How the APR and Apathy Hurt Cougar Football

Smart wins.

Those were the words of Bob Knight - a man with 902 wins in Division 1 basketball and an impressive personal record in the chair toss.

All kidding aside, intelligence should become more of a priority for the WSU Football program in the wake of eight scholarship losses last week. The penalty is due to a low score in the Academic Progress Rate, or APR. The APR is a fairly complex system that grades every school on their ability to retain players and/or produce graduating student athletes. Without going too much into the details, WSU’s score of 916 fell below the standard of 925. If a school fails to meet that benchmark, they lose the number of scholarships equivalent to the number of players who left the team ineligible the previous year. WSU had eight players leave ineligible, so they lose 8 scholarships.

Bill Doba was widely regarded as being a “nice guy”. And while that is one of the characteristics that made him an amicable figure on the Palouse (and still does), it also may be one of the reasons why WSU fell into the APR’s trap. Most BCS-conference schools avoided the APR penalty because, quite simply, they use their resources. Tutors, aids and borderline academic standards are enough for a lot of schools to at the very least put on the facade that they are producing student athletes. Whether or not those athletes are learning anything or focusing on anything outside of football is questionable, but the APR helps the big wigs at the NCAA sleep a little better at night.

WSU was in all likelihood using the same tools other power-conference schools use to keep their athletes nose in the books and out of trouble. But Doba, the classic nice guy, either just didn’t push hard enough or brought players into the program who just didn’t care enough. You cannot and should not place all the blame on Bill, but it’s hard not to point a finger or two. Even with the distraction of game days and film studies and playbooks, passing college courses should be a priority of Cougar athletes. That means it should be a priority of the coaches. It is reasonable that schools can accept a certain number of athletes to flunk out or leave school without a degree. And the NCAA allows for that within a certain margin of error. Heck, even non-athletes can have trouble in school, and college courses just aren’t for everyone.

What is unacceptable is to fall below the standards to the point where the school loses eight scholarships. The outgoing Doba-led coaching staff should have realized it, and I’m sure they know it now. Part of it is motivating the athletes to keep up on schoolwork. The other part, and the more important part in my opinion, is recruiting players who are already motivated. Remember, smart wins.

The myth about recruiting to Pullman is that because you’re recruiting kids to….. well, Pullman, that you have to sacrifice certain things to bring in talent. Maybe you take a chance on a poor student from California because no one else wants the risk. Maybe you play up the social atmosphere of Pullman to bring in a player who is shy about leaving the city for Middle of Nowhere, WA.

You don’t have to do those things. Tony Bennett proved it by bringing in talent and then shaping a team that made up half of the all-Pac Ten academic team this past season. That doesn’t mean he won’t take a chance - the signing of DeAngelo Casto, who has documented struggles with his high school grades, proves that. But what I think you’ll find with Casto is that Tony and the staff see the potential to make a student better through the resources the university provides. It’s OK to take gambles within reason. It’s not OK to watch 2/3 or your main running back corps, along with several other players, fall off the map in 2007 because of academic problems.

Wulff has the deck stacked against him. It is difficult, particularly in football, to pull in kids who have both the talent and character to be successful in Pullman. But he must find a way. I do not think it is reaching to say that Doba’s staff would care a little more and try a little harder if they went back in time. Apathy isn’t an option. It is not just the future of athletes in question here, but the future of human beings. A substantial number of Cougar, or college football players in general, will not get on a NFL roster. At the very least they should leave WSU prepared for success in another venture.

The main point is this: there is no reason to avoid smart, motivated players. They keep you out of trouble with the NCAA, and they are often equally skilled at catching a ball or running on artificial turf. If WSU is to find its way back to a prominent spot in the Pac-10, they need all of their scholarships. But they also need players who are smart enough to understand the system, know a 4-3 from a 3-4, and find Sudan on a map.

Paul Wulff has zero wins at the Division 1 level of college sports. All he needs to do, for now, is listen to the advice of a coach who has over 900 more:

Smart wins.

Pac-10 Job Security Rankings: Football

Alright, folks. Here we go with what I expect to be an annual or semi-annual event, my Pac-10 conference job security rankings. I wanted to start with football, since Spring Ball has just passed and I am trying to even out the basketball to football post ratio a little bit. But never fear, hoops fans, because I plan on making a basketball list as well.

