No. 103 WSU 68, No. 36 Nevada 57: Quick Recap

The Washington State Cougars picked up a stunning, Quad 1 road victory over Nevada that gets their season right back on track following last week’s somewhat embarrassing performance against SMU in the finale of the Acrisure Invitational.

The game was tight for the first 10 minutes but the Cougs began to separate over the final 10 minutes of the first half, outscoring the Wolf Pack 21-10 to take a double-digit lead into the break.

The expected surge from Nevada simply never came. WSU extended the lead marginally coming out of halftime, then used yet another cold stretch from the Wolf Pack to stretch the lead to 17 with about 11 minutes to go. The closest Nevada would get in the remainder of the game was the final margin of 11, which was only that close because of a technical foul on WSU’s bench and a garbage time 3 in the final minute.

Incredible win.

In A Minute

• Cougfan recap by friend of the pod Jamey Vinnick

• Stats

• Line o’ the night: Isaiah Watts with 17 points on 5-of-8 shooting from deep with 4 rebounds, 1 assist, and 1 steal.

• One stat to tell the tale: Nevada — which remains fourth in the country in 3-point shooting at 42.8% — made just 4 of 20 attempts from deep.

Highlights

Want to watch the whole thing? The full game archive is here for replay.

Three Thoughts

1. Just about as good a victory as there has been recently

It probably seems weird to give an early December game at a Mountain West opponent that kind of credence, but I think when you take all the context of this one into account, this is up there in the second tier of wins in the last five or six years.

First, let’s set the stage: Nevada was ranked No. 36 in kenpom heading into the game. This was a tough opponent. Steve Alford has turned Nevada back into a upper crust west coast program that has made the NCAA tournament for two years running. The Wolf Pack haven’t lost a home nonconference game since November 2021.

WSU, meanwhile, entered the game with just nine scholarship players available — all-everything player Cedric Coward and backup point guard Marcus Wilson remain out with injuries, and we found out before the game that freshman Kase Wynott (whose minutes had been increasing) didn’t even make the trip with a suspected concussion. Big man Dimitrije Vukicevic, another scholarship player, is still redshirting.

The only reason it was even nine and not eight is because wing Rihards Vavers, who had been out with an injury since the opener, finally made his return. But that only lasted a short time: He played five effective minutes off the bench, hitting a couple of threes, before a hard rebound foul caused him to land on the hand he injured previously. He wouldn’t return.

With the game tied and 28 minutes left to play, coach David Riley was down to just seven healthy rotation players plus deep bench player Parker Gerrits, whose playing time had all but disappeared in the last couple of weeks. Over the next few minutes, two of our three big men — Dane Erikstrup and ND Okafor — would each pick up their third fouls and head to the bench. Riley was left with six(!) viable players.

Let’s just say it wasn’t looking great to hold onto that 10-point lead in the second half.

Riley, though, did an absolutely masterful job managing the rotation the rest of the way. It didn’t hurt that he had a lead to play with, but where some guys might have coached scared and just tried to ride their horses all the way to the finish line, Riley wasn’t afraid to get creative to try and mitigate the situation. At one point, the lineup on the floor featured Nate Calmese, Isaiah Watts, and Gerrits all at the same time, with LeJuan Watts at the 4 and Ethan Price at the 5. Another time, he was able to wisely steal a couple of game minutes with Gerrits playing in place of Calmese heading into a media timeout.

In addition to Gerrits, he counted on freshman Tomas Thrastarson to play a bunch of important minutes. While Riley’s hand was obviously forced into playing him to such a large degree, there also were moments where Riley could have turned back to his foul-prone big men instead. But he trusted the Icelander, and the Icelander delivered with 3 points, 4 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 steals, and zero turnovers in 22 big minutes.

That ragtag group of players put together a Game Score of 98 at barttorvik.com — which means they literally played like the best team in the country last night:

Beyond that, Nevada is the highest ranked kenpom opponent that WSU has beaten in a true road nonconference game since the 2007-08 squad beat Baylor and Gonzaga back to back in their buildings. And beyond THAT, this came on the heels of a thorough ass whipping at the hands of SMU last week.

