Sorry for missing the two weeks, but if I was going to get a break, these were the two weeks to miss.
0-4. Blah.
Three of those games came down to the final two minutes. And, in those crucial minutes, you could see the difference between our teams and other teams: other teams simply execute better. When all was on the line, WSU executed better than Oregon. UCLA executed better than Oregon. USC executed better than Oregon. This team is best in a free flowing game. Put them in a tight siutation, and they wilt. In my estimation, there are two reasons for this:
- There isn't a real point guard on this team. I think that we can safely say that the TP at the point experiment has failed. And that's not a knock on TP (who is totally awesome), its just a simple fact that TP is a 2, not a 1. He's at his best coming off screens, spotting up, etc. Creating off the dribble and distributing the basketball isn't really his strength. Kamyron Brown is going to be a great PG, but he is only a freshman. This reminds me a lot of 03-04. Aaron Brooks was a freshman playing really inconsistetly, and Brandon Lincoln wasn't really a legit PG. Next year, with Kam at the 1 and TP at the 2 all season, we'll be in pretty good shape. But this year, we are suffering from having inexperience at the most important position on the floor.
- There is no real leader on this team. Last year, you knew that AB was going to take the last shot--and there was nothing you could do to stop him. It was the same thing with Freddie Jones in '02. And while Malik and Bryce are very good players, they just aren't that player. This team doens't really know where to go to in the crunch.
Thoughts on other things:
- I'm really tired of the whole Kevin Love things. The guys on 1080 were going on about it again today. Did some idiot college kids go too far? Probably. But its not the world-ending travesty that some people are making of it. Bottom line--Kevin Love killed us. I think that's revenge enough for anything. Continuing to go on about it isn't helping anything.
- I'm also really tiring of the Terrelle Pryor situation. This kid has high maintenance written all over him, and I really don't think I want him around regardless of his talent. We already have Chris Harper and Darron Thomas, who will both be badass. Let Pryor go to tOSU, and they can deal with his issues.
- Looks like the Autzen parking lot is going to be the final site for the new baseball stadium. It also looks like the Ems will be joining the Ducks at MLK. While I will mourn the loss of Civic, I am so freaking stoked for Duck baseball. One more year!
Civil War up on Saturday, and we need a win badly. I'll have a preview up Friday.
GO DUCKS!!!
--Dave