ADVERTISEMENT

You know what has kept WSU from the tourney the last 14 years?

CougEd

Hall Of Fame
Dec 22, 2002
22,955
1,350
113
Inability to hit free throws down the stretch and folding under the weight of the press in the last four minutes.

Even during the Bone years....Klay's junior season Bone last game of the year for the tourney had a great game plan against UCLA. Win and you are in. WSU led by 20 and couldn't hit a free throw down the stretch. Cost the program potentially momentum and Bone and staff were lame ducks at that point.

The missed free throws last few years I couldn't tell you how many games it cost WSU. Bamba hits 4 our of 6 against CU and we win.
 
  • Like
Reactions: longtimecoug
Goes back to the Sampson days. Ike (of all players) misses free throws that would have iced the game in regulation against Lute.

We face a talent deficit (along w/ typically depth) and over a 40-minute game maybe that rears its head at the line no matter how well prepared we are as a team. You can't game plan for free throws. You just have to go to line and knock them down.

Probably the exception was the Tony Tournament teams. They were easily the most efficient roster top-to-bottom we have seen in Pullman.
 
Last edited:
Inability to hit free throws down the stretch and folding under the weight of the press in the last four minutes.

Even during the Bone years....Klay's junior season Bone last game of the year for the tourney had a great game plan against UCLA. Win and you are in. WSU led by 20 and couldn't hit a free throw down the stretch. Cost the program potentially momentum and Bone and staff were lame ducks at that point.

The missed free throws last few years I couldn't tell you how many games it cost WSU. Bamba hits 4 our of 6 against CU and we win.
Yeah, the Cougars have certainly hurt themselves by not hitting key free throws and I agree about the difficulty vs. the press. But to be honest, how many years have they even been close to the Big Dance? In most seasons over the past 14 years, the team wouldn't be making the NCAA tournament even if they had hit their free throws and mastered the press. Klay's final year is one of the few exceptions and maybe last year.

Glad Cougar
 
Ike's legs were rubber by that point.
Some of that's on Sampson grinding the team down by mid-season. You can basically play a perfect 39+ minutes and then it comes down to 1 or 2 free throws. Up against programs that probably didn't give you the time of day plus it's impossible to simulate in practice.

I would take my chances with Ike every time.
 
Absolutely. He's my all time favorite. Don't know who the refs were in that game but I would bet a bundle Range, Ballesteros, Libbey or Sitoff were involved.
 
Inability to hit free throws down the stretch and folding under the weight of the press in the last four minutes.

Even during the Bone years....Klay's junior season Bone last game of the year for the tourney had a great game plan against UCLA. Win and you are in. WSU led by 20 and couldn't hit a free throw down the stretch. Cost the program potentially momentum and Bone and staff were lame ducks at that point.

The missed free throws last few years I couldn't tell you how many games it cost WSU. Bamba hits 4 our of 6 against CU and we win.

Bone's problem wasn't that he had players that couldn't hit free throws when needed. His problem is that he called timeout during games when we had all the momentum and it killed our scoring runs.

I've never seen anything like it.

"Uh...I'll call a timeout now while we are on a 10 point scoring run and the other team is on its heels...to coach these kids up!"

Yeah, that was brilliant.

That was Bone's problem. He overthought the game.
 
Bone's problem wasn't that he had players that couldn't hit free throws when needed. His problem is that he called timeout during games when we had all the momentum and it killed our scoring runs.

I've never seen anything like it.

"Uh...I'll call a timeout now while we are on a 10 point scoring run and the other team is on its heels...to coach these kids up!"

Yeah, that was brilliant.

That was Bone's problem. He overthought the game.

Also even tho Lodwick was great, averaged 8 to 15 ppg, etc, his SENIOR season, Bone still put that 6-6, SKINNY Lodwick as a 4 spot PF, when Lodwick was a 3 spot, Wing, not a 4 spot, PF, when Bone had BETTER options available, like the 6-7, 4, PF, that either chose WSU over Stanford, or transfered from Stanford, that was either a Sophmore or redshirt Sophmore, or True, Non Redshirt Junior, that weighed about 233, etc, that was a better 4 then Lodwick. Bone eventually had that player situationally co start games, etc where that player did ok, better then Lodwick did at the 4,PF(most of Lodwicks good production came at the 3 spot, his Senior year.)

And Bone mis handled Josh Hawkinson, by trying to turn Hawkinson into a 6-10 275 post player, center, where failed in doing that, where Hawkinson went on to be a good 6-10, about 245 pound 4, PF, when Kent was coaching.

Bone mishandled, didn't develop a lot of players right, despite having a lot of 3 star, 4 star recruits like IKE Iroegbu, Que, Aden, Reggie Moore, Royce Woolridge, Lacy, Motum, DJ Shelton etc. Now some like Lacy, Ike, Moore, either worked out or semi worked out, but even those that either worked out, or semi worked out, were semi mishandled, weren't developed fully, didn't hit their ultimate max potential, etc, and because of that, and what How did this Happen said about Bone's timeouts, etc, that's why his teams slipped from NIT to 10 win teams.

