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....

Starting 5 thoughts

During the WSU scrimmage today, Coach Tony mentioned the starting five for the Cougs would likely be McLovin at the 1, Klay at the 2, Daven at the 3, Caleb at the 4 and Sloth manning the middle. Other than Klay, we'd be starting 4 seniors. Now I will go ahead and mention that Tony will have forgotten more about basketball in the next five minutes than I'll ever learn in my lifetime, but I can't imagine this is going to be our starting five all season. I think a lot of this has to do with Fabian's back problems, as his hype alone is probably enough to start at the 3. I think Daven is better off in a Ricky Pierce role off the bench (sans GP feud). He can still score 20 in a game in a situational role, and I think him coming off the bench would be ideal. Although if Boeke can't play this year, it doesn't leave us with much choice.

Another player I loved coming off the bench last season was Caleb. His defensive intensity and situational rebounding was key in our run last season. I'd love to see one of the kids start, either Watson or Casto (Watson is outrebounding Castro in the pic). Both look to be able to rebound in the Pac-10 NOW, and Casto's jumper in preps was good to 18 feet (I don't believe Oklahoma exists in the union, so I'm unfamiliar with Watson's high school days). Perhaps Tony doesn't think either of them could defend a Jon Brockman or Taj Gibson yet; maybe they'll be ready by Pac-10 play. My beer gut thinks Caleb is better for the Cougars in spurts off the bench.

Anyway, my ideal starting-5 (if all are healthy) is

1 Rochestie

2 Thompson

3 Boeke

4 Watson/Casto

5 Baynes

reserves: Daven, Nik, Casto/Watson, Caleb, Capers and possibly Enquist.

I need to work on getting nicknames for everyone...