Here’s how it works: All the coaches in the conference are ranked from 1 to 10 in terms of job security. What do I mean by “security”? It means that #10 is the most likely to be fired this upcoming season and #1 is the least likely to get the axe. We’re not taking into account coaching quality or success/failure beyond this season. It is simply a way of measuring who is most likely to get the boot from their institution this year.

That is an important caveat. For example, who would be more likely to lose their job this year - a first year coach who goes 1-11, or a coach at a big program who has his third straight mediocre season? Odds are the first year coach gets another chance.

Program expectations are also important. USC expects to contend for a national championship every year. Here at WSU we’re just hoping for a bowl game in Paul Wulff’s first year. These things make a difference in whether or not a coach is fired. So do off the field events - if a coach runs a tight, NCAA-clean program consistently they likely won’t lose their job. If a coach is Kelvin Sampson, however…. well, you know how that turned out.

So here now, organized into made-up divisions, are the first Pac-10 football job security rankings for 2008.

The “Please don’t go to the NFL” Division

1. Pete Carroll, USC

Pete Carroll has given USC fans a program that can contend for a title every year. How many coaches can say that? It almost makes you forget just how awful the Trojans were before his arrival at the Coliseum. The only way Pete loses his job is if there is some huge off the field scandal with a key player receiving recruiting violations like a free house or something. Wait a second…

The “Quality Progress” Division

2. Dennis Erickson, Arizona State

Erickson will have a job as long as employers are short-sighted enough to keep hiring him. But hey, he wins ball games. Your school might have some off-the-field issues, and he will probably leave to coach the Houston Texans in three years, but you’ll win in between! Hooray! For fun, ask an Idaho Vandals fan how they feel about Dennis Erickson.

3. Jeff Tedford, California

Tedford has put Cal on the map and made use of the absolutely endless pool of talent in the state of California. The former Oregon offensive coordinator has led the Golden Bears to five straight Bowl Games, and would probably be higher on the NFL’s radar if not for a 6-of-7-loss collapse after a 5-0 start (complete with #2 ranking) to last season. (bonus points: guess who the one win was!) Injuries really hurt Cal in 2007-08, and it’s likely the rest of the conference won’t get that luxury the next time around. Tedford is ceding play calling duties to Frank Cignetti this fall, which could have a substantial impact on Cal’s future.

4. Mike Riley, Oregon State

The great thing about Riley is how he gets the Beavers to consistently overachieve. He’s never finished higher than 3rd in the conference, but he has taken OSU to Bowl games in four of the last five years. His record in those games? 4-0. His propensity for winning big games in the regular season and beyond outshadow most of the bad losses the Beavs have suffered (hello 13-6 loss to the 2006 Cougs).

The Newcomers Division

5. Paul Wulff, Washington State

Regardless of how you feel about the “mutual” dismissal of Bill Doba, it seems all of the Cougar nation is rooting for Wulff to have success. He is a WSU alum, and who better to understand the experience in Pullman than a former Coug. He’s one of us, and it will be hard to turn up the heat on Wulff even if the upcoming season goes sour. There’s also the interesting twist that he played for Dennis Erickson, whom he’ll now have to coach against.

Still, with 13 games on the schedule, including seven home games, it would be reasonable for some Cougar fans to expect a bowl game in 2008. If Wulff gets it, he’ll be very secure. If he doesn’t, he’ll start 2009 with a little less loyalty.

6. Jim Harbaugh, Stanford

James Joseph Harbaugh starts 2008 riding the wave of goodwill from a shocking upset of USC in Los Angeles. Of course the rest of the season wasn’t as strong, but 4-8 following a terrible 2007 season is a welcome improvement for Cardinal fans. He’s a relative newcomer (2nd year), which helps put him a notch below Wulff. Of course expectations are still fairly strong in the Bay Area, and a season of regression could put Harbaugh on the hot seat.

The “Don’t put Money on it” Division

7. Rick Neuheisal, UCLA

Slick Rick will probably not be fired by UCLA this season. If he runs a tight ship. If he wins in L.A., a couple little NCAA infringements might be glossed over. Losing alone will likely not be a problem, considering Bruin fans were fairly generous with Karl Dorrell. But if he loses and colors a little outside the lines, it could be a Kelvin Sampson situation waiting to explode. Certainly he’ll stay away from the tournament office pool (although UCLA losing in the final four is always a good bet).

