Sweeping the Cougs
by thecassino on Feb 27, 2010 1:06 PM PST
35 comments
The time is right for the Huskies to be playing WSU. The Cougars have hit the late season swoon that many thought they'd experience, dropping 6 of their last 8 games. The play quality decrease has come due to their lack of depth and the fact that the players are all adjusting to a new, faster style of play and it often takes a full year or two for the legs to adjust to that. Look no further than Klay Thompson for the evidence: he was spoken of very highly when the Cougs ran through their especially weak nonconference schedule, but has shot just 2/21 in his last two games. In the first UW/WSU matchup Thompson scored just 7 points on a horrid 2/15 shooting night. In his career he has yet to beat, or even score in double figures against the Huskies.
Conversely, the Huskies are coming off of one of their best games of the season after turning the UCLA court time into layup and dunk practice.
The key to beating the Cougars again will be the defense. The Huskies are capable of shutting WSU down with guys like Justin Holiday and Venoy Overton leading the charge, which is something that the Cougars simply have no equIvalent to. Marcus Capers can man Isaiah Thomas and his length gives IT a bit of trouble, but the have no answer for Quincy Pondexter (though they're not alone there). If Matthew Bryan-Amaning continues his hot streak, DeAngelo Casto will be overmatched, as MBA is much stronger and can shoot the baby hook over Casto, whose defensive value comes primarily as a weakside shot blocker moreso than a lockdown man defender.
Plus, UW will throw waves of players at WSU and stay fresh, while WSU's bench gets thin quite quickly.
It's senior night in Pullman, though it shouldn't be much of a factor as the Cougars' lone senior, Nikola Koprivika, is a nice player (and he's really impressed me with his improvement from last season), but isn't exactly the kind of player who can take over a game from start to finish.
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Pop corn...
is popped and friends are on their way over…should be a fun game to watch… Go you Dawgs! Go!…make us proud!
Will be bringing the noise...
In pullman with the Dawg Pack that made the trip over!
Purple in Pullman
by Harry the Husky on Feb 27, 2010 2:27 PM PST reply actions
Amaning vs. Casto
Valid points except Amaning is NOT stronger than Casto. Amaning has the post presence of Winne the Poo. That baby hook is all that’s in his bag.
Apples and Oranges
Baker13, apparently we are not watching the same game. Casto is a horrible offensive threat. Very seldom does he score many points unless he’s at the free throw line. What offensive moves does Casto have? … still waiting.
MBA has two great moves, the baby hook and a furious dunk, I’m not too sure Casto has that in his bag of tricks neither. Casto is the better defender and that may serve him good, but let’s not compare MBA to Casto. Offensively MBA is better then Casto. Defensively Casto might have MBA sized up.
All I saw was purple
Ive seen Casto quite a bit
He and MBA are pretty similar with low post moves. MBA has a hook while Casto has power moves. Castos scoring has gone up quite a bit lately as has MBAs
by cougfan on Feb 27, 2010 5:06 PM PST via mobile up reply actions
I completely agree.
I never said Casto had any offense. What I disagreed with were the terms “stronger” and “overmatched” in the article. I don’t think MBA really has any big man’s number in the league, he clearly does not play tough in the paint on offense or defense and is more of a finesse player (without ball handling ability) as opposed to a Casto type. He has been so inconsistent (last few games aside) and really isn’t likely to be a huge factor in this matchup. We have thought that Amaning has turned the corner before, lets hope this time its for real.
Wow. I should always rank on him.
While I don’t think I misdiagnosed his game, he played great today and was a HUGE factor.
We sort of need finesse centers w/ the tempo we play at
With the offensive tempo we run with, I believe it is to our benefit to have a center that can get up the floor and run. We play best in transition and want to push the ball up the floor. A slow footed traditional bigman is seldom effective in our offense. And so from that angle comparing Casto w/ MBA is apples and oranges. Casto will without a doubt be most effective in half court sets and will continue to improve his skills as he matures.
What is MBA anyway- 6’8" maybe 9"? I think it is to his advantage to learn to run in our system if he wants a shot at the NBA. 6’8" is not big enough to play big in the NBA, so it is to his benefit to learn power forward skills and I think that is what he is learning at Washington.
