MBB: WSU vs Pacific
- Thread starter UberCougars
- Start date
Turnovers. Same old same old.
Leach was right. Allowing it to happen.
Not gonna win games getting outrebounded, turning it over on a 20 pace and shooting 40% from the line.
Leach was right. Allowing it to happen.
Not gonna win games getting outrebounded, turning it over on a 20 pace and shooting 40% from the line.
I don't which is worse, the sloppy play or the ESPN broadcast. The on screen scoreboard is nearly worthless and I have no idea where they found these announcers.
Four times now in WCC play I have watched us make the worst teams look good, by that measure, we are bad.
Ok bench all the players, starters that guilty of lots of turnovers.
Here what happened if do that:
2,3,4 starters get benched.
WSU only has 4,5,6 players who can play because only have 8 players because of injuries.
So WSU plays 4,5,6 BENCH players as the starters, and gets blown out 125 to 50.
But hey, at least you make a point, stop the turnovers.
Oh wait on that 125 to 50 loss, the back ups starting have 30 turnovers in game.
Guess it didn't work after all.
The coach probably harps, drills, practices, etc, on, about, how not to turn the ball over.
There is only so much the coach can do.
If the players are going to turn the ball over a lot, they are going to do so, and the coach can't stop it unless he benches them, and if he does so, he loses big time, even worse.
Also what's causing the turnovers is like Coug1990 and me have said AD NAUSEUM, but somehow either you all don't read, have bad reading comprehension, don't understand, don't get it, doesn't enter your brains, etc, that it's TIRED LEGS, LOTS OF KEY INJURIES, AND THAT SINCE RILEY HAD TO REPLACE 12 PLAYERS WITH 12 BRAND NEW PLAYERS, ALL COMBINED TOGETHER, THAT WSU WAS GOING TO BEAT TEAMS THEY SHOULD NOT BEAT, ABD HAVE HICCUPS, BURPS, FARTS, LOSSES AGAINST TEAMS THEY SHOULD NOT LOSE TO.
Despite all that WSU IS STILL ABOUT 15-7, and JUST BARELY BY SKIN OF THEIR TEETH JUST BARELY LOST to Pacific.
Furthermore every team, especially Pacific, etc, is giving WSU, their ULTIMATE, EXTREME BEST SHOT, AND HAVING THEIR BEST GAME IN DECADES AGAINST WSU.
Some of that is on turnovers, defense, etc, but some of that has ALSO BEEN ON SOME OF THE TEAMS HAVING THEIR BEST GAME IN DECADES AGAINST WSU.
And they have their worst games against everyone else.
WHY? BECAUSE WSU IS NOW THE HUNTED, INSTEAD OF THE HUNTER, WSU still has a GOOD record, so teams want to play their best game against WSU, the same way they do against Gonzaga.
It's hard enough for WSU with Key injuries. And they get everyone's best game on top of that.
Despite all that, WSU is still about 15,16-7.
WSU will probably goto NIT.
And when everybody is healthy except Cedric Coward(out for season), WSU probably goto NIT Final 2, win whole NIT.
That's still great coaching.
Then Coward probably gets a medical redshirt, comes back next season, and next season WSU probably wins the WCC championship, goes 26-5, is a 5th, 6th, 7th seed in NCAA tourny, goes to 2nd round, Sweet 16, Elite 8, etc, ASSUMING HALF THE TEAM DOES NOT GET INJURED AGAIN.
You want to judge Riley, then fine, Judge Riley when he does not have 4,5 key injuries to starters, key back ups, in a season.
And I know it's not just you, and thats it's lots of others.
And you, others can say EXCUSES EXCUSES all you want.
But it's not excuses, it's LEGIT, LOGICAL, FACTUAL, CAUSE, EFFECT REASON.
It would be lame excuses IF IF Riley was in his 7th season, and there was 1 injury to a less important, unimportant deep bench back up, and if opponents were shooting terribly bad, had lots of turnovers, no rebounds, etc, and WSU still lost a lot to those type of games, and then either coach an or WSU fans cried and said that it was the 1 injury to the deep bench player, back up, that was the reason for the loss to bad team.
In that situation, that would be a lame AZZ excuse.
But that's NOT the situation this season, and the REASONS ARE LEGIT, FACTUAL, LOGICAL, AND MOSTLY TO ALMOST ALL BEYOND COACHES CONTROL.
Be happy that WSU is 15,16-7,8, and that WSU probably finish with 18,19,20 wins, goto NIT, etc, and that Riley has done a good job coaching.
And ya all stop your nonstop whining, complaining, bitching, etc.
It's getting old.
Mik,
You are super optimistic, and I do like that about you. You also fail to see bad coaching when it is obvious. NIT has not taken teams with 20+ wins from good conferences. We would need to win all but 1 remaining game to play in that. We need to get upsets, which tend not to happen when you turn it over as much as we do and have nobody willing to defend.
WSU, even with INJURIES, will probably beat Pepperdine(9 wins), twice, and San Diego(4 wins), once(1 game left), and Santa Clara at home(who is 15-9 now, and probably have 10,11 losses by time WSU plays them in Pullman)
And once WSU gets everybody back from INJURIES except Cedric Coward(Out for Season), then WSU will upset at least 1 team or 2 like Santa Clara at home, etc.