8. Mike Bellotti, Oregon

Bellotti sits here despite his fairly strong history with the Ducks. Obviously Nike looms large in Eugene, and if the powers that be among the Ducks decide that Bellotti isn’t doing the job, he’s out. Of course we should give Oregon a little credit; they’ve been very patient with Ernie Kent in basketball and they are giving Bellotti his own font (the font on the jerseys is “Bellotti Bold”; you can’t make this stuff up) and plenty of time to build a national powerhouse. But with all the money, facilities and money, you’d have to believe that Mike’s employer might be fed up sometime. And that sometime could be the end of 2008.

The Flaming Red Hot Seat of Hotness presented by Coors Light

9. Mike Stoops

I’d have to say reviewing this list that 1 through 8 are fairly safe and may be able stick around through 2009 without a Bowl game appearance. 9 and 10 are in trouble. A lot of it. Stoops is 17-29 and has been just good enough to avoid a firing the last two seasons. Arizona has also defeated a ranked team in each of Stoops four seasons, which helps. Still, the fact remains that Arizona would like to establish itself as contender in the football world, and Mike isn’t getting the Wildcats there. It’s also tough to keep a coach around who goes absolutely bezerk on the sidelines on borderline calls. And yet the refs have been fairly nice to Mike - like turning the other way when Alex Brink got clocked five seconds after a play had ended (still bitter about that one, especially in a world where a pinkie finger on some QBs is worth fifteen yards).

But I digress. The Stoops regime has struggled in Tempe, especially on offense. If the Cats can’t make it to a bowl this year, he’s probably out of work.

10. Tyrone Willingham, Washington

I had a startling realization when I watched The Daily’s (UW’s student newspaper) YouTube preview of the 2007 Apple Cup. Husky fans actually expect to compete for a Rose Bowl every season. Delusions of grandeur? Possibly. But if Tyrone Willingham is the man the Dawgs want to bring them back to dominance, he has to get to a bowl game this season. Ty has finished 10th, 9th, and 10th over the past three seasons in the Pac-10 conference.

The losing has fractured the Husky fanbase into so-called posidawgs and negadawgs, and led to a prominent booster offering a considerable “donation” if Willingham were to be fired. The meltdowns regarding Willingham over on the dawgman.com message board have been delightful to watch. If you’re a husky fan, you simply cringe and hope Jake Locker returns the purple and gold to dominance. It’s safe to say that another season outside the postseason will result in a new Husky coach for 2009.

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So there you have it. 1 through 8 are looking fairly good going into 2008, and 9 and 10 have to coach for their lives. Which begs the following question: as a Cougar fan, do you root for the Huskies to keep Tyrone Willingham? Certainly the last three season have been bad, but the cupboard was bare in Montlake and Willingham did experience limited success with both Notre Dame and Stanford. Personally, I like the Ty era in Seattle because I have my doubts that he is anything above a .500 coach.

In basketball news, the Cougs have offered PG Xavier Thames, a 6′1″ Class of ‘09 member from Elk Grove, CA. Now that Casto has signed with WSU point guard becomes the most glaring need for the Cougs, especially with the upcoming graduation of Taylor Rochestie. Thames has been on the radar of the Cougar coaches for a little while now, and with the scholarship offer you better believe he’s a solid prospect.

Top 10 Cougar Plays: #1

December 5th: With 29 seconds remaining, Taylor Rochestie hits a three over the outstretched arm of Austin Daye.

Play is at the 1:28 mark of the video (note: watch the crowd’s reaction)

Video courtesy of the Spokesman-Review’s Nick Eaton, via YouTube

Game recap

This was the biggest shot - in the biggest game of the year. This is why Taylor Rochestie gets the ball in the final minutes of a game. And it’s partly why you haven’t been hearing a certain term regarding WSU’s propensity for blowing leads any time recently.

To really understand the value of this play, you have to understand the significance of this game in Eastern Washington. It may have been the biggest game ever played in Spokane - certainly the biggest in the decade of life I’ve spent on this side of the state.

It starts with the Zags. The Bulldogs turned a single Elite Eight run into a year-in year-out college powerhouse, complete with ranked recruits and a gorgeous new arena. The McCarthey Athletic Center, affectionately called “K2″ (the second “kennel”), seats 6,000 comfortably and is one of the most powerful homecourt advantages in all of college basketball. Coming into this season, the Zags had lost one game there. Ever. And that was to a Santa Clara team that happened to utilize Spokane native Danny Pariseau, who transferred to SCU from Eastern in part because of a death wish for the Zags.