All I saw was purple
To call Casto a horrible offensive threat is kind of misinformed
Casto is a good scorer, he just had an off night. None of his shots were dropping for him. If Kobe has a night where he scores 4 points, does that make him a horrible offensive threat? No, it doesn’t. You let him regroup, and hope he comes back better the next game. My point is, you can’t make a judgement on the strengths of a player after one off game.
OK didn't catch that.
Title made it sound postgame.
I thought he had a good game tonight actually
He is going to be a phenomenal overall player in the next few years. Klay Thompson is the one that is a conundrum.
Ya he played pretty well
had an awful first half, but so did the rest of the team.
I'm not buying into Bone
Thompson looks like he is pouting out on the floor. I think the kid needs to grow up a little. I just find it hard to believe that the Cougs can play so awful in one half and come out in the 2nd half and dominate like they did in the game.
It appears to me that Bone doesn’t have his team ready to play. Everybody in the Husky/Coug worlds know that the Dawgs want to run. Bone should’ve had his team prepared to get back on defense in trasition. I think WSU needs to go back to Bennett ball. Everybody in the Pac 10 pushes the ball up the floor. WSU had a great little niche with the slow tempo-ball pressure defensive system, where every Pac 10 program had to put in extra work during the week to prepare just for WSU’s slow tempo offense. It was brilliant strategy to say the least.
All I saw was purple
How can you judge off of a first year?
Bone has his style, let him implement it and see. Bone is not going to be running Bennett ball, period.
Wait and see before judging him as a coach
WOO! HOO!
Loved it! Great win! GO DAWGS!!
Washington Husky Football-Undefeated 1991 National Champions 12-0!
I found it rather amusing to see the guys at CougCenter bitching about the officiating in that game. I too was complaining about the officiating during the game, at how they were calling ticky-tack fouls against the Huskies and letting the Cougs get away with the same stuff, and ignoring when the Cougs were hacking at us under the hoop.
I guess it goes to show how biased we can be as fans of our favorite teams.
I didn’t like seeing us let the Cougs back into the game, nor the several minutes in the 2nd half where our half-court offense went totally stagnant, but I give them credit for staying mentally tough and gritting out the win in a hostile environment.
What on earth do Coug fans have to bitch about in regards to the officiating?
O.M.G! Are you serious? The second half WSU was overly aggressive and getting away with it. If anyone has a complaint about the officiating, the huskies should be doing the complianing. In the 2nd half it was all WSU hack … hack … and more hack!
All I saw was purple
Outside of that blatant missed call late in the game where Suggs was tackling Capers under our basket, I really have no idea. Like I said, it’s really just a reflection of how fans can be biased in their views. But it made me laugh considering how upset I was with the refs during the game for what they weren’t calling on the Cougs that they were calling against us.
It's a consistency thing with me
Call the game tight or call it loose, but call it the same the whole time and do it for both sides. These officials played the even up the foul differential game and there really was no way of knowing what was a foul and what wasn’t from minute to minute.
Yep – that was my beef, is that they didn’t seem to be consistent on what constituted a foul. If you’re going to call it tight, call it tight for both teams. If you’re going to let them play, let both teams play.
Exactly
I’m in no way, and if you read Nuss’ post he wasn’t either, blaming the refs for the loss. Some of the other posters may and that’s their deal (people always find something). The thing that made it a terribly officiated game for me was the inconsistency. This happens far more often than not in the pac-10 as a whole and it just pisses me off. The players need to know what a foul is and what isn’t. If a hand check is a foul in the first half but isn’t in the second, it really screws up the game.
Bottom line is I want to know what a foul is and isn’t and I want it to stay that way for 40 minutes.
For those of you who went to the game
Does anyone else find the “Zzu cru” to be fairly unimaginative and offensive? Their default chant the whole game of “F—- the Huskies” was even starting to bother the coug fans I was sitting around on the opposite side.
And thanks to the Dawg Pack members that made the trip out. I throughly enjoyed the rounds of GO cheers that could be heard around the quieted arena.
For sale: One slightly used broom. May have bits of coug left on it, but otherwise in good condition.
