D-FENSED

Well, obviously a dissapointing night for the Cougar faithful. And not one of our better games. That all said, here are some quick hits about the game.

• UCLA played like the National Contender that they are. The first ten minutes of the second half was elite basketball.
• The Cougs WILL NEVER get blown out of a game. Despite tons of turnovers and awful offense, we were down by four with the ball with 30 seconds left. We’re just too good defensively to be out of games
• Derrick Low is TERRIBLE right now. If we are to advance in the tourney, he MUST find his game again. The effort tonight was piss poor.
• Baynes is going to be a FORCE–Maybe even by the end of the season. When Baynes matures, this team will be a national contender. It may be this year, but more likely its next year. More about that in a second.
• Weaver played like an All-Pac 10 player and 3rd team All-American. He’s a bonafide NBA player if he can develop a reliable jumper.
• I said before the game that two out of our three had to play well (Harmeling, Low, and Weaver), and Low and Harmeling were bad. That must change SOON for us to get a decent seed.
• First coaching beef: I don’t like the lack of screens we have to set up our shooters. Harmeling, in particular needs screens to get open against elite teams. UCLA’s defense is too quick for just swinging the ball around. He was covered in blue all night.
• Rochestie played BRILLIANT in the latter part of the first half. Where was the penetration toward the middle in the second half? Again, I thought the coaching was a bit lacking there….

All in all, the better team clearly won. That said, this WSU team shows that they are VERY dangerous because of their D.

If Baynes continues to progress, this team will go deep in the tourney if either Low or Harmeling can buy a vowel.

And, if Weaver gets a jumper AND Baynes improves over the summer, this team is a Final Four team next year.

Which UCLA is THIS YEAR.