So it’s hard to beat the Zags in Spokane. And prior to the Cougs’ win, Gonzaga had never lost in K2 while ranked.

But last year the Zags supremacy in Eastern Washington hit a snag that no one saw coming. Certainly there were threats to the Zags. The WCC schedule means that GU is always their conference opponents’ biggest games, and Oregon and Washington were becoming giants in the Pac-10. But Washington State? The perennial doormat of the Pac-10? No chance.

Well, no chance until the Cougar program awoke with a 10 point win in Pullman. All of a sudden the Cougs were the lovable underdogs, and the Zags were the powerhouse getting beat on the court, and beating themselves off the court with drug arrests (you know, big school problems).

Of course I had switched loyalties earlier on - my sophomore year, to be exact, when I became frustrated with the high expectations for GU and fell in love with a style of play many people call “boring”. Dick Bennett’s team concept, along with all things WSU, overcame my loyalty to the Zags as a Spokane Valley native. I’m still a fan of the Zags - I just neglect to root for them during one game each season.

In the middle is Spokane - a city with a clear sports identity prior to 2007. WSU Football, Gonzaga basketball, and the city’s minor league teams were kings. But Cougar basketball fractures the fanbase. WSU alums had to defect back to the Crimson and Gray, and fairweather fans weren’t sure which ship to jump on. No clearer was the divide to me than when I saw a “GO COUGS” on a readerboard off the Hamilton Street Bridge. The McCarthey Athletic Center was in my rearview mirror.

KHQ has a half-hour TV show dedicated to the Zags. KXLY now counters with a 30 minute Coug show. It’s a city divided, and in December it was ready to crown a temporary champion.

Thanks to ESPNU and the lack of cable providers that carry it, most people had to take this game in at the dorms on the WSU campus or at a sports bar. I wish I was one of them - there are few better ways to watch a game than in a group of crowded, passionate, moderately intoxicated fans.

Instead, I was at home, keeping track of the score on Yahoo throughout the game, then checking ESPN video for the game when it was over. And that’s how I saw the play - in a small window on my PC, I watched Rochestie insert a dagger into the mighty Gonzaga Bulldogs. The same Bulldogs who had a player declare earlier in the week that WSU was second best in the state.

For at least one night, there was no doubt who the best team in Washington was. Taylor Rochestie made sure of that.

Top 10 Cougar Plays: Recap

Just to give you some more hype for the #1 play, let’s look back at 2-10.

#2: Aron Baynes Coast-to-Coast

#3: Kyle breaks OJ Mayo’s ankles

#4: Robbie’s three-point play

#5: Baynes dunks on Brockman

#5a: Taylor’s halfcourt buzzer-beater

#6: Weaver’s reverse layup against UCLA

#7: Rochestie-to-Cowgill sinks the Ducks

#8: Weaver denies James Harden’s attempt at a game-winner

#9: Forrest dunks on NC A&T

#10: D-Low caps Baylor comeback

Overall, a pretty solid list of the top plays from last season. I’m still kicking myself over originally forgetting Taylor’s half court shot against UCLA. One other play I considered was Weaver’s other ridiculous reverse lay-in, against Brook Lopez. But, it’s too similar to play #6, and I like the one he made against Love better.

Stay tuned for #1. I finally found video of it.

Top 10 Cougar Plays: #2

February 21st: Aron Baynes does what Deadspin contributor Brian Tesch would later describe as “…the basketball equivalent of a lineman running back a fumble 80 yards for a TD”.

Video courtesy BHarmon1975, YouTube

Game Recap

You knew this was coming. You may be surprised it’s not #1, but I think you’ll find out the reasoning for that when I reveal the top play later.

The one thing you should notice about the video is how the crowd behind Baynes rises to their feet and goes nuts. That’s not the student section - it’s the alumni side, during one of the loudest moments in Beasley I have ever been a part of.

Not only that, this play changed the entire complexion of a ho-hum, defense-oriented stalemate with eventual tourney snub Arizona State. The game was 43-40 with just over 6 minutes remaining when Baynes jumped in front of a James Harden pass. He took it coast to coast, and the rest is history. Looking back I didn’t even remember the game was that close. The Baynes dunk woke the crowd up and started a 16-7 run to close out the game for WSU.