It wasn't supposedly his lack of ability to get, beat out other programs for 4 stars like IKE Iroegbu, Que, Isabell, etc.

Bone was a pretty good recruiter as far as his ability to get 4 stars, as only Raveling, Sampson, Smith have gotten more 4 stars then Bone did. But Bone just wasn't as good a evaluator of those 4 stars, etc, when it came to evaluating talent, work ethic, character, etc, and mishandled them, and didn't develop them as good, etc.

And because of that and the bad timeouts, etc, that's why Bone started having bad seasons, etc, and why he was fired, and why he should have been fired.
 
Also even tho Lodwick was great, averaged 8 to 15 ppg, etc, his SENIOR season, Bone still put that 6-6, SKINNY Lodwick as a 4 spot PF, when Lodwick was a 3 spot, Wing, not a 4 spot, PF, when Bone had BETTER options available, like the 6-7, 4, PF, that either chose WSU over Stanford, or transfered from Stanford, that was either a Sophmore or redshirt Sophmore, or True, Non Redshirt Junior, that weighed about 233, etc, that was a better 4 then Lodwick. Bone eventually had that player situationally co start games, etc where that player did ok, better then Lodwick did at the 4,PF(most of Lodwicks good production came at the 3 spot, his Senior year.)

And Bone mis handled Josh Hawkinson, by trying to turn Hawkinson into a 6-10 275 post player, center, where failed in doing that, where Hawkinson went on to be a good 6-10, about 245 pound 4, PF, when Kent was coaching.

Bone mishandled, didn't develop a lot of players right, despite having a lot of 3 star, 4 star recruits like IKE Iroegbu, Que, Aden, Reggie Moore, Royce Woolridge, Lacy, Motum, DJ Shelton etc. Now some like Lacy, Ike, Moore, either worked out or semi worked out, but even those that either worked out, or semi worked out, were semi mishandled, weren't developed fully, didn't hit their ultimate max potential, etc, and because of that, and what How did this Happen said about Bone's timeouts, etc, that's why his teams slipped from NIT to 10 win teams.

It wasn't supposedly his lack of ability to get, beat out other programs for 4 stars like IKE Iroegbu, Que, Isabell, etc.

Bone was a pretty good recruiter as far as his ability to get 4 stars, as only Raveling, Sampson, Smith have gotten more 4 stars then Bone did. But Bone just wasn't as good a evaluator of those 4 stars, etc, when it came to evaluating talent, work ethic, character, etc, and mishandled them, and didn't develop them as good, etc.

And because of that and the bad timeouts, etc, that's why Bone started having bad seasons, etc, and why he was fired, and why he should have been fired.

Also if Bennet, Smith had had all the 3 star, 4 star players Bone had even on the 10 win teams, Tony Bennet, Smith, Raveling, Sampson, Coach K, etc, would have won 19,20,21 wins and would have gone to either the NIT or NCAA Tourny, instead of only winning 10 games, what with Lacy, Ike Iroegbu, Que, Royce Woolridge, DJ Shelton, Motum, all 3,4 stars, and 2 star Hawkinson being on those 10 win team.

There was SO MUCH NIT/NCAA talent on those teams that Bone mishandled, didn't develop, etc.

It's a crime that Bone didn't go-to the NIT/NCAA with that wasted talent.

Raveling, Sampson, Tony Bennet, Smith, Coach K would have gone to the NIT/NCAA with those teams and players, instead of only winning about 10 games.
 
Abe Lodwick’s Senior year he played primarily at the 3 spot because WSU had Brock Motum playing the 4 and Charlie Enquist and DJ Shelton splitting time at the 5.
Abe played the 4 his junior year quite a bit, my guess is because the mystery player from Stanford didn’t exist.
 
My recollection is that Abe Lodwick was a skinny "3" when Tony recruited him but by the time he was a junior and playing for Bone, he had bulked up considerably out of the team's necessity for a decent 4. Abe lost some quickness (he was never super quick but more athletic than most people would think) but became a decent defender and rebounder who still possessed a good outside shot. I thought he blossomed his senior year. I still remember one specific play when he wasn't blocked out on a missed shot at the offensive end and skied above everyone on a well timed leap for a slam dunk worthy of the highlight reel. I remember saying, "That was Abe Lodwick?"

Glad Cougar
 
Absolutely. He's my all time favorite. Don't know who the refs were in that game but I would bet a bundle Range, Ballesteros, Libbey or Sitoff were involved.
My 3 all-time favorite Cougar basketball players, in no particular order: Jim McKean, Kyle Weaver, Ike Fontaine.


Glad Cougar
 
Inability to hit free throws down the stretch and folding under the weight of the press in the last four minutes.

Even during the Bone years....Klay's junior season Bone last game of the year for the tourney had a great game plan against UCLA. Win and you are in. WSU led by 20 and couldn't hit a free throw down the stretch. Cost the program potentially momentum and Bone and staff were lame ducks at that point.

The missed free throws last few years I couldn't tell you how many games it cost WSU. Bamba hits 4 our of 6 against CU and we win.
Too many losses? :)
 
  • Like
Reactions: longtimecoug
ADVERTISEMENT

Latest posts

ADVERTISEMENT