Do you agree?
"For whatever reason, the early-season struggles of Washington State men’s basketball caused a lot of fans to doubt the direction of the program under Kyle Smith."
For whatever reason? What? How about the obvious reasons that we lost to teams that we had no business losing to? How about way too many turnovers game after game?
Don't get me wrong, the team is playing very well now, but that in no way "vindicates" our earlier stumbles.
What do you guys think? Nusser once again full of hot air? 😀 I believe so.
It's not just only the Arizona game. And KEN POM AND THE MATH, STATS, SITUATION, COMPUTERS, ETC, RIGHTLY DISAGREE WITH YOU.
1. KEN POM said that WSU had ONE OF THE MOST INJURED TEAMS IN ALL OF COLLEGE BASKETBALLDOM. AND THAT IS RIGHT.
2. KEN POM said that WSU is 2nd MOST UNLUCKIEST TEAM in all of college basketballdom.
3. Ken Pom said that WSU had the 3rd toughest schedule in all of college basketballdom.
4. Ken Pom has WSU as the 61st best team.
5. Ken Pom didn't say this: But what he says takes this and all the stuff into account. WSU had to replace somewhere between some to semi most of the team.
6. Because of point 5 above, those replacements, new players, needed time, and needed to INTEGRATE, JELL, DEVELOP CHEMISTRY, LEARN TO PLAY TOGETHER, LEARN TO WIN, ETC, DESPITE THEM BEING HIGHLY RANKED, ATHLETIC, TALENTED PLAYERS.
7. Their development was STUNTED, SLOWED, BECAUSE OF ALL THE LOTS OF INJURIES, NO JACKSON, LOTS OF BAD LUCK, 3RD TOUGHEST SCHEDULE, etc.
8. Once the team got healthy, and once the team, players developed, JELLED, had chemistry, played together, learned to win, etc:
9. The team despite having the #1 TOUGHEST 4 GAME START OF CONFERENCE SCHEDULE IN NATION, COMPRISED OF THE 4 BEST TEAMS IN PAC 12, despite all that ALMOST BEAT ALL 4, and BEAT USC, AND ARIZONA, and then went on to BLOW OUT A CAL team that won 3 of 4 after they finally got healthy, that beat 11-6 Colorado.
KEN POM, the STATS, DATA, MATH, COMPUTERS, SELECTION COMMITEE, EXPERTS, ETC, ARE RECOGNIZING THAT WSU HAD LEGIT REASONS THAT I JUST MENTIONED THAT EXPLAIN WHY WSU LEGITLY STRUGGLED EARLIER, AND IS NOW PLAYING GOOD.
Jourdand and others like you would say that teams like Kentucky, Kansas, North Carolina, etc, deal with the above.
Of course they do. They are BLUE BLOODS. WSU TYPES CAN NOT HANDLE THAT LEVEL OF CRAP DUMPED ON THEM AND STILL WIN.
KEN POM, OTHERS RECOGNIZE THAT, and that's why Ken Pom has WSU as the BEST 8-10 team in all of college basketballdom.
Has Smith left a wee tiny little bit of meat on Bone, because of a wee tiny little bit of not as good coaching? YES.
Have the players, team left a wee tiny bit of meat on bone, and could they have won more, etc? YES, BUT MOST TO ALMOST ALL OF THAT IS DUE TO THE LEGIT REASONS MENTIONED ABOVE.
It's like you DISMISS KEN POM, the LEGIT REASONS, AND DEMAND PERFECTION of the team, players, coaches, etc.
Look at what happened to Dick Bennets Team, when lost Derek Low. And that was, is about 1/7 of the SHET that had happened to THIS SEASON's team.
Look what happened when Raveling lost Guy Williams. That was about 1/7 of the SHET that happened to this season's team.
In the past whenever a WSU team loses 1 or 2 players, goes thru 1/6 the SHET that happened to this seasons team, they usually end up doing even worse then this seasons team.
But despite that you, others make excuses for Dick Bennet, etc, and then double standardly blame Smith, and say that this team is bad and that Dick Bennets Team is good.
Well that's HORSESHET. This team is good, and Smith is good, and there are legit reasons that I mentioned above on why this team struggled earlier, and Dick Bennets Team was not good record wise.
The Silver Lining of the SHET that dumped on this year's team, is that it did allow WSU to develop more DEPTH, and it BATTLE TRIED, BATTLE TESTED, BATTLE HARDENED WSU's players, team, to the point where WSU might probably win about 15, 16,17,18 wins, an or is at least capable of that, even if don't do that.
Your FLAT OUT WRONG.
