Beat the Quacks - 2 pm today
- Thread starter COUGinNCW
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First place, if Colorado beats Arizona in boulder.
WSU is practically in NCAA unless WSU has epic meltdown rest of season, as WSU only has to win 4 out of the 7,8 remaining games to get to 22 wins.
And if WSU has 22+ wins, they will likely finish top 2,3 in conference, which would get them into NCAA tourny.
Nice win by the Cougs and this basically erases that Cal choke job. Insane to think that ESPN has us favored in six of our last seven games.
When you have 6 kids who can play in crunch time, and you have no one who thinks they "are" the team, wins happen, and then happen again. Not the most talented Smith team, but they are the best at playing as a "team," where the "W" means more than "I." (It happens when you recruit well and those kids mistakenly think they are god's gift). Its been a tough year, but watching these kids develop as this season has progressed reminds me why I love Cougar athletics, even though as a Coug the highlights are few, they feed my soul.
Terrific win. Only wish it was on Fox or ESPN today so I could watch it back here in the Midwest. Smith has really put together a "team" in which each player can pick up the others if needed. I know we keep regretting the Cal loss, but it could be the experience of losing that lead and then in OT that prompted the necessary growth to win these close games since then. If you learn from a loss like that, it can actually be beneficial. Anyway, don't let up now...finish the season strong! Go Cougs!!
Glad Cougar
I just don’t see a scenario where they don’t finish. These guys are so poised and just take care of business. Rice is such a great floor leader and unselfish player. He’s just as happy dishing to the bigs or open perimeter shooters as he is being the main scorer. With wells catching fire it’s a really hard team to match up against. I don’t want to put the cart in front of the horse but this is not only a tourney team but a team that can make a tourney run. So fricken cool.
Great and gritty game. Once again I thought we were going to give it away at the end. Me of little faith.
Refs tried to rip us off again. And I don't know about calls on Oregon, but the ticky tack calls killed me. Forget which one near the basket but our guy barely touched the Oregon guy, if at all. It's like every shot near the basket drew a call. But sure seemed like were we were getting roughed up under the basket. C'mon, let them play.
Cluff had a great game. He has soft hands. Man, that Dante was a load but Cluff hung in there. He's not exactly Baynes but I will take him.
Funny that our stars from Thursday didn't do much today. Jaki was 0-4? Wells 0-4 in the second half, all 2 pointers? I do think that we should have tried harder to get Wells more shots. Coupla times when we were driving looks like we could have fed it out to him.
And man we had a lot of pretty close in shots fall short. But we pulled it out. That last luck FT rebound was killer. Look what I found!
Refs tried to rip us off again. And I don't know about calls on Oregon, but the ticky tack calls killed me. Forget which one near the basket but our guy barely touched the Oregon guy, if at all. It's like every shot near the basket drew a call. But sure seemed like were we were getting roughed up under the basket. C'mon, let them play.
Cluff had a great game. He has soft hands. Man, that Dante was a load but Cluff hung in there. He's not exactly Baynes but I will take him.
Funny that our stars from Thursday didn't do much today. Jaki was 0-4? Wells 0-4 in the second half, all 2 pointers? I do think that we should have tried harder to get Wells more shots. Coupla times when we were driving looks like we could have fed it out to him.
And man we had a lot of pretty close in shots fall short. But we pulled it out. That last luck FT rebound was killer. Look what I found!
There’s no such thing as an ugly road win and the Cougs just got 3 in a row. Would be nice if they could put a beat down on for the home series against cal and furd my heart needs a break.
Such a deep team. 1-6 anyways. All the guys have a different skill set allowing for a potential different leading scorer on any given night. Solid team defense as well. Even the zone is growing on me. For the first time in a long time they have stayed relatively healthy as well.
I agree with almost all your saying, except where you say not the most talented team, seeming to make it sound like that they are one of the lesser talented teams(Like Tony Bennets team(Bennets team was 1,2,3 stars, and altho talented, skilled, there was a reason why Tony had them slow things down, get back on defense, instead of rebounding, and play pack it in defense, and that's because they didn't pass the eyeball test, were slower, weren't as athletic, werent as talented, skilled, weren't 3,4,5 star recruits, etc, in GENERAL)
This team is actually one of the more, if not most talented, skilled, athletic, 3,4,5 star players, recruits team.
