I’ll let you know my thoughts when I get home tonight.

team doesnt care as much… truly sucks

First of all, we should have won this game – though the final score doesn’t show it, we played well enough defensively to win this game (we had to foul and give up foul shots at the end to come back).

Our troubles stemmed from the fact that we could not score out of half court offensive sets. I can only remember maybe two or three times that we worked an offensive set to perfection. A large portion of our production was from turnovers and buckets in transition. It seemed like we had to score too much by having players isolate and make something happen themselves. Stepheson had an off night offensively, missing a couple of close jump hooks from inside that he usually makes, and Nikola didn’t seem to clean up the boards as well as he usually does. That said, we were still playing well enough to win the game. There was, however, one play that changed the momentum of the game and helped WSU take off.

Let me first say that Klay Thompsen is a legit talent and plays with a lot of hustle, besides being a great scorer. In the second half, Thompsen got the ball out on the wing with Marcus Johnson guarding him, and blew by Johnson. Just inside the 3-point line, Johnson grabbed his arm as he went by to foul him and prevent him from getting to the basket. It should be an arm check foul on the floor. Well, Klay continues to the basket, taking another step and then launching off to lay it in. Even in the NBA, continuation like that is never called, but somehow, the ref called the basket good, and Thompsen made the free throw. I don’t remember if that was to pull WSU close (within 3 or so maybe?) or to actually take the lead, but the Trojans looked pretty deflated after that and were lackadaisical on the offensive end. WSU started taking care of the ball more and we couldn’t convert points off of turnovers.

We got a couple of more chances to turn it around late in the game, when we were trailing and the game was close. We actually got a steal and Dwight Lewis sprinted down court, trying to control the ball while WSU rushed back on D. Trying to spin around a defender (instead of passing to a wide open player) Lewis lost control and turned it right back over.

Towards the very end (less than 2 minutes left) we were down about 5 or 6 and Gerritty just tried to make something happen.He drove past his man to the hoop and got fouled on the floor (much closer to the basket than Thompsen was, and right before he leaped) but he got no “continuation” call and his lay up was not counted. He then proceeded to miss the front end of a 1 and 1 and the game was lost from there.

The team lead by as much as 14 in the 2nd half and should have won the game. They didn’t appear to quit like they were resigned to losing, but struggled offensively down the stretch and looked lost (it didn’t help that Gerrity got in foul trouble and Donte Smith probably played his largest number of minutes since Gerrity became eligible. A few tough breaks, bad calls, and poorly executed plays here and there really added up in the 2nd half as WSU cut down on their mistakes and outplayed the Trojans down the stretch.

Still, for an off night, the Trojans could have won, and I suspect they will put up a good showing against Washington on Saturday night. I’ll certainly be there to watch. Fight On!