Good Loss

Happy Sunday, fellow Cougies.

While things were tough yesterday, the loss could not have been better for us. We got waxed in several ways–which will allow Bennett to get this group’s attention at mid-season–and we showed enough sizzle at the end to have some real confidence moving forward.

Overall, the split was EXACTLY what this group needed. EXACTLY.

What is most important is that we saw the emergence of this group as an offensive unit over this past weekend. And that bodes quite well for us moving forward.

And yes, I know that we looked bad in that first half against the Bruins. BUT, overall this weekend we saw both Low and Harmeling really find their stroke. And boy do we need them to compete at and reach elite status.

Derrick Low, in particular, showed a level of aggressiveness that we haven’t seen in a while. And, after a miserable post-flu game against the Pups, Rochestie played pretty darn well in stretches and looked QUICK again.

So now, we get a little of the super hype off our backs a bit and can re-focus on IMPROVING–something that this group needs to do. And it will.

And, per my little post on Saturday, remember that UCLA is a team we didn’t match up with BEFORE they added the next Karl Malone to their team (memo to Sonics: get #1 pick and draft Love, PLEASE!!!)

But lest we all write off hope for the bright lights and big city of a conference championship, here’s something to remember: WSU will be RIGHT there in the hunt for the Pac-10 title at the end of the year because we are not good enough to overlook anyone. As a result, you can expect that we will be the least likely of all of the upper division teams to lose games we should win.

What we need now is to get the Oregon Monkey off of our backs and beat a really good 3 point shooting team–something that we did not do last year (see Oregon and Vandy). Do that, and we become the surefire #5-6 team that I think we are.

Its all about that #2 seed folks. Lets go get the Oregon schools this week and get back on that track.