Purple in Pullman
by Harry the Husky on Feb 28, 2010 5:43 PM PST reply actions
Yeah, Percy Allen wrote in his live blog
That they were using “X-Rated chants” in pregame and noted how classless that is. For all the garbage Cougar fans gives UW fans about being arrogant and thinking we’re better than them, it’s things like that that make it true. College game or not, fans need to refrain from doing things that take away from it being a family environment. Swearing in unison at the other team is uncalled for, and frankly should be a technical foul.
Really?
Get over yourselves. isiah Thomas and Venoy Overton were both taunting the crowd during warmups. That should be a technical foul too. Welcome to America, it’s Freedom of Speech and quite frankly they deserved it. Don’t act like somehow you’re better than us I’m sure you have all dropped the F bomb and that the Dawg Pack has made some pretty classless statements over the years.
I have no problem with swearing, I do it often.
But not in front of children. It’s classless, and yes, I am better than that. If holding myself to a higher standard is something that you think I need to "get over", Ill pass.
And if players swear at the crowd (which I doubt Thomas and Overton were doing), that can be a technical. What were they doing that made them deserve it though? It’s a concept lost on Cougar fans, I know, but this Husky team jokes around a lot and has fun whatever they’re doing. Can you definitively say that Thomas or Overton "fired the first shot" so to speak?I’d bet everything I own to the contrary.
Also, go read the First Amendment. It doesn’t say what you think it does.
Yes
Because I was there and I saw what happened. Slapping you’re chest and motioning to bring it on and holding up your W and pointing at the students is definitely an instigation. Yeah, the first amendment does say what I think it does, “F the Huskies” is an opinion. It is not libelous nor does it endanger or threaten anyone. Also why does it matter if it is unimaginative or not? Would you prefer “Bundy was a Husky”, “Thomas is a midget” over us to play this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b97TRvZqgsY on the big screen when the Dawgs came out on the floor? Beyond that don’t act like your fans don’t talk plenty of smack and swear at Coug fans when the games are in Seattle. I received my fair share of unflattering comments from Dawg fans at both the Apple last year in Pullman and this year.
Jeebus, are you really that dense?
There’s a significant difference between what individual fans say to players and other fans and what organized groups like the Dawgpack and the ZZU Crew say to players and other fans.
If you like your ZZU Crew to be crude and unimaginative, that’s your right – just remember, they are representing your school, so if that’s how you want Cougs to be thought of, that’s fine by me. I like the fact that the DawgPack is creative with their taunts without resorting to being crude and lowest common denominator.
That's Classless...
…and unimaginative but it doesn’t surprise me that the cougs would stoop that low. So this brings up the perfect time to tell one of my favorite coug stories “priceless!”…So I’m in Pullman watching the 1994 Apple Cup with my wife. We got tickets from some wsu homer who worked at a Sunnyside WA radio station. We’re sitting in like the front row of the (I assume) Aumni side of Martin Stadium. The cougar fans start up the “Huskies Suck” chant, classless is as classless does….and I mean my wife and I are right in the middle of all of these cougs chanting this…I was a bit embarrassed to say the least! I kept my cool though and waited till they were finished and then shouted “COUGARS SWALLOW!” It was hilarious! and the funny thing was nobody said a word to me after I did that! GO DAWGS!!
Washington Husky Football-Undefeated 1991 National Champions 12-0!
As a Coug, I'm sick of it too
My best guess is that, like a virus, it gets into the stupid freshmen class and doesn’t leave until they graduate. It starts during football season when it’s 20 degrees out and the only way to stay warm is to drink drink drink (though, of course, that doesn’t actually warm you up) and in that moment dropping f-bombs is appealing to anyone. As marginally more intelligent sophomores, they get really really drunk before they drop the bomb. By junior year, they don’t even realize how classless they are acting by swearing in front of families. Most seniors are somewhat aware of it and refrained except it the most heated moments.
Somehow I find the marginally more acceptable “huck the fuskies” occasionally funny, though perhaps that means I too am classless.
Anyways, congratulations on a deserved victory. I hope we meet up again the the conference tournament and maybe the Cougs can put a full game together this time.
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