Good news: Cougars are coming
January 31, 2003
The Apple Cup of basketball should be a good remedy for the struggling Huskies (2-6 Pac-10, 7-10 overall) at home tonight at 7:30. Washington State (0-8, 5-12) is riding an eight-game losing streak, and the Cougs are hurting in more ways than one.
With the Cougars missing four key players because of injury, the Huskies have a chance to be at home, end a two-game skid and get a blowout over an extremely vulnerable team.
Washington State's most difficult loss to injury this season has been guard Marcus Moore. The junior was averaging 19.3 points per contest through 15 games, second in the Pac-10. Moore is out for the rest of the season after having bone chips removed from his ankle.
Adding to the pain has been the injuries of Milton Riley (back), Shami Gill (leg), Ezenwa Ukeagu (appendix) and Justin Lyman (foot). Cougar coach Paul Graham has been so short on practice players that coaches and trainers have had to help go through drills.
They are in shambles, but the lack of depth does not mean the remaining Cougs will lack of effort. Husky coach Lorenzo Romar does not want his team to overlook Washington State because of its run-in with the injury bug.
"The thing about Washington State is they're against all odds right now," said Romar. "What makes them dangerous is the fact that not many are giving them a chance to do much right now, and they're probably using that as motivation.
"Cats are not dangerous until you back them in a corner -- and then the claws come out."
Thomas Kelati has stepped in for the Cougars, averaging 10.8 ppg, while fellow guard Jerry McNair is averaging 6 ppg, including 11 points against Oregon last week.
The Huskies could use a big win over Washington State after getting smashed in the past two games at the Oregon schools, and this game could be that fire-starter they are looking for.
Comments
Post a comment
You are not currently logged in. You must log in using your Facebook account to post a comment. It's fast, easy, and we don't store any of your personal information, except your first and last name when you post a comment.
Why?
Our old comment system was abused to leave racist, sexist, fradulent, or simply useless comments. We're hoping this verification step will improve the quality of our comments.
I don't have a Facebook account. I'd like to verify my identity using my MySpace/Google/Yahoo!/OpenID/SSN/주민등록번호/MasterCard.
Let us know. We're open to suggestions. Over the next few weeks, we'll be testing other authentication methods.
The FBI/CIA/TSA/CoS/Emmert is out to get me! I need to stay anonymous!
We're working on a way to allow this. If you have any ideas, email us.
I think this website is ugly.
It's going to be a work in progress all summer, so it may look and act differently from week to week. If you want to influence this process, email us. We read every email, and respond to most of them.