever! There are free throw shooting consultants out there who make a living teaching the psychology of making free throws, and yet you still have the Shaq's and Ben Wallace's of the world. You would hope through rep after rep after rep at the line they would figure it out, like hitting a baseball or a tee shot, but for some reason it is a whole different deal during a game and the pressure is on. I would bet a lot of players would rather shoot a pullup 15-footer in traffic than go to the line!

I'm not sure how this whole pressure discussion means anything when you shoot 48% from the line and miss them down the stretch in front of a few thousand people on a tier 3 sports network? Casto needs to improve over his 59% average (down from last year), being he is the only inside presence we currently have. Watson looks horrific from the line.

This is definately NOT our finest hour. Sort of reminds me of when I was there in the late '60's (yes I do remember them...and I was there.) Our football team was about as bad as it could get, only one team from the Pac-8 could go to post season, and when we finished 2nd to LouCLA we got left out in the cold. Baseball wasn't bad, and with Bobo as coach it could be downright fun to watch those games. Times will be better. Moos can do, especially if we as fans and boosters get behind him and elevate our university.

Shaq cannot shoot free throws because he cannot shoot, period.

Practicing free throws in an empty gym for hours and hours doesn't really do shit. That's why jagoffs at the rec can hit 8 or 10 in an empty gym. Its all about game reps. Its all about concentration and discipline (during these games), not mindless practice. Why to pro golfers miss 3-footers? It sure isn't a lack of practice.

Thus, I blame Bone. Yes, the players have their share of responsibility, but its clear that Bone doesn't value defense, ball possession, or free throws, which is what killed us this year. Bennett coaches this team to 20-wins, guaranteed. Have I given up on Bone, no. But he's got a long way to go.

(Again, I ask: why wasn't Capers posting up Porter last night?)

This team had/has a huge amount of potential despite being the youngest in the Pac, as well as the country. I have to agree with Soze on this, if Bennett had these guys, I could easily see 20 wins and potential Pac-10 champs in this down year. Bennett teams, even in their infant years, were so much more prepared than the Coug product that has been put out on the court by Bone. And they did not have near the raw talent this team has. This league has great coaches that prepare their teams very well, just look how they took undermanned teams, and completely shut us down for 5, 10, or 20 minutes at a time, and left us for dead at last in the Pac. There were too many times that our guys looked lost and confused.

I can't accept Bone being new as an excuse, he has coached basketball forever at many levels. Did he really need a season to learn how and when to call time outs, develop talent and confidence, basic substitution methods, how not to get technicals when your team is mounting a comeback, and not staying in zone until we are down by 20? We could have hired someone that didn't need time to learn how to coach a basketball team.

I just feel very disappointed that we let an opportunity like this go. The Pac-10 will not be like this next year. We will be better, but so will everyone else.

wow Soze...your criticism of Bone is ironic considering your staunch defense of Wulff. At least Bone won more than 10% of his games!

Bone has so much more talent, it is apples and oranges man

Cougalum, there was a vast disparity in the talent both coaches had to work with.

Lucas is much faster on the trigger today!

That's pretty much insane.

We all love X, but he'd be the starting point guard on this if TB were the head coach. In other words, we wouldn't have a guy who was clearly the second best freshman in the conference (just behind Derrick Williams) this season.

This team struggled to score points with an offensive minded coach... I can't even imagine some of the fun games in the 30s we would've viewed had Tony been coaching this team.

And potential advantage we would've had from TB (who also lost 9 of 11 down the stretch at UVa) is negated by the fact we wouldn't have had Reggie.

Kyle/Derrick/Robbie and co. were 4-14 their sophomore season. Learn some perspective.

Grady, I appreciate you trying give me some perspective, but you missed my point.

I am simply saying that if this team had been better prepared, we could have won 20+ You don't think a Bennett team could have pulled out 4 more wins from this poor excuse for a Pac-10? Easily. We lost to Oregon three times, (obviously the first was bs), OSU, Stanford, and the list goes on. These teams were horrible. We had too much talent to finish were we did.

And to compare the competition from this year to 05-06 season is just silly.

The Pac-10 was a tad bit different that year. The final rankings before the tournament that year had UCLA at 7, UW at 17, and Cal and Ariz receiving votes. This year, zero.

That year saw all four of those teams get into the tournament, with UW making the sweet 16, and if you forgot already, UCLA losing in the championship game to Florida.

Yeah, that team only won 4 games in the Pac in 05-06, and we did them two better in arguably the weakest conference in the country. I guess you want me to congratulate Bone.

Perspective.