Longball’s View From the Cheap Seats

Now I’ve made an infrequent habit of bringing you all my “View from the Cheap Seats”, but last week, while the seats were still cheap, the view was significantly upgraded due to the absence of the WSU student body. Papa Longball and I were able to sneak right up to the  first few rows of the student section where we got a close up look at our Cougs as they opened Pac-10 play.  With only a few dozen true Zzu Cru-ers in attendance I was dreading the notorious church-like atmosphere that too often greets our boys during holiday homestands. I was not encouraged by the old timers sitting directly behind me who, before tip-off, began to complain that there was “too much standing” and “my knees won’t be able to take it” and “I can’t see the game through the Great Wall of Crimson” (all real quotes).  But as play started I was pleased to see the lower bowl fill in rather nicely, and although it wasn’t the most vocal crowd, the highly contested nature of both games brought the farmers and townies to their feet.  Add a few thousand students to the mix and we would have had a genuine home court advantage to be proud of (not to mention an all out riot at “the call”. Just try making that call when the students are back. I dare you.).  While I prefer to leave the fancier X’s and O’s stuff to smart people (aka, nerds) like Sutra, I do have a few observations from seeing this team up close and personal…..

Lets start with coach Bone and what up to now has been a bewildering whirlwind of a player rotation with very little rhyme or reason, so it seems.  While he has stuck with a consistent starting 5, he has put more player combinations on the floor, in competitive game situations, then we saw in all 6 years of Bennett Ball.  I was just getting adjusted to the idea that this was the new norm and that our faster paced style would just mean a deeper rotation of 10, 11 or even 12! players.  Then, suddenly, coach Bone significantly tightened the rotation to a Bennett-esque 8 players for the Oregon State game.  This is especially significant given that he did not deviate from that tight rotation even when Casto had 4 fouls and Klay fouled out with 5 minutes remaining.  That tells me that coach Bone has found his rotation and barring emergencies or extreme match up issues, he’s sticking with it.  How did it shake out?  It looks something like this:

Losing out:
Brock Motum – I’m not too worried for the young Aussie. He just hasn’t looked comfortable on the floor and probably needs more time. Hopefully we can put someone away early this year and give him some minutes. In the Oregon game Bone pulled him immediately after air-balling a short jumper when he had a clear path to the basket for an easy flush.

Charlie Enquist – After seeing significant minutes early on, Charlie has completely vanished from the rotation. He was a long-shot to be an impact player anyway, so not a huge surprise. Still, we don’t have a dearth of big men to go to, so I don’t mind having him on the bench just in case. As far as his future? I think incoming JC transfer Faisel Aden will be taking over his scholly next year.

Anthony Brown – The only time Brown has been on the court lately was to slap Casto with his towel and consequently get a technical foul that cost us the ball game. Bone has shown very little interest in playing Brown, even in garbage minutes, so not sure how much of a future there is for the kid from Spokane.

Mike Harthun – Just a sophomore, Harthun may yet be a contributor, but for the moment he has lost out in Bone’s rotation.  He has shown a few flashes, but generally has had little impact when given a chance.  On a team that is rich with guards (and getting richer) you gotta wonder if he has enough upside to ever crack the lineup.

Steven Bjornstad – The big freshman center will undoubtedly be a key contributor, perhaps as soon as next year.  Seeing him up close, he is not a lumbering oaf like a lot of kids his size, so a little more experience and maturity and he’ll be able to help out.

Winners:
Xavier Thames – The X-Man Cometh! Thames has very quickly gone from intriguing, to a revelation. When he takes the floor he seems to start contributing immediately.  He has a lot to learn, but so far he is fearless, has a nice mid range shooting touch and provides solid and ever-improving defense.  Along with Moore we have a really solid 1-2 punch at point guard and unbelievably, they are both freshmen! Yes, I did get chills while I was typing that.

James Watson – Count me as one that thought he would never be healthy enough to contribute. Boy, am I glad I was wrong. He is getting better every game, and his work on the glass and on defense are becoming crucial elements to our success. With all we are going to ask of Casto this year, having Watson available to give us quality minutes in reserve is as important as any role our bench will play this year. His emergence alone, if he continues to improve, makes us a contender.

Nik Koprivica – Last year Nik had more haters than a tube of liverwurst at a vegetarian convention.  That alone might make him the biggest “winner” of all in the Ken Bone rotation sweepstakes.  Nik is the first off the bench and is really our 6th starter.  Despite outplaying Lodwick almost every night, Bone has kept Nik as his 6th man, if for no other reason then it just works so well.  I also think it helps keep Abe Lodwick, who we need, from disappearing completely.  Nik’s selflessness in accepting that role is just one of the many critical contributions he’s made.  As the only senior his presence, strength and maturity have been critical to a team that had a massive leadership vacuum after losing Rochestie, Harmeling, Forrest and Baynes.  One thing I never thought possible, but I think is fair to say now… we will be hurt by his graduation this year.

As far as our starters go, there is just a lot of growing up to do… Klay gets rattled way too easily and needs to continue to learn how to handle being our go-to-guy.  Reggie Moore needs to keep his focus, especially on defense and take care of the ball at critical times….but at least he is all smiles over the strong start to the season:

Lodwick works harder than anybody out there, usually against bigger, stronger players, but he needs to be assertive on offense and start looking for that 3 ball.  Casto is starting to develop some post moves, but still gets out of position too easily on defense.  Capers may never be a threat to score from the outside, but he is attacking the basket more aggressively every game and is our best finisher at the rim.  His defense and rebounding are indispensable. 

Of course, they are all freshmen and sophomores and they are already pretty damn good.  You have to be a real “Eeyore” not to love where this team is at right now.

What does this mean going forward? I think pairing the rotation down to a lean 8 bodies shows that this team has a ways to go to build the kind of depth we’ll need to start hanging banners from the rafters. However, the talent is here and we are no longer a one-trick pony type team who only wins when Klay scores 50 (see Stanford and Landry Fields).  This week we have to do it on the road against a proud Arizona program looking to prove they are still amongst college basketball’s elite, and a veteran ASU squad stinging from their 0-2 start and desperate to put some notches in the win column.  This is the kind of trip that will test all of this teams weaknesses: experience, leadership, confidence, composure. As they say, we’ll know a lot more about this team come Monday.

All for now.  GO COUGS!