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.

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.

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).

Top 10 Cougar Plays: #5

January 5th:

Game Recap

Top 10 Cougar Plays: #6

February 7: Kyle Weaver does this:

Video courtesy of WSUCougarHoops on YouTube

What amazes me about Kyle Weaver is his ability to make seemingly impossible plays look pedestrian. Weaver’s game is so fluid, so cool, he lulls you to sleep before making a NBA-caliber offensive or defensive play.

There is only one concern I have about Kyle Weaver’s future in the NBA: He might end up playing for Clay Bennett. Thanks to the Sonics acquisition of a 2008 first-round pick from Phoenix, Seattle (or should I say the Oklahoma City Bandits) will be have a late first-round draft pick. Exactly where Kyle Weaver is projected to be drafted.

I can guarantee you I will be an instant fan of any team that drafts Weaver. I’m a Blazers fan, but I’m more than willing to pick up a second squad to root for in a league that I am becoming increasingly disinterested in (thanks, David Stern!). Weaver in the NBA, however, makes me excited about the association. Here’s the Cougar version of Brandon Roy, a player than can do everything well, getting a chance to contribute on the largest stage. And he’ll have success - his defense alone makes him a valuable pickup for the NBA team that wants him.

So - anyone but the Sonics, draft Kyle. You won’t regret it.

The Spring Signing period has begun, and there’s no news to report - yet. Don’t expect Paul McCoy to be the next Cougar signee as WSU was outside of his top three at last notice. It is possible that WSU is waiting for Ferris star DeAngelo Casto to clear academic hurdles. It is also possible that WSU could go in a completely different direction by finding a new recruit or awarding the remaining scholarship to returning Cougar Charlie Enquist. Only Tony and the staff know where they are leaning at this point. It’s something definitely worth keeping an eye on.

Top 10 Cougar Plays: #7

January 20: Taylor Rochestie throws an inbound pass halfway down the court to a wide open Robbie Cowgill, who takes it the rest of the way for a dunk.

Game Recap

This was an exclamation point play.

You know, one of those plays that happens when you’re team is just about to seal up a victory, and then makes a spectacular play to shut the door for good. The special thing about this play, however, is who the opponent was.

The Oregon Ducks had won 13 straight against WSU and were the only Pac-10 conference opponent that the combination of Dick and Tony Bennett had failed to beat since arriving on the Palouse. The last two times the Cougar fans saw the Ducks in Pullman were particularly excruciating losses. The most publicized of those two games, which came right as the Cougs were rising to prominence in 2007, ended in overtime after a controversial (although not so controversial on the replay) call on Aron Baynes gave Maarty Leunen the chance to tie a game in regulation. Many Coug fans had heard the buzzer first and were already celebrating - but Leunen sank his free throws and the ducks jumped out ahead on a 10-0 run in overtime. They got the win, but needed every point as the Cougs missed three chances to tie in the final 11 seconds.

If 2007 was controversial, then the 2006 Oregon/WSU game was an absolute robbery. It wasn’t televised, so if you weren’t there you didn’t see it. If that’s you, be glad, because you would have seen Aaron Brooks drive, pick up the ball and take three whole steps before passing to an open Malik Hairston who hit the game-winning shot with 0.4 left on the clock. It happened about 10 feet in front of me.

If bad history wasn’t enough, the Cougs were also fighting my own superstitions on that January night. The game was attended by my family, which includes my sister and her husband. My brother-in-law is a Duck (and part Vandal), and there’s nothing wrong with that. The only problem is that every Coug game we have been to with them has been against the Ducks. And every time, regardless of the sport, the Cougars have lost. We saw the aforementioned Leunen game, and the Kellen Clemens football disaster, among others.

The Cougs didn’t do much to assuage my fears in the first 4:07, letting the Ducks start the game on a 12-2 run. It all felt wrong. There was something about these guys. They owned us. Ernie Kent, the same man who called Friel the hardest place to play in the conference, also had an uncanny ability to destroy the home team every time his team played there. Nothing seemed to indicate that this night would be any different.

But, the Cougs hung around. And when Kyle Weaver made a jump shot to give the Cougs their first lead of the night with 14:59 remaining, the place went into hysterics. It was a combined effort. This time, the 11,000+ faithful at Friel, and the Cougs, weren’t going to let this one slip away. The defense was superb down the stretch, holding Leunen without a bucket in the final five minutes. Taylor Rochestie, with ice in his veins, sunk four consecutive free throws that would finally ground the Ducks.