You can’t give Baynes all the credit; the WSU defense held the Sun Devils to just four points in the final 5:31 of the game. But without that play, ASU might have hung around a little while longer. Crowds, and teams themselves, tend to quiet down out of fear when an underdog is keeping a game close in the second half. Even an improved ASU team, we thought, shouldn’t have had much of a shot at beating the Cougs in Pullman. Well, we were wrong. The Sun Devils showed up for this one and the Cougs needed some extra effort to get it done.

Arizona State brought an impressive effort to the Palouse, but fell victim to a 6′10″, 270-pound Australian running the length of the court for a dunk.

Philadelphia Gets it Right

Jed Collins signs a free agent contract with the Philadelphia Eagles.

It’s a win-win. The Eagles get the most talented member of the Cougars’ draft class, and Jed Collins gets a hearty bowl of Campbell’s Chunky Soup from Donovan McNabb’s mother.

Alex Brink, Houston Texan

Brink goes in the 7th round (223rd) overall, and was the only Coug selected in the draft.

But he’s not the only Coug going pro. Michael Bumpus was signed by the Seahawks (great move), and Husain Abdullah (who probably should have been drafted) is off to the Minnesota Vikings were he’ll join Eric Frampton in the secondary.

Jed Collins hasn’t been picked up yet, and if you read my Cougfan article last week you’ll know that I think its crazy for someone not to sign him.

Anyway, congrats to Alex, Michael, and Husain. Good luck over the Summer.

Top 10 Cougar Plays: #3

February 9th: Kyle Weaver crosses over O.J. Mayo

video courtesy BHarmon1975 on YouTube

Game Recap

O.J. Mayo went from being the most overrated player in the country to one of the most underrated in a matter of months. ESPN is to blame - they likened him to the next LeBron on “E:60″ and made 2007-08 into “the year of the freshman” when there were so many great players that weren’t (Tyler Hansbrough, Kyle Weaver, Mario Chalmers, among others). By the time people were frustrated that O.J. wans’t putting up 40 points per game, they seemed to forget just how good of a player he is, and will be in the pros.

Of course that’s what makes this play so fun to watch. That, and the fact that team (WSU) not only beat the talent (USC) this season, but beat the living tar out of them. Twice. And Tim Floyd hates the trip to Pullman. A year after getting into it with Tony on the sidelines (one of my favorite moments of last season), Floyd went ahead and got himself ejected from this game after an admittedly bad no-call that favored Kyle Weaver.

Anyway, at least we have some ammunition against the legion of USC football fans. If they talk down to us about football, we can counter with basketball. Just be a little more cautious around Tim Floyd, who will probably up the ante again by physically assaulting Butch during the 2009 visit to Pullman.

But I’m getting off topic. To summarize this play in four words: Kyle Weaver is awesome.

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Regarding the blog, posting will be a little slow this week (finals week), but I hope to get another Cougfan article out by the weekend, and I’ll post if any big news happens or if I need to take my mind off of pharmacotherapy for a few minutes. Enjoy the week, everyone.

Electronic Mail

If you want a more anonymous way to reach Stadium Way, give us a buzz at stadiumway@hotmail.com. You can send suggestions, comments, or just some good ol’ fashioned hate mail. The content doesn’t have to relate to the Cougs either, it could be sports in general, or links to some of the amazing accomplishments people have made on the internet. If I get enough response, I might just be able to start a mailbag column. Which would rock. So do it.

Also, this week’s Buzzin’ The Palouse is up at Cougfan.com. This one’s more football-oriented with a discussion of Jed Collins, other Cougar draft hopefuls, Rowing, Baseball, and more. This article is subscription-only, so if you don’t have a CF.C account you won’t get to read the article in its entirety. But my shameless plug for the site is this: it’s basically a non-profit website where the money from the Scout.com network and subscriptions go right back into the content and making sure the forums don’t crash.

Anyway, check out the article if you have some free time. Hope you like it.

Top 10 Cougar Plays: #4

March 8: With 14.4 seconds remaining in regulation, Robbie Cowgill makes a layup and draws a foul from Jon Brockman.

