No. 3 seed San Francisco 86, No. 6 seed WSU 75: Quick Recap

The Cougars’ season very likely came to an end Sunday night with a loss to the Dons, as they exit the WCC tournament in the quarterfinals. The game was tight throughout the first half, as each team struggled to make shots consistently, like a couple of fighters swinging wildly and missing. The Cougs trailed by two heading into the break.

After halftime, though, the script flipped. USF landed the first haymaker, going on an 18-6 run that turned a one-point deficit into an 11-point lead with 14 minutes to play. But the Cougs answered back with a haymaker of their own, using a 12-2 run to close the gap to one with 10 minutes to go.

But the Dons answered back again, methodically stretching the lead back out to 12 with six minutes to play behind stifling defense and the offensive leadership of Ryan Beasley — a backup point guard who only started because of the suspension of all-WCC player Marcus Williams. He finished with 29 points on 10-of-15 shooting (4-of-8 from 3) in a season-high 36 minutes.

Sigh.

In A Minute

• Stats

• Line o’ the night: Ethan Price with 26 points and six rebounds.

• One stat to tell the tale: San Francisco took 13 more shots than the Cougars, thanks to grabbing an astounding 21 offensive rebounds. That accounted for more than 50% of their misses, which they turned into 21 second chance points.

Postgame interviews

Sorry, no highlights! The Cougars lost, so WSU apparently can’t make them.

Three Thoughts

1. Defensive rebounding, again

As I mentioned in yesterday’s newsletter, a big reason the Cougs’ defense had come back around over the last few games was because they had gotten their defensive rebounding back under control. That was nowhere to be seen last night against a team that entered the game in the bottom half of both the WCC and Division 1 in offensive rebounding percentage; in conference play, they grabbed just 28% of their misses.

Typically, that low of a number indicates a philosophical aversion to offensive rebounds, but there was no such restraint in this one — USF crashed the glass with abandon, seemingly taking WSU by surprise in the first half with their aggression and physicality on the glass. Perhaps the referees also were surprised as the Dons consistently pushed and shoved their way into position around the basket. That’s not an excuse; it’s on WSU to fight back, and it took way too long for the Cougars to adjust their intensity level — which they eventually did (USF had just six offensive rebounds in the second half, with about half of them coming on just one possession), but the adjustment was too late.

I think a lot of credit goes to Chris Gerlufsen. Shorthanded as the Dons were — and they weren’t even sure Beasley was going to play because of an ankle injury — the USF coach came up with an unusual game plan that targeted a specific WSU weakness.

Of course, a coach is going to look a lot better when the backup point guard who is pressed into action has the game of his life. In the previous four games combined, Beasley had scored just 25 points and missed all 10 of his 3s. I know it can feel like “random guy going off against us” is a phenomenon that plagues WSU more than other schools, and while I can assure you it’s not, it doesn’t make this any less infuriating:

That’s basketball. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

2. Stinky offense

Overlooked in all the hubbub around USF’s offensive rebounding is that I don’t actually think that’s why WSU lost the game. I think it stands out because it’s such an outlier, but the reality is that USF “only” scored 1.14 points per possession even with all those second chances. That’s not an insurmountable number for this offense, which has scored more than 1.14 in about half its games.

Last night, though, the Cougs scored just 1.0 ppp, struggling again with USF’s defensive pressure on the perimeter. That’s not nearly as bad as the 0.75 they put up in the embarrassing blowout to USF last time, but it’s not nearly good enough. It’s in the lower third of their performances this season, and is the lowest output in about three weeks.

Ethan Price and LeJuan Watts each had excellent games (46 points combined), and Nate Calmese was a net positive, even if he wasn’t super efficient (16 points on 14 shots, 11 assists, five turnovers). They just needed a little help, but none of the supporting players were able to bring anything to the table. Dane Erikstrup struggled a ton (nine minutes, two points, zero rebounds one foul) before leaving the game for good with what I would assume was a concussion, and Isaiah Watts picked a really unfortunate time to have his worst game of the year (29 minutes, zero points, 0-of-5 shooting). Rihards Vavers did hit a 3, but he was only able to get off two attempts as USF made sure he could not beat them from deep after Saturday’s performance.

If I’m being honest, that is what bums me out the most about this loss. The defensive rebounding issues? I expect those to some degree. But I expect the offense to be better than it was.

3. Head high

Given just how mightily the Cougars struggled for a long portion of the season, I’m grateful that they were able to end the season with four performances that were more in line with our expectations. Maybe this last loss doesn’t sit well with you, but USF is a good team that is well coached and is going to be on the bubble if they can beat Gonzaga tonight. There’s nothing even remotely embarrassing about that loss, particularly in the context of the string of games in February in which WSU simply didn’t show up.

Despite the defensive rebounding troubles, they showed up for this one and competed their asses off all over the rest of the floor. It’s worth noting that USF had so many offensive rebound opportunities because WSU did a really good job defending in the first half, forcing the Dons into tough shots. And when WSU fell behind behind by double digits early in the second half and could have packed it in — as we have seen this year — they roared back to make it a game. Over the final 10 minutes, USF made the shots, and WSU did not.

Nothing to be ashamed of here.

Up Next: ??

As far as the immediate future goes, I suppose there is the remote possibility that WSU might find itself invited to the postseason. The NIT would not seem to be on the table, but there are a host of other opportunities … if WSU wants to pay to participate. There are indications that would be a hard sell for the athletics department.

There is one tournament out there that WSU wouldn’t have to pay to play: The College Basketball Crown, put on by Fox Sports and AEG. It’s a 16-team tournament designed primarily to feature the leagues that Fox owns the rights to — the Big East, Big Ten, and Big 12 each are guaranteed two spots — but there are 10 other spots up for grabs. It’s in Las Vegas at the end of the month, and your guess is as good as mine as to whether WSU would seriously be considered.

As for the prospects just beyond that, it’s officially transfer season. The question came up last night right after the game, with LeJuan Watts making his intentions clear.

"I haven't thought about it yet," Watts said. "But I'm a Coug for sure ... I'm just loyal to the guys and the guys that want to be here. Coming from Eastern (Washington), I think I'm always going to be with Coach Riley for the rest of my career."

Additionally, Vavers, ND Okafor, and Tomas Thrastarson each told the Spokesman-Review’s Greg Woods that they intend to stay at WSU.

Of course, that’s all worth about the price of the paper it’s printed on. We’ll see what sticks in the near future — I’d be surprised if Watts doesn’t at least test the NBA draft waters.