Washington State's 1917 team

We have documented not long ago the futility which has been Washington State basketball. However, it has not always been so. WAY back in the good old days, they did reach the pinnacle of success. Before the days of the NCAA tournament, they were the Helms Foundation national champions. The 1917 version of the Cougars had a record of 25-1. Their only loss was at Cal by the score of 28-20. And hey, folks, a win is a win and a championship is a championship. Their national championship counts just as much as anyone else's.

It doesn't say much for your program

if your longest win streak (only win streak) of the season is a whopping two games over Norfolk State and UCA. Really impressive.

Why not car racing?

I just have no interest in auto racing at all. I am not opposed to it. I admit the high level of skill it requires and the teamwork involved with the pit crew. It somehow does not appeal to me. I think perhaps it is the impersonal aspect of it. In other sports you can see the human being competing - see clearly as they do whatever it is they do. In auto racing all you see is a car buzzing around the track - sort of like a video game. The personal touch is removed.

Always getting good coaches

Hiring an endless series of home-run coaches is almost impossible - the kind that stay a year or two and get hired by a higher-level school. You can do it a time or two, but inevitably there will be one who will not achieve at that rate. The Kentuckys and Michigan States of the world get all-time greats to come in and stay for their entire career. It doesn't work that way for the little guys. We see other schools at our level that hire successful coaches, but do we follow up to track how they do with the next three or four hires? I doubt it. It is tough to be always successful.

Reminds me of Alcindor

I saw a highlight reel of a recent Purdue game in which Isaac Haas had a strong performance, and for a moment it took me back almost 50 years to the Lew Alcindor era at UCLA. An honest-to-goodness post player. Haas might be the closest thing you will see to Alcindor today. I am not talking here about ability (Alcindor was the greatest) but about style. Remember the sky-hook? Remember a true low-post player. Ah, the good old days.

And, wonder of wonders, Haas has not attempted so much as a single 3-pointer this season.

A record-setting career starting?

Cameron Corcoran has had a awfully good start to his freshman season. If he can sustain anything close to that pace, he will go down as one of our better 3PT shooters. And those are always nice to have - absolutely essential in today's game.

Unusual workhorse

So far this season, Oliver Black is the workhorse of the team. He has 550 minutes through 20 games. I mention that only because it is a little unusual for the man with the most minutes to be a big guy on the inside. Usually it is a guard. Big men are lugging around more weight, plus they tend to get in foul trouble because of the collisions inside.

Guaranteed failure

With the 3-point shot being paramount in today's game, the failure to defend it vigorously is almost guaranteed to bring failure. It is amazing how many teams are sloppy in doing it, however - even teams at a high level. Really, things being like they are, teams that won't cover the arc don't deserve to win.

Lottie's numbers

Jaizec's numbers are not horrible for a true freshman thrust into the fray from the get-go. They are just not terribly good, either. He leads the team in assists at 2.9 per game. Not bad. However, he also has 44 turnovers in 20 games. On the other side of the ball, he leads the team in steals with 21. He is third on the team in FTA, but he only makes 55.6% of them, which is strange for a point guard, because they usually are pretty good FT shooters.

Lottie will get better. Experiences fixes a lot of things if the player has a good attitude.

Is Lottie the man at point?

Any team needs a take-charge guy at point. Someone who runs the offense, and takes care of and distributes the ball. Someone who hands out a lot of assists, but keeps his turnovers low. Is Jaizec Lottie that guy? Maybe, but his turnovers are way too high to this point. That is not surprising in a true freshman, but it definitely needs to be corrected if he is to realize his potential.

Final Four wide open

Would you care to guess who will be in the Final Four this year? Not too many years in my memory have things been more wide open than they are. Villanova definitely is the best team in the country, but they have lost a game and do have a weak spot or two; and in the Tournament you don't get a mulligan, of course. There is just not a team that I could put my finger on and say that I feel comfortable that it will make it to the FF.

Cougars' problems

We may whine that our attendance is not as good as it should be, but there are those who have it much worse. Washington State is a Pac-12 member. That means they are in one of the "power" (money) conferences with the big TV contracts. You can watch them on satellite or cable all the time. Yet their home attendance averages only 2785 per game. (Imagine 2785 in Bud Walton arena, for instance.)

It must be granted that Washington State has some unique problems. It is located in Pullman, a city of just over 30,000 in the southeastern part of the state, out in the desert far from the bright lights of the coast and facing considerable weather issues in winter. Furthermore, in recent years they have had to combat the success of fellow east-sider Gonzaga for the attention of the fans in that part of the state.

Washington State actually has one national championship way back in 1917. Outside of that they have made it out of the first round of the NCAA Tournament only three times, most recently in 2008. In fact, they have been to the Tournament only six times.

