Cougars-Irish: WSU Looks Sweet in the Second Round

The second round NCAA Tournament game for Washington State was quintessential Cougar basketball.

Result?

Try this.:No. 4 WSU 61, No. 5 Notre Dame 41. Holy crap!

Experts everywhere were confident in offering modest praise for the Pac-10 third place team. Just enough kind words here and there before jumping on the Irish bandwagon and heaping high praise on the boys from South Bend. The talk was about how Notre Dame was going to run up and down the court and outscore the Cougs. OK.

Just before the opening tipoff, the trio of talking heads doing the pre-game for CBS (who shall remain nameless to protect their credibility) crowned the Irish a winner. They had too much offense for the Cougs and are a "really solid club on defense."

What?

Sorry, but one should question the credibility (even nameless sportscasters) of anyone claiming that a team is a really solid club on defense when the give up an average of 75 points a game. OK, that's off my chest.

How did the Cougs get the job done? You guessed it. Really solid defense.

Washington State played nearly flawless ball for 40 minutes. They gave up on modest run by the Irish in the second half, but followed up with a nice run of their own.

Kyle Weaver. Let me repeat, Kyle Weaver. The awesome play of the Cougs was highlighted by the talented Weaver. The young man was everywhere. Even the ND leprechaun will have Weaver in his nightmares. Try this set of stats for the game: 15 points, nine rebounds, three assists, three steals, and a blocked shot. Wow! That is the level of play hoped for from a senior, but certainly beyond reasonable expectations.

For the second consecutive game, Coach Tony Bennett has come up with a game plan to stifle and shut down the opponent's offense. The Cougs gave up a lowly 40 points to Winthrop and have now followed that performance to hold Notre Dame to 41 points, roughly half their season average. That's Bennett ball at it's finest against the best in the nation and with the spotlight beaming down on his no-name players.

Aron Baynes was up to the task of making life miserable for media darling Luke Harangody. Don't get me wrong, Luke is a very good player, just a little over-hyped. Go figure the odds on that, will you? A Notre Dame player being placed on a pedestal by the media. The color man for CBS (who shall remain nameless) was quite surprised to see that there was virtually no physical difference between the two opposing big men.

In a battle of monsters, both were awful from the field. Harangody was 3-17 and Baynes was 2-7. That's a total of six points—just a shade under Aron's season average, and slack that is easy enough for the rest of the WSU squad to pick up. On the other hand, Harangody only scoring 10 points put too much pressure on the rest of his teammates. ND is used to their big guy having his way near the basket, setting up open outside jumpers for Irish guards.

Derrick Low. Yes, it's a name that bears repeating. Derrick Low. The unflappable Hawaiian was brilliant. Low had a game high 18 points, three assists and three steals.

Comparisons by the television announcers to Steve Nash of the NBA Phoenix Suns were just a bit silly. Low is good, but even he would concede he's not that good! What Low continues to bring to this team as they make their tournament run into the Sweet 16 is the heart of a warrior. He plays full speed ahead the minute the whistle blows to begin play, stopping only for timeouts, halftime and the final buzzer. There's really no need to force comparisons with other great players. Low is his own man. Period.

The rest of the Cougars played very, very well. They appear to be focused on playing their game at their pace.

And the pace of Washington State basketball is very, very sweet!

GO COUGS!!!