Rice, not only has the ability to score, he does that inside, outside, midrange jumpers, 3's, drives, creates own shot, tear droppers, floaters, runners, FINISHES at rim, and he has even DUNKED finished at rim, after driving, beating defender(almost all the time most past WSU players do a lay up instead of drive, dunk), passes, assist, etc. And has scored 35 points in a game, and averaging almost 16 a game his FRESHMAN season.
Thats better then 99% of past WSU PG's.
Jones is a 3.5 star recruits, player.
Only Hendrickson, Gueye, Efe, House, Donaldson, Motum, Baynes, etc, were either more higher ranked coming out of either HS or transfer, or were better, or did better as a WSU big, etc, then Jones has done.
Wells is probably one of the best, if not the best 3's that's a 6-8 proto hybrid Sean Elliot, Malik Sealy, etc, type 3,2,4, that WSU has ever had.
Now past WSU teams had 1,2 of these types of either one of best, best of best players, but USUALLY not 3, etc, that are among the best star ranking wise, production wise, athleticism wise, talent, skill wise, as recruits, players, all combined together, etc.
Yes these individual and team players are HUMBLE, MODEST, PLAY TOGETHER, CARE MORE ABOUT WINNING THEN PADDING STATS, ETC, BUT THAT DOES NOT MEAN THAT THEY ARE NOT THE MOST TALENTED ANYMORE THEN THE CHICAGO 4 PEAT PLAYERS WERE STILL THE MOST TALENTED, BUT STILL CARED MORE ABOUT WINNING, THEN PADDING THEIR STATS.
WSU's Rice, Wells, Jones, Jaki, is not only one of the better, best foursomes in all of college bball this season, but one of the better foursomes in all of college bball history, if they prove it by making extreme deep NCAA tourny run.
I mean how are you supposed to beat that foursome, as at least one, if not more or all will TORCH YOU, almost score AT WILL on you.
When has that ever been the case at WSU, that WSU had a foursome that could score almost at will against you.
Remember those famous long WSU scoring droughts that even past WSU players, teams, had?
WSU's above talked about foursome almost never ever has those long scoring droughts, to go along with their good defense, rebounding, athleticism, talent, skill, etc.
They definitely should NOT be described as "THERE ARE MORE TALENTED", "NOT THE MOST TALENTED", etc, as they ARE ONE THE MOST TALENTED, ATHLETIC, SKILLED, etc.
The point your making that they have chemistry, play together as a team, care more about winning, then their stats, etc, while that's good, it's not good to seemingly make it sound like that these players are not one of the better, best, players, talent, athleticism, skill, etc, etc, especially when they are among the best players talent, skill, athleticism recruit, player rankings, etc, wise.
Yeah I agree. I don't see how WSU does not finish, etc
Rice has got to be the best FRESHMAN PG is WSU history, star rankings wise, production, execution, clutch, talent, athleticism, skill, humble, modest, cares more about winning, etc, all combined together.
Wells is the best Sean Elliot, Malik Sealy, type, proto hybrid 3, 2, 4, type in WSU history.
And with him heating up to one of the HOTTEST in nation.
And with Jones, Cluff, Jaki.
With Rice, Wells, Jones, Jaki, Cluff as your starting 5, that has got to be among the better, best starting 5's in all of college bball.
It reminds me of UNLV's or Michigan's fab 4,5.
I mean how are you supposed to deal with that?
I don't see how that consistently gets shutdown.
So baring injuries, bad luck, variance, meltdown, bad coaching, etc, I see WSU finishing 1,2,3 in conference, winning or almost winning PAC tourny, making NCAA tourny, Making at least the 2nd round, if not sweet 16/elite 8.
I also don't want to jinx the team, but I think thats a extremely realistic projection.
Yeah Yesufu is the only major injury that I'm aware of.
