Free Throws, Free Throws, Free Throws. With about 5 mins left in the first half, Dotson missed 2, LSU got the offensive board off the 2nd miss, Dotson drove the basket and got fouled, and missed the front end of a 1 and 1. LSU has to do a better job shooting free throws, like you said, they cant afford to miss gimme's.
in hindsight, i really have to question ctj's need to call a t.o. after bass missed the first ft to set the D. the chances of bass making that 2nd ft go up drastically without the t.o. stats wise, it was a horrible game for bo and storm. not so hot shooting and 7 t.o.s by bo and storm got completely eaten up. the team stats arent so bad with solid D, low t.o.s and good rebounding, but 2 of your 3 scorers cant disappoint.
I promised some post game comments for you all. After a great game in Seattle, which I will get to, an almost three hour drive home and a full day of work yesterday, I was too pooped last night to post anything that would have made much sense. It would have been a tough loss for either team. I'm grateful the Cougs were able to pull it out at the end. It easily could have gone the other way. LSU was part of Washington State history. Attendance was 15,341, largest crowd in state history to watch a college basketball game. They announced at the game that it was a WSU record, but it turned out to be even more than that. Thanks for making it happen. It was an extremely electrifying crowd. The kids on both teams must have been amped to play in front of it. What a homecoming for Trent Johnson and Aaron Dotson, as well as our coach and Reggie Moore, who are all from the Seattle area. It was a truly special event and I hope we get to do it again. I'd bet anything your kids would make the trip again in a heartbeat. It was apparent from the start it was going to be one of those grind-it-out affairs. Shades of Stanford when Trent coached there. Your kids have tons of talent and even more heart. Every time I thought we were going to get some separation in the first half LSU responded. The second half was close the whole way. I don't know if you got to see this one on tv. I watched the replay on CBS to see if I got a good perspective of the game. I thought it was a very poorly officiated affair. Both ways. Let the kids play. Too many unnecessary foul calls. I don't think the officials determined the winner, but both coaches got T's. Trent Johnson was in their ear the whole night, pretty typical of him. Coach Bone is a bit more subdued, but he had his moments as well. I don't want to belittle any player. You have a couple very special kids, but I was glad to see Chris Bass at the foul line at the end of regulation. He wasn't much of a threat on offense all night, but I never dreamed he'd miss both those foul shots. He makes one and the game's probably over. Your guys hit a few threes that were absolutely gut-wrenching for us. I know the percentages don't support great shooting, but some of your threes were absolutely critical to LSU staying in the game, especially when it was about to get away from you at the end of the first half. That nine point lead was whittled to four when it could have easily been in double digits. Stone cold heartless shooting from downtown Seattle. Kudos. Both teams are just going to get better. I didn't realize you were missing key starters. Klay Thompson had an off night shooting for us. I hope you appreciate how much youth we have with only on senior on the roster, sixth-man Nik Kopravica. Most of the time we had only true freshmen and sophmores on the court. All in all, I had a great time with 15,000+ other Cougs and a few Tigers. Only saw a couple and did say hi when I did, wanted you to know. I hope we can keep this series alive with another home-and-home. You have a great school and it was an honor for us to play you. Hope this spring we see you in Omaha. Our baseball program in on the rise and we have a decent shot of getting there one of these seasons in the near future. Geaux Cougs!!!
Thanks for the post-game reactions. I didn't realize it was as huge a game as it was. I wish that LSU could get 15K+ at an early game in the season against "just another" BCS school. That's a tremendous turnout and I'm glad that the Tigers got to play in front of that kind of crowd. I think you said it all. I didn't realize from the box score what a poorly officiated game it was. Alot of poor calls, 41 to 27 foul shots shot by WSU versus LSU, AND, in post game commentary Trent made it a point to say that he called plays for Tasmin to get the ball and initiate offense--he shot NO free throws. Bo came up big on the line, and yes, he hit a few 3 pointers, but if Bass and Dotson hit 50% of their free throws and we win. Storm Warren was also affected by tight calling. He couldn't get untracked because of the refs. It's disappointing to say the least. But, I'm comforted by the fact that in a tight game, LSU could have caved and they at least experienced a tight game in difficult conditions. Our younger kids like Bass and Dotson have to learn to step and play better despite tough shooting nights. Agree that this would be a nice annual rivalry. LSU would be well served to see a Pac10 team every season to shake up it's out of conference schedule. Plus, Trent needs to keep a pipeline into the Seattle-WA area for recruiting. There seems to be a good consistent supply of players coming out of the area. Dotson will be a good player for us, he just needs time to develop.
DAMMIT!! this is the third basketball game i missed, and i did NOT want to miss this one! damn christmas. oh well. sounds like storm warren was a non-factor. you really can't expect to win with two players. oh well, there is next season. always next season.
As far as the officiating is concerned, fans out west have been bitching about Pac-10 officials for years in both football and basketball. Watching a game live and on tv are two different animals and I just thought they should have let the kids play. We had a few really questionable calls against us on blocks and steals where it was clear to us it was all ball. I'm looking at it from a clearly WSU perspective too, so you have to forgive me for that bias. I just felt like the refs could've just let the game flow in it's natural direction a little better. At the end when someone was called for a foul on Klay Thompson, it happened right in front of me and he wasn't even touched. I thought the bad calls went both ways, just saying..... Aaron Dotson is going to be a great player. Another one gets away! I was so into the game, that I hardly ever even looked at the scorecard or the names on Tiger jerseys so I don't remember all the particulars. Every shot we took was contested. Every possession was critical. The crowd was really into it. It was not a game for the feint of heart. When you get right down to it, it's great to see the SEC and Pac-10 involved in games like this. It's good for both conferences. I would have been heart-broken had we lost so I know how you must feel. But that just indicates how important this game was for both schools. One other thing that impressed me was the good sportsmanship shown by both teams. I'm not into the me-me-me kind of stuff and I didn't see even one instance of that which I'm proud to report. If our teams played 100 times, I'm betting it's split 50-50 or 51-49 Wazzu:grin: Good luck on the rest of your season. I will be following closely. Geaux Cougs!!!
not to be an ass, but taz mitch didn't take one foul shot? that's shoddy calling right there. of course, i don't really know jack sh!t about basketball calls. everything looks like a travel or a walk to me. :hihi:
We have a couple kids that can play lock-down D. Klay Thompson and Marcus Capers usually get assigned to players like Taz, so maybe that had something to do with it. I don't have any other explanation, but it did seem that every time an LSU player got into the lane, a foul was called. My reference to officiating is more from an overall perspective, I just like to see the game flow without as much involvement from them. We tried to run at every opportunity, but it turned into a half-court game which makes it a bit more physical, so that probably has as much to do with all the foul calls as anything else I can figure out.
