WSU 96, Eastern Washington 81: Quick Recap

After having only been able to open up a small lead over the first 10 minutes, the Cougars (now 5-1) exploded offensively over the next six minutes behind some truly ridiculous 3-point shooting. With the score 21-17, Cedric Coward drained what would be the first of eight consecutive makes for WSU from distance, fueling a 22-3 run that opened up a 24-point lead with just under 4 minutes left in the half.

From there, it was more or less over; EWU (1-4) cut the lead down to 15 at halftime, then trimmed it to 13 with a pair of free throws out of the break. That’s as close as they would get, despite a plethora of sloppy turnovers (21) for the Cougs down the stretch.

In A Minute

• Cougfan recap

• Stats

• Line o’ the night: Dane Erikstrup with 24 points, 8 rebounds (5 offensive) in 27 minutes

• One stat to tell the tale: WSU shot 16 of 30 from 3-point range (53%) after only combining for 20 total 3s in their last three games.

Highlights

Three Thoughts

1. Flipping the script

Despite having a reputation as deploying a long-range offense, it was actually inside the arc where David Riley’s team had been making its hay this year: The Cougars ranked 22nd in 2-point percentage heading into last night’s game, which is what had allowed them to paper over some mediocre shooting over the last few contests.

No need to pound the paint last night: The Cougars took what the Eagles were giving them and fired away from deep, making 12-of-20 shots from beyond the arc in the first half on their way to opening up a 24-point lead. Oddly, the Cougs had their toughest game around the basket, shooting under 55% from inside the arc for the first time this year (16-of-34, 47%). Some of that was due to some … uh … inconsistent refereeing around the rim.

The thing Riley seemed to appreciate most about it was that the ball was really moving to open up those looks.

“I thought it was a a fun game, for a lot of reasons, and it was great to see us come out and play the way we did,” he said after the game. “I think we had 16 assists in the first 15 minutes and played Washington State basketball for about 15 minutes — and then figure out how to win the game after that.”

2. Sloppy finish

If the first 15 minutes were incredible, the final 25 were just … fine. Twenty-four-point first-half leads are rare, and teams who achieve them almost always win but also often seem to not finish the game with the same verve they used to build that lead in the first place — never mind the fact that nobody is going to shoot 60% on high-volume attempts from 3 for an entire game.

The main culprit for WSU in this one was those turnovers: Their 21 was a season high, “besting” the 20 they committed in the season opener against Portland State. Some of that was simply EWU’s defensive philosophy (we noted coming into the game that they take the ball away quite a bit), and some of it was also due to five offensive fouls. Four of those were on WSU’s bigs, and Ethan Price and ND Okafor were in foul trouble all night, which created some little-used lineups that disrupted WSU’s offensive flow; Price, in particular, is an excellent ball mover in the high post, and his absence gets felt in ways that aren’t always obvious.

But mostly? The Cougs just got a little loose with the ball in a game where they were no longer threatened and clearly were the better team. Not ideal, but also … eh. These are still college guys, and lapses in concentration and execution are to be expected. If I really wanted to nitpick, I’d point out that WSU has had three games in which they’ve turned it over on greater than 20% of their possessions, which is mildly concerning. But they’ve also had three games under 17%.

At this point, it’s more something to keep an eye on — and something that Riley will surely use as a teaching tool after an otherwise solid victory.

3. Great Dane

You didn’t think I was going to let an opportunity to use that header go by did you? I’ve been waiting to use it!

Nate Calmese has gotten a ton of attention for his scoring outbursts (and rightly so), but Erikstrup has been an incredibly pleasant surprise. Like each of his counterparts who transferred from Eastern, he has improved a ton from last year — he’s taking fewer shots, but being more efficient with them. His 2-point and 3-point percentages are up, and he’s hitting 41% from beyond the arc on 39 attempts.

When I think about what was different for the offense against Iowa — in which WSU put up its worst scoring efficiency — I keep coming back to the fact that Erikstrup fouled out in a season-low 17 minutes, scoring a season-low 3 points. He really is a difference maker with his ability to score from all over the floor, but in particular his ability to stretch the defense with a big.

Which brings me back to those fouls. They really don’t bother me much, but I think they are indicative to some degree of his limitations, and why a guy like Okafor is so important. Erikstrup has fouled out of two games and had four fouls in three others. He’s committing 6.3 fouls per 40 minutes played, which is high, and also right in line with his career averages. His foot speed isn’t great, but the effort is clearly there on defense, and I think that shows in his uptick in blocks this year — he’s got at least one block in five of the first six games, including five against Northern Colorado. If he can be tall and disrupt some shots and not pick up so many fouls that he can’t play 25-30 minutes … that’s fine.

Up Next: Fresno State

The Cougars will be back at it on Tuesday when they travel to Palm Springs, California, for something called the “Acrisure Holiday Invitational.” There, they will start by taking on the Bulldogs, who are quite bad.

FSU features one of the worst offenses in the country, something you wouldn’t know if you simply looked at their points per game, where they’re averaging 78. That’s due mostly to tempo, where they’re one of the fastest teams in the country, having gone over 80 possessions twice — they’re No. 3 in adjusted possessions per game. For context, WSU has only done that in the opener against Portland State, although last night was 79, so maybe close enough? Anyway WSU is 36th in adjusted possessions, so there should be plenty of up-and-down action for entertainment purposes.

Back to the Bulldogs: Despite looking pretty ok in points per game, they rank 317th in kenpom’s adjusted offensive efficiency thanks to one of the worst 3-point attacks you’ll see: They’ve only made 27% of their shots from distance this year, and they’re only marginally better inside the arc and from the free throw line despite playing some pretty awful opponents.

Their defense is a bit better, and opponents do turn the ball over quite a bit against them. What’s interesting is that they’re not particularly good at stealing it; they actually rank super high in “non-steal turnovers.” Perhaps they’re really good at drawing charges? Or maybe they get teams into a running contest and hope they throw it away a bunch? I honestly am not sure, but we know that the Cougs can be turnover prone, so it would be great if the Cougs didn’t short circuit themselves and make life easier for the Bulldogs.

FSU also has really limited how many 3s the other team makes; opponents are shooting just 28% from deep against them. However … that’s sometimes a tough nut to crack when trying to figure out why. The Bulldogs are pretty long on the perimeter, which is something that definitely helps. But their defensive possessions are pretty short on average, which doesn’t suggest that they’re making their opponents work super hard for shots, which is usually a driving factor on low opponent 3-point%. I’m tempted to think this is a mirage — the only decent 3-point shooting team they’ve played is UC Santa Barbara, and the Gauchos shot 35% from deep on 23 attempts.

Win that one — as they should, as kenpom has them at 90% probability to win — and they’ll move on to the “championship” game of the “tournament” where they’ll face the winner of SMU and Cal Baptist. Here’s to hoping the Mustangs win that one because facing them on a neutral floor could be a real nice resume builder.

Tip off against Fresno State is at 9 p.m.(!) PT on TruTV.