Cluftersuck

Down she goes..

Happy Monday, Coug Nation. Anyone wanna talk about the basketball team? Before we do, I just have to acknowledge that this post is brought to you by our good friends at BMW and Norwegian Cruise Lines (you can learn a LOT from Huddy, my friends).

Saturday night, the Cougs went out of their way to AGAIN ruin basketball for everyone (except their opponent). For the umpteenth time this year the interblogowebs were sent scrambling for answers, trying to find that defining weakness that explains all the disappointment of this season. But so far, that  objective has been illusive. Why is that? Well, just because everyone else has tried to figure it out and failed doesn’t mean I can’t join in too…

Whack-a-mole – a terrible specator sport.

This is a team with a lot of weaknesses, but it is not any particular weakness that defines them. Instead it is the never ending game of whack-a-mole where one deficiency is addressed and overcome, only to see another rise up and take its place. In the first game against UW this year the Cougs were undone by poor rebounding. Of course, by “poor rebounding” I mean that UW had more offensive rebounds than we had total rebounds. That is a stat I would expect to see if UW played the Colfax Bulldogs. In Saturday’s matchup, the Cougs actually turned the tables and ended the game with a 38-33 (ESPN) rebounding advantage. But in what is becoming a defining characteristic of the Ken Bone era, the Cougs utterly collapsed in a couple other aspects of the game that they are usually solid in, namely: free throws and 3 point shooting. Sometimes an emphasis in one area of the game can be expected to impact another area. For example, focusing on crashing the offensive glass for second chance points, can lead to more open transition buckets for your opponent, or double teaming post players can lead to giving up more 3 pointers. But as far as I can tell, there is nothing about focusing on being physical on the glass that should affect three point and free throw shooting percentages.

No team is great at EVERYTHING night in and night out. Even the best teams in the country fail to perform well in some aspect of every game they play. What’s baffling about the Cougs isn’t that they have some off nights shooting, or off nights defending, or off nights rebounding… its that on any given night they can be counted on to completely collapse in one of these fundamental aspects of the game. In other words, its not just bad shooting, or bad rebounding… it’s historically bad shooting or rebounding. A lot of fans are left scratching their heads that a team who has ranked in the top of the conference for free throw shooting this year, has now lost two games because of free throws (@Utah and vs. UW). This Saturday, the Cougs were doing so well defending and rebounding against the Dawgs that despite going 6-20 from the line in the 2^nd half, they STILL needed to go 2-18 from the 3 point line in order to seal the defeat. And as if our minds weren’t blown enough, they accomplished these rare feats of shooting ineptitude in their own gym.

We started off the year wanting to define this team as decent on offense and terrible at defending and rebounding. However, that description no longer fits. Since the loss at UW when we were manhandled on the boards the Cougs have gone on to out-rebound 9 of their next 11 opponents. In fact, the only times they were outrebounded were in two losses to Arizona, where the margin was a mere 2 rebounds each time. This team deserves a lot of credit for permanently reversing one of their biggest weaknesses and turning it into a strength. However, that profound improvement has resulted in just 5 wins in their last 11 games with half of the losses coming at home.

So why does this team continue to find new ways to lose? Why can they not maintain double digit leads? Why does improvement in one aspect of their game almost always come at the expense of another? I believe our current rollercoaster, whack a mole, cluftersuck we’re in is what you can expect from a team with no identity, no single strength they take pride in and can count on night in, night out to do as well or better than their opponent. I know, nothing new here. For a fan base that took so much pride in the defense first, possession valueing Bennet Ball of the previous decade, following a team that literally specializes in nothing has been a tough pill to swallow. While I don’t think all successful coaches have to be as doctrinaire as the Bennets, I do think that as we approach the end of year 3 it is long past time for coach Bone to put his stamp on this program. Who are we? What do we do well? What do we take pride in?

So clearly it is time to start up www.firekenbone.com, right? Ummm, no. There is no debating, that this team is in a transitional year, losing two of the best players we’ve ever had early to the pros. Most people are excited about the recruiting class coming in that includes two post players to help out Motum and Shelton and one of the most highly touted recruits we’ve ever had, shooting guard Demarquise “Q” Johnson. Bone has shown that he is very good at molding talented kids like Klay Thompson and Brock Motum into all-league monsters. Based on this track record, you have to be excited about what the future holds for DeVonte Lacy. Also, while consistency has been illusive and a singular defining strength has yet to emerge, this staff has shown that they can, on a game to game basis, successfully coach up every part of the game: offense, defense, rebounding, etc. enough to remain competitive against teams with much better talent.

It’s pretty clear that Ken Bone is not currently on a hot, or even a warm seat. Besides having 4 years remaining on his contract, he still has some collateral from the Cougs’ first ever Final 4 run in the NIT, and has yet to post a losing record (though we can smell it from where we sit now). In fact, I doubt he will even find himself on too hot a seat in 2013, unless things go horribly wrong. But no matter what is happening on the court, there is something else to keep an eye that may have more impact on Ken Bone’s fortunes. Bill Moos has proven he understands and is patient with the process of rebuilding, but he is not big fan of empty stadiums. In their conference home games (In Beasley) the Cougs are averaging just over 4000 butts in the seats and this is factoring a crowd of over 9000 for the UW game. Ken Bone needs fans in the stands more than anything else and a great way to do that is to start putting something on the court we can all be proud of.

Take it away, Brett Michaels…