When you put it all together … yeah, this is a truly impressive victory that deserves to remembered fondly for years to come. And that doesn’t even take into account the potential NCAA tournament resume implications: This will almost certainly be a Quad 1 win come March.

2. Defense and toughness

Against SMU, the Cougars were, frankly, completely bullied by the Mustangs. Chris King and Craig Ehlo were reluctant to use the word “soft” on the broadcast, but I won’t pull any punches: The Cougs were Charmin soft in that game. They were pushed around on the glass and beaten to rebound after rebound. I usually refrain from saying one team “wanted it more” than the other, but that’s exactly what happened in that game: The Mustangs wanted it more.

That fact was certainly not lost on Riley. Not because of anything he said, but because of the way the team came out and absolutely battled all night with Nevada. You can tell the Wolf Pack expected the team they saw on video against SMU, and that is not at all the team that showed up last night. I don’t know what kind of practices Riley ran to drive home the point that WSU just wasn’t tough enough last week,¹ but it’s clear he got his message across: WSU was first to so many balls, was unafraid to mix it up under the basket, and repeatedly won 50/50 balls in the paint.

The commitment to toughness showed up on defense, too. WSU allowed a season-low adjusted defensive efficiency of 0.76 points per possesion to Nevada, and while the Wolf Pack had a rough shooting night, a lot of that had to do with WSU’s defensive effort. The ground they’ve made up in that area since the season opener is nothing short of remarkable. I’ve heard the message Riley has been sending to the team is that they will go as far as the defense can take them, and — again — the message is not only getting through, they’re being coached supremely well on that side of the ball.

So well, that … well, let me show you something:

“DRtg” is kenpom’s adjusted defensive efficiency — how many points per possession a team would be expected to give up to an average opponent. Not only is WSU’s defense rated more highly than its offense (surprising), the defense is rated much more highly than what Kyle Smith is currently running at Stanford (shocking). Oh, and the Cougs are nine spots ahead of the Cardinal (WHISKEY TANGO FOXTROT!?!).

I’m not trying to dunk on Smith. Truly. I’m just trying to point out what an incredible job Riley is doing right now.

3. Thrasher

I’m not going to lie: When I saw Thrastarson first play this year, I wondered a little as to why we weren’t redshirting him. He didn’t look great, and his body looks like it needs a year to be transformed into a Division 1 vessel.

Last night, he looked like a guy who could absolutely give us some important minutes. The stat line wasn’t eye popping, but he was everywhere on the floor, doing all sorts of things that would eventually help the team win. The 3-point stroke looked surprisingly good, and he wasn’t overwhelmed athletically.

“Tomas been playing pro for the last couple years over over in Iceland,” Riley said. “He's played with some grown men. It was really cool to see (him and Isaiah Watts) step up when the when the pressure was on.”

I think Riley might have landed himself another good one. And it’s a good thing, because he’s going to be needed.

Up Next: No. 49 Boise State

With one Quad 1 victory already in the bag, the Cougs have another chance to get one on Saturday when they travel to Boise for a “neutral” site game against the Broncos. It’s “neutral” because it’s being played in the city arena rather than the campus arena, something that might be beneficial for BSU (if WSU is able to crack the top 50 in NET) but isn’t likely to make much of a difference for the Cougars.

The Broncos’ nonconference schedule has been a bit of a mixed bag; they have a home win over No. 24 Clemson, but they also have a road loss to No. 63 San Francisco and a tournament loss to No. 151 Boston College in the Cayman Islands.

This year’s edition of Boise State is more of a throwback for Leon Rice; the last few years have been marked by tenacious defense, but this is a squad more reminiscent of his teams that were offense forward with a merely serviceable defense.

Spokane native Tyson Degenhart is still there, only now he’s leading the way for the Broncos, leading the team in usage, efficiency, and points per game. Thankfully, this will be the last time we see him.

Tipoff is 1 p.m. PT and the game will be broadcast on CBS(!).

1  I’m not saying that Wynott ended up with a concussion because of hard practices, but would you be surprised if that was the case?