Game Recap

Video (play starts at the 1:19 mark):

courtesy of Kapoleicoug on YouTube

“They had to scrap and fight for everything, that’s the way it’s been for Cougar basketball,” Bennett said. “It’s fitting.”

This was one of about four plays from this game I considered for the list. Three of those plays belong to Cowgill. This one helped send the game into overtime, and if he had made the free throw (he didn’t), the Cougs would have likely won in regulation.

In the first overtime, Cowgill again made a game-saving layup, this time on an offensive rebound to tie the game at 67. All I remember about that play was how wide open Cowgill was under the basket. Certainly in the right place at the right time.

Then, in the second overtime, Cowgill made the dagger, a mid-range jumper from the side that gave the Cougs a 73-70 lead - the same advantage the Cougars would hold at the end of the game.

The other play I considered was either one of Taylor Rochestie’s back-to-back threes that nullified two Husky leads of the same margin. Rochestie and Cowgill carried the WSU offense down the stretch, scoring 14 of the Cougars’ last 20 points. A fellow member of the crowd anointed Cowgill as “Big Shot Rob”, which couldn’t have been more true on Senior Night (with apologies to Robert Horry, who already owns the nickname).

But back to the #4 play. There was something that didn’t feel right about this game. Going in, and waiting for hours in line, there was a sort of relaxed confidence that you usually don’t see from Cougar fans. It was destiny - there was no possible way that Low, Cowgill, and Weaver could end their careers at Friel Court on a loss. And as for the Huskies, who had lost six straight to us, what chance did they have? Remember, the last game at Friel Court in which the huskies played was a 75-47 slaughterfest that ended with Ryan Appleby in tears on the bench.

But all hopes of another blowout were quickly dashed by a slow start from the senior day starters (Cross, Low, Weaver, Cowgill, Henry) and a 7-2 Washington run to open the game. The huskies hung around until a 12-4 run by the Cougars resulted in a 30-26 halftime advantage. Shots were falling for Wazzu, and the confidence was back.

…Until the huskies clawed their way back in. Twice. The Cougs held two advantages in this game that they should have run away with. A 37-32 lead with 16:26 lead got trumped by Quincy Pondexter and three straight husky baskets. Then, a 48-42 lead with 6:18 left (and possession of the ball), was canceled out by Husky free throws and one of the more egregiously awful stretches of officiating this season. The Huskies went on a 10-4 run, with eight of those points coming from the charity stripe.

And then, when Quincy Pondexter dunked the ball with 1:55 remaining, all hope seemed lost. The energy was sucked out of Beasley, and it looked like the bad guys were really going to win this one. There were about four times this game where I hung my head with the prospect of this game being a loss. It just couldn’t turn out that way. It wasn’t supposed to play out like that - but it was.

So who would step up? Weaver was the best player on the team, so he might. Low was the best shooter, so maybe he could drain a clutch 3 or to. Of course when it comes to clutchiness (fake ed. note: not a real word), no one tops Taylor Rochesite, so surely he would come through.

Nope. It was the other senior of the Big Three. It was Cowgill. And when that layup went through the net with 14.4 left, Beasley was one of the loudest places I had ever heard. Hope was restored. For the first time in about 15 minutes of basketball, I went from fearing a loss to believing we would actually win. The only thing that could have topped Robbie’s shot would have been a buzzer beater, which Kyle Weaver almost made when he stole the ball and raced down the court with seconds remaining. Of course, he got caught in that gray area with not enough time to get the layup, and not enough time to pull up for a jumper. So his runner bounced harmlessly off the glass. If he had made that, there’s your #1 play for the year.

Cowgill doesn’t get enough credit. Especially for his defense, which is a big reason why the Cougs have 7 straight wins over the Dawgs. Without him, Jon Brockman would almost certainly have led UW to a victory in one of those games. And on offense, it was always Cowgill that drained those mid-range jumpers, a lost art in today’s drive-or-shoot-the-three world of college basketball. Forrest is a similarly skilled player and a good replacement for next year, but Robbie was one of a kind.

So if you see Cowgill, thank him. Otherwise this guy might have been able to actually win a game against the Cougs in his career:

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The video above reminded me of one play I left off the Top Plays list that should have been included. So let me add it as #5a: Taylor Rochestie hits a halfcourt shot at the buzzer in the first half against UCLA. (play at the :54 second mark of the YouTube video).