Cougar Basketball Report Card

If the basketball season was a school year, Thursday’s loss to the Dogs was, for all intents and purposes, the final exam. It does appear that there will be a chance to play more games, but to me those NIT games will amount to nothing more than extra credit.  The bad news is that the NIT is not the postseason action we were all looking for. The good news is that it should mean that the team has a couple more chances to play games in Pullman (start practicing your “One more year” chants now, Cougar fans). In fact, nitology.com- a website I’d never heard of before yesterday – lists the Cougs as a projected NIT number one seed. Is that like being the tallest midget? Yes it is? Will I take it? Yes I will. (My apologies if I offended any little people). Selection Sunday won’t be so bad after all! Aaaaaaaanyhew, back to my original premise. Thursday was the final exam, the work is done. All that’s left is the report card. Read on to see my grades for the 2010-’11 Cougar Basketball season…

Coach Ken Bone: B-

This was a very difficult grade to assign, especially so close to what I thought was a subpar coaching performance on Thursday night. The decision to leave Klay Thompson and DeAngelo Casto on the bench together during a critical stretch against UW has already been outed as questionable. It was compounded by leaving a hobbled Reggie Moore to guard Isaiah Thomas man to man during crunch time. The ensuing lay-up drills ultimately cost Wazzu the game. Trying to set that bias aside, there were times this season that Coach Bone put on an X’s and O’s masterclass. Particularly in the two wins against the Huskies, Bone and his staff devised plans for which the Dogs simply had no answer. When played the right way, the Bone system can have stellar results. I think Exhibit A is the 22 point dismantling of Gonzaga. It’s the first game I can remember that the Bone Zone defense completely took an opponent out of their rhythm. It was a prime example of this team becoming one that defensively opponents can’t have looked forward to seeing. Switching multiple times from man to zone is something you don’t see managed effectively very often, but for the most part the Cougs were able to do just that. Some of Coach Bone’s decisions as a disciplinarian may have been iffy, but they were nothing if not consistent. All in all, the coaching this year struck me as “OK”, but not stellar.

Faisal Aden, Semester 1: A

Faisal Aden, Semester 2: D+

I don’t know exactly what constitutes a semester in this exercise and don’t intend to break it up in this manner for all the grades, but it was pretty clear that this year was a tale of two seasons for one of our newest Cougs. In the early absence of Reggie Moore, Aden more than capably filled the void, eliciting plenty of “One-Two Punch” conversation as he and Klay Thompson were the highest scoring tandem in the Pac-10 for a period of time. Somewhere along the line, it all fell apart. Whether it was his balky knee or an inability to adjust to the increased competition in conference play, Aden was simply unable to recapture his early season magic. He was wildly frustrating to me at times, but I still look forward to his contributions down the line as he gains a little more strength and experience. On the bright side, on to the next grade…

Faisal Aden’s hair: A++

Is it an afro? Is it just unkempt? I don’t really know, but it was always fantastic.

Steven Bjornstad: Incomplete

Unfortunately Bjornstad didn’t turn in a single assignment this season. This is strictly speculation on my part, but I suspect that his knee problems will keep his contributions at this season’s level for the duration of his career. Great things were never really expected in the first place, but it’d be nice to have an extra big man to throw out there every once in a while.

Marcus Capers: C+

We can all agree that we love Marcus. We love his energy, the dunks, the defense, but at the end of the day, there are times that the Cougs play 4 on 5 on offense with Capers on the floor. What I don’t understand is why this happens. Capers is a good ball handler and a good passer. Perception is that he can’t shoot. I’m of the belief that such a perception is closer to myth than it is to reality. I’d like to see Capers pull the trigger more on some mig-range jumpers. I think he’ll hit more than more people think and could help keep the defense honest. For as long as opponents know he won’t shoot, his lack of a threat on offense will remain a liability.

DeAngelo Casto: A

I don’t think we could have asked for anything more from Casto this season. He bulked up to look like a total bad-ass and improved virtually every facet of his game, even draining clutch free throws in some big spots. Over the second half of the conference slate, he was by far WSU’s most consistent player and in the discussion as its best. With early season rumors of a departure to a paying basketball gig in Europe effectively scuttled, I can’t wait to see Big D play as a senior next year. With the graduation of UW’s Matthew Bryan-Amaning and certain departure of Arizona’s Derrick Williams, Casto figures to be the best big man in the conference next year. I think he’ll be throwing up 20-10’s on a fairly regular basis.

Pac-10 Officiating: F

Just because.

Will DiIorio: B

If you thought that DiIorio would be the logging the most  minutes among the freshmen on our roster down the stretch, then you should go to Vegas and gamble all your money immediately because you can see the future. The walk-on from Bainbridge Island did just that. A nice energy player, DiIorio never seemed to blink when called upon in some big moments. As is often the case with first year players, his skills weren’t necessarily on display, but with an all-state pedigree, it seems reasonable to think that DiIorio will be a solid contributor in his career.