But free throws by themselves aren’t exciting. What was exciting was what Rochestie would do next. Thank goodness the 2008 season is over, because no opponent ever seemed to realize that our go-to option on inbound plays, when we needed a clean one, was always Robbie Cowgill. Rochestie did his best Jason Gesser impersonation and lobbed the ball down the court to Cowgill. The Ducks, in fullcourt press mode, had no one beyond the middle of the court, and he was gone. The hex was broken. All was right with the world.

I was ecstatic, jumping with the crowd, and yelled something ridiculous along the lines of “the refs can’t help you every time!!” in the direction of the group of Duck fans to my right (I was not in the ZZU CRU for this one and my seats were one section over from a contingent of green and gold). My family went to Wingers for dinner - there was a huge grin on my face from the win, and there were smiles all around from my family because they knew that for once I wouldn’t be in a bad mood after a Duck game.

Top 10 Cougar Plays: #8

January 26: Kyle Weaver snuffs out James Harden’s attempt at a game winning drive to the basket.

Game Recap

It was deja vu all over again.

Game Recap - February 3, 2007

Without a doubt, the two most excruciating wins of the past two years have both been by 1 point at Arizona State. In 2007, the Cougs scored a total of 12 points in the second half; nearly blowing a halftime advantage of the same amount. A failed inbounds pass gave ASU a wide open look for three at the end of the game. They missed, and the Cougs survived.

One year later, the Cougars failed to score anything in the final 3:11 of the game, nearly blowing a 10 point lead with just over 8 minutes remaining. James Harden drove to the basket with 42 seconds left. Kyle Weaver, in an eerily similar way to how he defended Brandon Roy in the final seconds at Hec Ed in 2006, took the charge. After a missed shot by Rochestie, Harden drove to the rim one more time. He may have been fouled. He probably was fouled. But Weaver stopped him from getting to the hoop. The shot never fell, and the Cougs survived.

Top 10 Cougar Plays: #9

December 28: Caleb Forrest grabs an offensive rebound off the rim and throws it down.

I’m not normally a casual fan. Lining up a couple of hours before men’s home games is a minimum for me, although 3 hours before the game sure doesn’t guarantee front row like it used to. Nevertheless, three days after Christmas in Pullman I decided to take it easy. There weren’t any students in town, and I could have a nice relaxing dinner with my significant other, show up five minutes before the game, and get great seats to watch the #4 Cougs blow out a school that I wasn’t sure existed.

So imagine my surprise when I show up and the ZZU CRU section is mostly filled. But not with students. What happened, I would find out later via text from a friend, is that the athletic department, fearing low attendance, sold student section seats to the general public for $5 (much to my chagrin as I had just payed $10 for a student guest ticket - thanks a lot). In the pre-bandwagon days, attendance for a game like this over break would be around 2,000, if the Cougs were lucky. Thanks in part to this promotion, and a large number of hardcore season ticket holders, attendance was 6,642. That says a lot about how far Cougar basketball has come.

What the public of Pullman didn’t know, however, is that the ZZU CRU also occupies the baseline on the East side of Friel Court. So lucky for me, we waltz right in and sit in the front row behind the basket (a few seats over of course, because directly behind the basket obscures the view).

This is where the play comes in. ESPN’s play by play lists it as a “two point tip shot”. It wasn’t. I am sure of this because it happened about 7 feet in front of me. If you were there, you know why this play is on the list. Another Cougar (can’t remember who, might have been Forrest himself) missed a mid-range jumper, then Caleb Forrest comes out of nowhere to grab said jumper off the rim and dunk it like he was LeCaleb Forrest, sure-fire NBA lottery pick. I jumped out of my seat like a four year old, and uttered these eloquent words to my girlfriend:

“Did that just f#$%ing happen?”

Caleb played 23 minutes that game to relieve an injured Daven Harmeling. He scored 8 points as the Cougars improved to 12-0 and finished the nonconference slate undefeated. The game itself was never close; it was another defensive clinic from the home team. NC A&T scored 12 points in the entire first half. Only 9 points in the first 19:28 of the game. They shot 25.5% from the field for the entire game. WSU led 53-16 at one point. And outsiders wonder why we like Bennett Ball so much.