Updated Jan 21, 2012 - 5:56 pm
Cougs knocking off first place teams like it's going out of style
By Bert Klasey
A week ago, the Cougs played a great first half and a terrible second half, a perfect example of their play this whole season: Hot and cold.
Since that cold second half, they've been nothing but smoking, searing hot. In two games, the Cougs knocked Stanford out of first place and then knocked Cal out of sole posession of first and in to a tie with Oregon.
The difference? Well, it helps that they didn't have to travel to these games, something they've had to do in every game since mid-December, but the bigger reason simply comes from rebounding the ball, hitting free throws and having the guards step up.
Against Stanford on Thursday, the Cougs were even in the rebounding battle, 30-30, and hit 93.1% of their free throws (27-29).
On Saturday against Cal, the story was quite similar. The Cougs out-rebounded the Bears 33-30 and hit 77.3% of their free-throws.
The, there's the guard-play. Faisal Aden has finally woken up. Brock Motum has carried the scoring load for this team and he needed help. Aden scored 57 points in the two games - 33 against Stanford and 24 against Cal.
So does this mean that the Cougs have turned a corner? At 10-8, they will now charge right through to the post-season racking up wins, rip through the Pac-12 tournament and waltz in to the Big Dance?
Probably not.
Like I said before, they are hot and cold.
Still, having wins over two of the top teams in the conference does a little for the confidence of this team. Confidence can cure a lot of ills. If they can score inside and out against Cal and Stanford, they can do it against anyone. If they can rebound the way they did against those two teams, they can certainly do the same against the rest of the Pac-12.
Strangely, the Cougs have completed the "tough" half of the conference slate. Now, they'll have to take on the Arizona schools and the Southern California schools - all of whom have been struggling. Of course, this is a problem for the Cougs as they seem to beat the good teams (Cal, Stanford and Oregon) and lose to the bad ones (UW and Utah).
The Cougs now stand at 3-4 in the conference and 11-8 overall. If they keep playing the way they played this weekend, they could and should win all of their next five games.
But that's a big "if."
Personally, I'll just go with the idea that they've turned a corner and there's nothing that's going to get between them and the sort of late surge that gets you in to the Big Dance.
The Cougs are awake. Watch out Pac-12.
Go Cougs!
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johnnycougar wrote...Great week for the Cougs!January 23, 2012 9:56 am{ "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }Reply Report this as abuse -
the don wrote...GO COUGARSJanuary 25, 2012 9:14 am{ "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }Reply Report this as abuse
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the don wrote...Off the topic Question BertJanuary 25, 2012 10:12 am{ "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }Reply Report this as abuse
Bert graduated from WSU in 1999 with a Bachelor's degree from the Murrow School of Communication. A die-hard Cougar fan while in Pullman, Bert's infatuation for all things Crimson and Gray turned in to an all-out obsession in the years since he's left. Bert is an unapologetic Cougar fanatic, and promises to provide crimson-skewed and completely subjective commentary about WSU teams and the world of sports as it relates to them.