Charlie Enquist: C

He’s really tall and he tries really hard. That’s pretty much it.

Dexter Kernich-Drew, Mike Ladd: A+

Why not? Let’s just assume for the heck of it that these two redshirts are awesome. They may be asked to fill some pretty big shoes next year so A+ it is!

Abe Lodwick: D+

I get the sense that many constituents of Cougar Nation would give Abe an F-, but on the whole he’s not quite that bad. Didhe foul a lot? Yes. Did he miss 65% of his shots, including 70% of his three point attempts? Yes. Did any of this affect his confidence? No. Good ol’ Abe just kept jacking up threes early in the shot clock like he was Ray Allen. I guess this is admirable in a way, but mostly frustrating. By all accounts, though, Lodwick is a good leader and a hard worker. Among those 30% of threes that he did hit, there were actually a couple big ones, including two in the big win at Washington. In my book, that’s enough to escape a failing grade. I hope that next season, Abe’s legendary practice shooting can carry over into game action.

Ben Loewen: A

His performance in the UCLA game was pretty incredible, really. Even without that, I’d give him an A. The walk-on who only plays in mop-up duty will always get an A in my book.

Chris McNamara: A

The walk-on who only plays in mop-up duty always gets an A in my book, remember? That said I’d like to see more towel-waving and pretend holding guys back when something exciting happens from the end of the bench.

Reggie Moore: C+

If Reggie played the Huskies 30 times a year, he’d get an A+ and be an All-American. Unfortunately, the schedule is a little more diverse than that so we don’t always get to see “Stick-it-to-Isaiah-Thomas” Reggie. After a promising freshman year, big things were expected of Mr. Skyblue. While a preseason wrist injury and late season ankle injury were not his fault, the marijuana arrest certainly was.  There were times that Moore was the Cougs’ best player on the floor, but at others he seems to be a non-factor. Alm0st across the board, in Cougar losses, Moore had a statistically poor performance. His playing well was vital to the overall success this year and unfortunately it didn’t happen enough on a level that could take the Cougs to loftier heights.

The Pac-10 TV Deal: F

Just because.

Brock Motum: B

When Motum is firing on all cylinders, he brings a dimension that not many people can. He’s got size, range and incredible passing ability, especially in tandem with another Big. Motum and Casto had some excellent moments passing post-to-post to create lay-ups for one another. In an unsurprising turn of events, Motum had a consistency issue, including a letdown performance in the Pac 10 tourney loss vs. Evil. On the other hand, there were stretches in the near-miracle against UCLA that the Aussie put the Cougs on his back. Only a sophomore, Motum’s career arc is trending up and doing so relatively steeply.

Patrick Simon: Incomplete

Has anyone gotten to the bottom of what the heck happened with Simon? Over the last eightgames, Simon compiled eight did-not-plays and combined for 10 minutes in the other four. For a guy that was registering minutes in the teens early in the year, this is odd to say the least. A “DNP” with all hands on deck against UCLA is simply baffling. I don’t recall any specific injury or discipline issues so the Simon situation has been a mystery to me. Gonzaga fans would be particularly confused to find out he disappeared after he scored 11 points in 19 minutes against the Zags. Hopefully that shooting touch will return for next year.

Dre Winston, Jr.: C-

It’s less than ideal to have a back-up point guard who essentially never plays, but that’s what WSU had in Winston this year. That said, he is a freshman and not a lot was expected. He did contribute to this post, though. Up until this point, I had been going through the roster alphabetically, but I had to rearrange so that I didn’t end the list of player grades on Winston. No offense, Dre, but the next to last guy was….

Klay Thompson: A

I said a week ago that I was looking forward to the Klay Thompson Redemption Story. Mere hours later, the story got under way faster and with better results than I could have expected. When I was 21, if I’d been busted with weed, had said bust make national news and been ripped by my dad over the radio airwaves, I’d have left college and settled into my life as a Wal-Mart greeter. Klay Thompson, on the other hand, took to the mic and apologized to an audience of thousands. Then when he did return to the floor, he tied a Pac-10 Tournament record, scoring 43 points in a do-or-die game against an arch-rival. That, my friends, was pretty damn impressive, as a player and a person. What’s more, Klay led the conference in scoring, led the Cougars in assists and was second on the team in rebounds. What’s even more, he made 45% of all shots, 42% of his threes and 82% of his free throws. He improved his all-around game, shook the label of a bad player in big games and led the team to within a few points of an NCAA tournament birth. It’lbe fascinating to see what all this means for his NBA stock because a solid first round grade means we’ll likely be watching Klay Thompson’s last games in a Washington State uniform in the NIT.

If you were to sort out the GPA’s of the Cougs’ significant contributors and coaching, the GPA for this season would work out to something like a high C or a low B. This team certainly didn’t make the honor roll, but it didn’t fail either. That all amount to a 6th place finish and a likely high seed in the NIT. While it might be a bit of a disappointment, I still look forward to seeing our postseason fate determined tomorrow. Until then…

Go Cougs.