Coug1990, Coug90, myself, others have FACTUALLY, LOGICALLY EXPLAINED THINGS TO YOU OTHERS AD NAUSEUM.
LOTS OF KEY INJURIES TO LOTS OF KEY PLAYERS, STARTERS, SUPERSTARS, KEY BACK UPS, ETC, AND HAVING TO REPLACE 12 NEW PLAYERS AND ONLY HAVING 7,8 PLAYERS AVAILABLE FOR GAMES, WHICH ALL THOSE LEGIT, FACTUAL, REASONS, IS NOT BAD COACHING, ETC. ITS REALITY.
And to those who have said that Riley didn't replace 12 players with 12 new players. He did. 6 came from EWU. 6 came from a combo of JC transfer, Transfer portal, HS recruits.
Only 2 were on last years team, 1 of which was Isiah Watts who injured, rusty, now.
Because of that, combined with the lots of key injuries to key players,It was, is going to take TIME for WSU to Jell, develop, learn, have, develop chemistry, learn how to overcome adversity, win, etc, and that they would, have beat teams they should not beat, and BURP, HICCUP, FART, lose to teams they shouldn't to.
Combined with that, WSU has a BIG, GIANT, HUGE FAT, UGLY, HOLE at 2, SG, guard spot, because of injuries, to Isiah Watts, Wilson.
That has caused lack of ball handling, lack of ball control, lack of depth, turn overs, tiredness over the GRIND of the season, Tired Legs in the last half of the 2nd half in games, Freshman, back ups having to play 32 minutes per game, all of which has caused turnovers, bad shooting, bad passes, less rebounds, more losses, WHICH HAS CAUSED 5 GAME LOSING STREAK, which has GOTTEN INTO THE PLAYERS HEADS, WHICH HAS CAUSED THE PLAYERS TO TRY, PRESS TO HARD, WHICH HAS CAUSED MORE TURNOVERS, BAD SHOTS, BAD PASSES, MORE FOUL PROBLEMS, WHICH HAS CAUSED MORE LOSSES.
The only thing that is bad coaching is that Riley should have gotten 1 more Guard, and 1 more BIG, instead of only having 3,4,3.5 BIGS, and only having 3,4,3.5 1,2 spot guards, instead of having 5,6,7 3 spot, F/G, WINGS.
It's not like Riley can bench turnover prone players, starters, etc, because if he does, WSU will lose 100 to 59.
Riley has incessantly harped on turnovers, worked on having no turnovers in Practice, worked on no turnovers in Drills. There is nothing more he can do. He calls Timeouts, He talks in team huddles about eliminating turnovers, he talks about no turnovers during half time, before the game starts, etc. He does occasionally bench a player for a couple, few minutes to tell them to stop turning ball over. There is nothing more Riley can do, except step onto court and play the game for the players and he can't do that, has no eligibility.
Dick Bennet had a injury to Derek Low, they were horribly bad the rest of season. Hold Riley to Dick Bennet. If Dick Bennet lost 1,2 super stars, had 3,4,5 key injuries to superstars, starters, key back ups, if Dick Bennet had a BIG FAT UGLY HOLE AT 2, SG, GUARD SPOT, IF DICK BENNET HAD TO GO THRU ALL THE SHIT THAT HAS HAPPENED TO RILEY, WSU, THEN WHEN DICK BENNET HAD A HORRIBLE SEASON, YOU ALL DIDNT BLAME DICK BENNET FOR BAD COACHING. TREAT RILEY THE SAME WAY DICK BENNET TREATED.
It's CRITICAL that WSU beats Pepperdine and ends a 5,6 game losing streak, and gets the MONKEY OFF BACK.
If WSU does that, and thats easily doable, then WSU can still win 17,18,19 wins with 12,13,14 losses.
That's good enough for WSU to goto NIT. NIT is acceptable given replacing 12 players, and having 3,4,5,6 injuries during season, Riley's 1st year as HC.
If WSU doesn't beat Pepperdine twice, San Diego, Santa Clara at home, or doesnt win at least 2,3,4 more games doesn't go at least 16,17-14, 15 to either NIT, CBI, that's where I draw line in Sand, what's acceptable, not acceptable.
During off-season Riley hopefully will work on not turning ball over, defense, and recruit at least 1 more Big, 1 more 1,2 spot, SG guard from JC, Transfer portal, get Cedric Coward a medical redshirt, back, implement a strength, conditioning, avoiding injuries, etc, regiment, etc.
If Riley does that, then WSU will probably goto NCAA tournament, NIT champions, at worst next season.
That season's results, assuming WSU doesn't get 4,5,6,7,8 injuries, is probably where I will probably rightly judge Riley's performance as HC.
If Riley doesn't do that next season, then Riley on HOT SEAT next season after next this coming season. And if Riley has a bad season year 3, if he on HOT SEAT then, then after year 3 Riley should get fired, if on HOT SEAT season 3.
Blaming Riley for this season 1 so far would be just like blaming Dick Bennet's horribly bad season because Derek Low got injured, out for whole season, etc.
