Hello Followers. Hope you’re ready for a nice basketball free weekend!
Tonight, our Cougies laid an egg of the biggest sorts, losing to UCLA 71-51.
Its now been nearly 20 years since we’ve beaten the Bruins IN PULLMAN.
As the header states, now is the time for some serious soul searching about who we are and where we are going.
As far as tonight was concerned, two disconcerting issues seem in play: (a) Bone has NO CLUE about how to attack a zone; or (b) His players are not listening to him.
Tonight, once again we saw Ben Howland brilliantly pick us apart. Their game plan: (a) Play zone with the understanding that we have no clue how to attack it; and (b) Pound us inside recognizing that we have no presence whatsoever at power forward.
Our plan was to, well, I don’t know. Hypothetically, our answer was to have our smaller, and perhaps, quicker four exploit UCLA by stretching the defense with our presence on the exterior/baseline.
Unfortunately, in order for that to work, you have to move the ball.
A few weeks ago, I provided yet another classic Sutra “state the obvious” insight. That insight was as follows: Teams that dribble against a zone defense LOSE. Conversely, teams that rapidly swing the basketball by PASSING THE FRICKING ROCK are able to beat zones.
Tonight, for the second straight time, we dribbled, dribbled, dribbled, dribbled. And when you do that against a competent zone, you are left with a myriad of contested shots and turnovers. And that is what we saw tonight.
As I’ve noted to you before, this team feeds off of its offense (as opposed to Cougar teams of T-Bone lore). And while folks like Grippy want to talk about how terrible our defense was, that isn’t the point. The FIFTY one total points at home is what you all should look at.
So, what can we take from tonight? Well, Saturday will tell a lot.
In the meantime, don’t count me as one of those Bone apologists that are currently in the blog-o-sphere.
This team has been HORRIBLY coached and managed over the past three weeks. And, if the boys are the culprits of not obeying the coach, then lets see a healthy dose of Bjornstad, Allen, Brown, Motum and company.
Only Casto and Thames looked like they had a clue tonight.
And with a week to prepare for team that beat us at the same game a few weeks back, tonight was inexcusable.
The buck stops with you, Ken Bone. Its beyond time to deal with it.
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