And while there has been games WSU could have used Yesufu for ball handling, avoiding turnovers, settling the team down, WSU has suffered thru those times, overcomed that, and Rice, Wells, Kymany have overall semi effectively replaced Yesufu in ball handling, assist, avoiding turnovers, handling pressure, settling team down areas.
Remember what I said, "Smith team." In terms of recruiting, he is at a level only approached by George Raveling and Sampson (when he was became "shady"). This is a very talented team if you compare it to the average Cougar BB teams over the last 40 years, a team the Bennetts would have given their left and right nuts, respectively, to have been able to recruit. But you would have been put in a padded cell, preseason, if you had suggested that Rice, Jones, Wells, Chinyelu and Cluff would play better than Efi, Mo, Dishon, TJ, Roberts and Flowers. Let's not forget that the experts picked us to finish 10th and 11th, respectively. That isn't a ringing endorsement that Coach Smith had reloaded, or upgraded, the talent. Based on what "others" had to say, this was supposed to one of the weaker teams Coach Smith fielded at WSU. That is all I was trying to say.
It was very realistic back in the pre season to think that WSU would finish in about 6,7,8th place. That's about where Athlon, ESPN, SI, Ken Pom, Phil Steele, had WSU.
Only the idiotic, moronic, official PAC 12 MEDIA(note that ESPN, SI, KEN POM, ATHLON, PHIL STEEL, LINDY's, etc, is NOT the traditional PAC 12 media(The PAC 12 media is the LA times, Seattle times, etc), that picked WSU in 10th, as the EXPERTS(ATHLON, ESPN, KEN POM, PHIL STEEL, LINDY, ETC), picked WSU to finish 6,7,8.
But even by 5,6,7,8 place projections by EXPERTS, nobody expected 2nd place.
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The idiotic 10th place projections by the non expert PAC 12 media, was not saying that WSU didn't reload. It was saying that DESPITE a reload, it takes time to Jell, develop chemistry, learn to play together, learn how to win, no matter how talented the players are, and that because of that, that's why they projected a 10th place finish.
That's why DUKE had one of it's AWESOME RELOADS under coach K, still only win 13 games that season.
The experts(ESPN, SI, KEN POM, ATHLON, PHIL STEEL, LINDY's), picked WSU to finish in 6,7,8th place, instead of 10th, 11th.
The idiotic PAC 12 media(Seattle Times, LA Times, etc, are the idiotic ones that idiotically projected 10th, 11th.
It was an impossible task ranking this team preseason. The whole damn roster turned over and nobody knew what rice would bring coming off of his illness. In fact, as dumb as preseason rankings have pretty much always been they are relatively worthless now with how much roster turnover every team has.
Yeah, I cannot criticize any of the pre-season predictions. It is harder than ever because there is so much movement among players. There is also no way to predict how well players will mesh with each other.
I think you may be conflating 22-23 with 23-24. The first prognostication I could find, SI, had us at 10, CBS had us at 11, couldn't find the others. Do you have a link to anyone picking us at 6-8, this year? If not, there are three prognostications contradicting your claim. Also, if WSU isn't landing projected "high end" talent, which we didn't, and basically having to replace the vast majority of the playing rotation, its hard to believe anyone would still pick us 6.
WSU's talent was projected, ranked as PRETTY GOOD 3,4, 3.5 star talents, recruits.
While that wasn't BEST OF BEST, ETC, it wasn't bad either, and was considered about, around semi top end talent.
CBS isn't one of the experts. CBS, NBC, ABC, LA times, Seattle times, USA TODAY, were part of the non expert mainstream, lamestream PAC 12, WEST COAST MEDIA, while ATHLON MAG, ESPN, SPORTS ILLUSTRATED, KEN POM, PHIL STEELE MAG, LINDY'S MAG were, are the EXPERTS, that are generally considered not to be a part of the mainstream, lamestream PAC 12 media.
If it's NBC, ABC, CBS, LA TIMES, SEATTLE TIMES, USA TODAY, etc, it's not as expert, it's not as good as KEN POM, ATHLON, ESPN, etc.
KEN POM, ATHLON, ESPN, PHIL STEELE, LINDY's, etc, have always been more accurate, known WSU's situation better, and thus always projected WSU 1,2,3 spots both higher, more accurate then the NBC, ABC, CBS, LA times, Seattle times, USA today, that comprised the traditional, mainstream, lamestream, PAC 12, WEST COAST media.
