Happy Tuesday Night Cougar Fans!
Did you get a chance to catch the basketball team in action or on Fox Sports tonight? Well here I am with a first hand report on the 2010-2011 edition of Cougar basketball. There couldn’t have been more than 10,000 Cougar fans on hand, well make that 9,999 Coug fans and that stupid 9 year old wearing the Jake Locker jersey sitting in front of me with his brother and his MILF. Read more for additional insight and to check out all of the pictures that DaniBuff snapped for us!
The Cougs opened up on a 20-4 run behind the extremely stupid hot shooting of Klay Thompson. I’ve watched a lot of basketball this week, and this young man is a s good of a scorer and shooter as UCONN’s Kemba Walker, Kalin Lucas of Michigan State, and whomever the UW is touting as their go-to man these days. I haven’t seen a box score, but with the 35 he dropped in tonight, he couldn’t have missed more than two shots. Add in the extremely sharpshooting of Faisal Aden, and we have a 1-2 punch in our back court that can only be rivaled by the Huskies in our league! My initial guess without seeing a box score, is the two combined to shoot 22-26 from the field. Survey says.
On the defensive end DeAngelo Casto must have had a half dozen blocks (I swear the box score is wrong) and Marcus Capers chipped in a few himself. The thing that concerns me is I haven’t a clue who are leading rebounder was without looking at the box score. He also turned the ball over far too many times!
It pained me to see Reggie Moore sitting on the bench because you know how much more filthy the offense could be with him out there. The offense was run for the most part through Dre Winston Jr., with some coming through Marcus Capers and Faisal Aden. However, these guys can’t take care of the basketball like #3 can, as lots of turnovers and sloppy play lead to a mid 2nd Half run where Portland pulled within one point of us. But a barrage of Klay Thompson and Faisal Aden three buried us.
Here are a few other thoughts and observations, please chime in if you have any thoughts from what you saw:
-Patrick Simon can shoot the ball really well. I would imagine if he bulks up over the next few years, he can turn into a really solid 3 or 4.
-Brock Motum definitely packed on some appropriate bulk in the off-season and it was great to see him banging low in the key with Luke Sikma.
-DeAngelo can be a game changer for us. While he had a poor night from the floor (maybe five points) like I mentioned above, he blocked a ton of shots and directly altered many other Portland attempts that resulted in misses.
-Pac 10 refs are still horrible. Honestly, some of the fouls that were called on the Cougs in the game were a bit absurd. I know this is like beating a dead horse, but after watching all sorts of non-Pac 10 hoops this week, and to see how aggressive other teams are allowed to play, the league should be embarrassed. I hope Larry Scott looks into improving this situation in all sports for the league, as it has been awful for far too long.
-This team should compete for the NCAA Tourney. KState and Gonzaga will be monster tests for us, and I think if we can win one of those two, and have an impressive showing in Hawaii here in a few weeks, a .500+ league record should get us in come March.
-Any Pac 10 team with a legit Center (see, Josh Smith at UCLA) will likely give the front court fits. Aside from Casto, we don’t have enough to match-up with a true Center.
-We were out-rebounded as a team for the second consecutive game. However, is that a bad thing when you shoot nearly 60% from the field?
That’s all I have from my observations tonight, check out some of the awesome photos my girlfriend took for us!
Capers prepares for the three point barrage from the Pilots.
As poor of a performance from the men in stripes, I was hoping Coach Bone would pick up a Technical!
True Freshmen, Patrick Simon, on the low block.
Dre Winston Jr., another true freshmen did an alright job when called upon to head our offense for 18 minutes.
Training with LeBron in the off-season clearly has paid dividends for Klay. He drove Portland insane, pouring in 35 points, hitting 3-4 from downtown. Former Coug and Seahawks Center Robbie Tobeck catches the action in the background. Do you see him?
JUCO transfer Faisal Aden nails his only free throw of the night, and finished with 20+ points for the third consecutive game.
That would be former basketball and football star Mike Bush.
I don’t need to tell you who that is!
He definitely doesn’t need an introduction to Cougar Nation.
RB Marcus Richmond in the black coat, and Coach Wulff, “we will be getting ready to play somewhere warm this time next December.”
Logwone Mitz in the Reds hat, LS Zack Enyeart, LB Myron Beck, TE Skylar Stormo, and S Kyle McCartney leads the fans in the fight song!
After three games, this team is exactly where we thought they would be. On Friday they travel to Fresno to take on the Bulldogs, and then return to action on Tuesday, 11/30, to host Sacramento State. Go Cougs!
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