“And then if they switch to a zone…errr….ummmm…pass?”
For the kajillionth consecutive time in approximately eleventy billion years, UCLA waltzed into Pullman and beat the Cougs at basketball, defying all theories about teams from warm weather locales being able to play in the cold. Actually, I’m told the game was played inside and there is no such theory. At any rate, Washington State probably played well enough at times to win this game, but as we’ve become accustomed, they played more than poorly enough to come up on the short end of a 63-60 defeat . In the first half and early in the second when things were actually going reasonably well, the Cougs continually shot themselves in the foot with lazy passes leading to turnovers and oftentimes easy run-out baskets. For the most part, the mistakes weren’t enough to be fatal until about midway through the second half. At that point, UCLA had switched to a zone defense and any semblance of offense the Cougs had going was ground to a halt. Possession after possession, the ball would move slowly around the perimeter or not move at all in the hands of Reggie Moore. A lengthy drought ultimately became too much to overcome, even with Josh Smith fouling out after something like 12 fouls, as Abe Lodwick shooting us back into the game in the final minute proved ineffective.
Other notes:
There was a Patrick Simon sighting again tonight. He missed two WIDE open threes in the first half, but did finally hit a jumper in the second that was the only basket during the lengthy drought. He also looked confused on defense and has a cool “goatee”.
DaVonte Lacy hobbled off the court late in the game after rolling an ankle so there may be tryouts for a scoring guard on campus this week.
It was once again proven that the best way to bury the Cougs is to actually miss free throws down the stretch and get your own rebound.
Nice work by Keith Calabro and Kenny Wilkens on the commentary (hey, if they can just use the first close name that pops in their head, I can too).
Josh Smith ate several members of the Cougar dance team before finally being lulled into a giant cage with a platter of chicken strips from Roto.
I started writing this post with four minutes left in the game and had to change nothing about the first paragraph except to add the score. Let’s just say this team leaves me no reason to believe that a comeback is in the works once things start looking like they did for that grotesque ten minute stretch in the second half.
The floor is yours, folks…
Go Cougs.
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