Washington State actually played in the championship game of the Tournament in 1941 and had a brief period of success during the tenures of Dick (father) and Tony (son) Bennett in 2004-2009. (Tony is now at Virginia, currently ranked #2 in the nation.) Outside of that, things have been pretty bleak in Pullman. To his credit, however, Ernie Kent is currently doing a good job of getting them to be marginally competitive in big time basketball.

Toughness

I watched Texas A&M blow a game against Kentucky a few weeks past by just a few sloppy plays down the stretch, and the thought crossed my mind that they were not tough enough yet. That raised the question of just what does constitute toughness in basketball? We hear the term used: what is it?

I will contribute this much: toughness is directly related to maintaining focus in the critical portions of the game. Lack of focus leads to bad passes, being out of position on defense, taking ill-advised shots when they do not have to be taken - in other words, things a player might do in panic under pressure. A tough player maintains his composure and stays zeroed in on the game even when the stress becomes high. That doesn't mean he always makes the right play, but it does mean that he doesn't make the wrong play because the pressure takes away his presence of mind. Tough players do not panic.

Rutgers is for real

Since Steve Pikiell became the head coach at Rutgers, I have started following the Scarlet Knights pretty closely. He is another of those boring "defense and rebounding" coaches who usually get ignored by the pundits because they do not play "exciting" basketball.

But Rutgers has been a doormat for a long time, not having had even a winning season since 2004. And Piscataway, NJ is not exactly the garden spot of the country to which to recruit. And Rutgers has made it to the Sweet Sixteen of the NCAA only twice. (They did have one Final Four appearance, but that was way back in 1976.) So Pikiell did not have much to work with. At least for the time being, he is not going to get the flashy bluebloods that Sleezipari cycles through Kentucky. So, he has gone for "ugly" basketball, and I like it!

No, Rutgers is not among the elite even in the Big Ten yet. But they have proven to be a tough out, the sort of team no one enjoys playing. And Pikiell has brought a little excitement and enthusiasm to a program that for a long time was not even on the radar.

Making basketball too easy

Any decent shooter can get really good at a shot if he always shoots from the same place. The Globetrotters make amazing shots, but they practice them over and over. Their guys can shoot an amazing percentage from half-court.

The 3-point shot has become too easy. It certainly is not worth half again as much as other shots. After all, that is about all players practice these days. Just watch them during warm-ups. Ninety percent of their shots are from a narrow strip of court. So, they have gotten exceptionally good at that shot and it has become almost a "gimme" to many of them. Add to that the fact that the 3-shot foul has protected that particular shot more than a shot from closer in, and there is just no reason to do much else but stand around the perimeter and blast away. A glorified game of HORSE. Really exciting, what?

Think about the great shooters before the advent of the 3-point shot - guys like Jerry West, just to name one. His shots would be more from the outside than would those of teammate Elgin Baylor, but they would not be from any one specific place. He might shoot from ten feet out or 25 feet out. And, he shot from whatever place was the right place given the flow of the game at that moment. He did NOT step back (of all things! - how illogical is that?) before he took his shot.

We drool today over players who are such "great shooters." Why shouldn't they be great shooters: they are only shooting from one spot! Take away that stripe around the court so that they have to shoot from ALL OVER the court and see how good their shooting is then!

The three-point shot is making basketball too easy, and in the process, making it boring. It was introduced in the old American Basketball Association as a gimmick to give it a leg up against the established NBA. We need to send it back where it came from!

What college basketball oughtt to be all about

I got to watch St. John's play Georgetown the other night. Big East basketball - where basketball counts. Lots of tradition. In fact, the two coaches for the teams are former stars for their schools and played against each other back in the heyday of the old Big East, before realignment. The game was played in Madison Square Garden. Big crowd. Passionate crowd. "Take no prisoners" style of Big East basketball. I loved it.

Basketball discrimination

The Executive Council of basketball has legislated into the game a subtle but very real form of discrimination. Do you ever hear of a big man being referred to as "the most exciting player in basketball?" The game is hugely biased toward guards today.

Not entirely what I would have expected

As I write, the top five teams in the Belt are UL, Ga Southern, Texas State, App State and Georgia State. Three of those I would have expected, but Texas State and App State I would not. Just goes to show that you cannot take things for granted.

Irrelevancy

Penn State is playing Nebraska tonight. Somehow that just seems irrelevant in the basketball world.

Tremont Waters - impressive

LSU point guard Tremont Waters is a very good little ballplayer. He has ice water in his veins, and just does not get shook, even against the much-ballyhooed Razorback press. He leads LSU in scoring at 16.8 ppg, but that is not what makes him so valuable. His court vision is really impressive, and he always seems to be under control, no matter how confused the situation on the court.