And I didn't ONLY specifically ONLY mention 6th place. The general RANGE was ABOUT 6,7,8,9, which was LOGICAL, reasonable, compared to 10, 11, which was not.
That means that about 6th at best, about 7,8, 7.5 at average, and about 9th at very worst.
On AVERAGE, Ken Pom, ESPN, ATHLON, etc, had WSU at about 7,8, 7.5 in conference at average, and about 6,7,8,9 as a range, because they recognized that Smith's 9, NINE NEW recruits were actually PRETTY GOOD recruits, and that because it would take some TIME for them to JELL, etc, that's why they projected WSU at ABOUT 6,7,8,9 as a range, and about 7,8, 7.5 at average.
None of the idiotic mainstream, lamestream PAC 12, West coast media(ABC, NBC, CBS, LA TIMES, SEATTLE times, USA TODAY, etc, had WSU higher then the idiotic 10,11. They made their idiotic 10, 11 projection, instead of 6,7,8,9, because they idiotically thought that WSU's talent wasn't good, was 1,2 star talent, etc, just like they always think
No I am not thinking of 22-23
In 22-23, Athlon, ESPN, Ken Pom, etc, had WSU projected in ABOUT 4,5,6,7 as a range. Athlon, ESPN, Ken Pom, Phil Steele, LINDY's, etc, almost always projects WSU, 1,2 spots higher then NBC, ABC, CBS, LA times, Seattle times, USA Today, that makes up the PAC 12, West Coast media, which idiotically had WSU in about 6,7,8,9, as a range in 22-23.
Ok so it was not SPECIFICALLY ONLY ATHLON.
I said that it was AS A GROUP, AS IN, MEANING that the GROUP ESPN, ATHLON, KEN POM, PHIL STEELE, LINDY's etc, said ABOUT 6,7,8,9 AS A RANGE.
Your Athlon comment, response, is, was just like the comment, that ONLY mentioned 6, SIX, instead of the RANGE, 6,7,8,9.
YOUR COMMENT MISSES THE POINT that IN GENERAL, ESPN, KEN POM, PHIL STEELE, LINDY's, AKA the EXPERTS, etc, had WSU at ABOUT 6,7,8,9 as a RANGE, ABOUT 1,2 spots higher then the 10,11 that USA Today, LA times, Seattle times, ABC, NBC, CBS, AKA lamestream media, etc.
Saying Athlon had 10 does not change, invalidate the point.
Saying something like Athlon, ESPN, Ken Pom, Phil Steele, LINDY's, etc, as a GROUP, etc, had 10,11, that would invalidate the point that I was making.
I'm pretty dam sure that the GROUP, I referenced AS A GROUP, pretty dam sure I remember most of that group projecting ABOUT 6,7,8,9 for WSU.
Giving it a rest today are we? You had 6 rambling shouting posts yesterday saying the exact same thing as this last one. At least in this latest one you didn't call the "Pac-12" media idiotic as opposed to the first five. Just lamestream.
WSU is always underrated in FB and BB. Wasn't the '97 Rose Bowl team rated about 8th? And when you return 4 players this year what do you expect?
What expect?
Nobody expected 1,2,3,4.
The experts AS A GROUP(Ken Pom, ESPN, Phil Steele, LINDY's, etc), expected about 6,7,8,9, and thought that WSU's talent was pretty good, BUT would TAKE TIME to JELL.
The lamebrained PAC 12, West Coast media(USA Today, LA times, Seattle times, NBC, ABC, etc), stupidly thought WSU had bad 1 star bad talent that would only get about 10,11,12, LAST PLACE.
My expectation was 5, 6, 7. I knew that WSU, Smith had had decent, ok, good talent, but that it would take time to JELL, because of all the LOTS of NEW pieces, and that because of that WSU was likely to finish 5,6,7, instead of about 2,3,4, or 3,4,5.
Nobody logical, reasonable, expert, that knew WSU's situation expected 2nd in conference or 10,11,12, LAST in conference.
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