I'm Idaho (State)!

So after watching Taylor and company get thoroughly dominated by a team of All-Americans on Saturday, it was refreshing to watch us come in and beat on the Little Sisters of the Poor for a night. CORRECTION: We actually played the Little Sisters of the Poor minus their four-year starting Point Guard. Matt Stucki was at home having a baby. Upon further inspection, did you know in the dream season, we only beat this team by 6? I was pretty shocked, too. On the plus side, it was nice to pull the starters up 28 points and play the freshmen for the last 7 minutes. We even had a Dolph sighting for a few minutes!

For those who care, here were the plus/minus on the evening. You'll notice the starters all have incredible numbers and the freshmen didn't do so hot against the ISU starters.

Rochestie +28
Baynes +24
Harmeling +24
Koprivica +21
Thompson +20
Casto +4
Forrest +2
Capers +1
Witherill -2
Boeke -3
Enquist -6
Harthun -9
Lodwick -9

Outside of the box sccore, I was really impressed with Baynes, and have been all season. His weight loss is really helping the team on the offensive end. There were large stretches last season when our offense would set up in mover/blocker and Baynes would just camp out in the key hoping for an opening. This sesason, he (along with Casto) are really getting into setting BIG picks for the wings, which is why Daven and Klay had so many wide open shots. Then in the 2nd half when ISU switched to a zone, he was able to stay off the blocks long enough to spread the defense out and we were able to penetrate because of it. Game ball, Sloth. You earned it.

This was FSN's first Coug game of the season, and may I be the first person to say how refreshing it is to enjoy college hoops without Brian Davis fucking it up. Oh, and his Thunder lost again tonight.

Ehlo only had one Facepalm tonight, this time essentially making up a Superhero Origins story from just reading the roster: "You gotta realize he's left handed, and Coach Bennett's left-handed and he was a point guard who was left handed, and that's why Taylor's out there so much..." Getting no reaction from Todd Mansfield, Ehlo elaborated his Southpaw-Cult theory in the 2nd half by telling us the only reason Capers was recruited at all was because he's also left-handed.

Looking forward to what he says about Baylor on Saturday....

Media Predictions, McLovin and the rest of the Pac's Points.

So I've been reading through the various pre-season mags and the general consensus is that the Cougs will fall to the bottom half of the league. Seeing as there are going to be seven new players on the team this season, I'm actually pretty thrilled with this. While I think several Freshmen are going to step up this season (Klay will likely start at the 2 or 3 and I'd like to see what Watson or Casto can do at the 4), this is no doubt McLovin's team.

Rochestie is not only the returning floor leader, he's the returning statistical leader, bringing in a Hollinger Rating of 10.4 last season and calculating his "Win Score", Taylor was worth 10.4 wins (as a comparison, Weaver was worth 9.5 wins last season).

I'll go through who I think is going to help the Cougs get back to the tourney this year, but wanted to start this thing off making this clear: This team is getting nowhere without a productive McLovin. Capers looks like he will be a solid player eventually, but I don't see him playing more than 8 minutes or so because Rochestie needs to be on the court 36 minutes a game in order for us to have a shot this season.

In other news, water is wet.

While the Pac-10 had what was likely its most dominant season ever, I think the starting Point Guards are an even better crop than last year. While I think Taylor matters more to his team than the others, here's how I'd rank them.

1. Darren Collison, UCLA (6-0 SR,14.5 ppg, 3.8 apg, 1.9 spg)
2. Daniel Hackett, USC (6-5 JR, 8.6 ppg, 3.2 apg, 1.1 spg)
3. Taylor Rochestie, WSU (6-1 SR, 10.4 ppg, 4.7 apg, 1.0 spg)
4. Nic Wise, Arizona (5-10 JR, 9.2 ppg, 4.4 apg, 2.0 spg)
5. Derek Glasser, ASU (6-1 JR, 6.1 ppg, 3.9 apg, .8 spg)
6. Jerome Randle, Cal (5-10 JR, 11.8 ppg, 3.7 apg)
7. Kamyron Brown, Ore (6-2 SO, 4.2 ppg, 3.1 apg)
8. Mitch Johnson, Stan (6-1 SR, 6.7 ppg, 5.2 apg)
9. Josh Tarver, OSU (6-3 JR, 6.7 ppg, 2.4 apg, 1.2 spg)
10. Isaiah Thomas, UW (5-8 FR, I'm not fucking listing High School stats)

Pretty impressive list, no? The Collison and Hackett are likely first round draft picks, McLovin and Wise will vie for all Pac-10 honors, Glasser and Brown both had stellar numbers in limited minutes, and Tarver is one of the better perimiter defenders in the league. I rated Randle and Johnson a little lower than I might have if they weren't running new offenses this season. Thomas is finally in college after going to prep school for two years... highly touted but undersized and doesn't have anywhere near the experience of the other PGs.