COUGARS @ GRIZ

[bill breen]

Cougars bring a 4-2 record into Grizville with wins over a 1-6 VMI team (66-46), a 5-2 Alaska (57-51), a 1-6 IPFW (66-46) and a 2-5 TCU (73-52). Losses to a 6-2 Rice (49-64) and a 3-4 S. Utah (36-55).

WSU GRIZ
POINTS PG: 58 70
FG%: .403 .458
3PT %: .313 .362
FT %: .658 .733
REBS: 33 37
ASSISTS: 12 14
TURNOVERS: 12 19
STEALS: 7 7
BLOCKS: 2 4

The Griz need to hold Moore, Kelati and Gill (he scored 17 against Griz last year in Pullman) under their averages and not allow someone off the bench to go hoop happy like Lemelle did @ Auburn.

I would expect (Pullman native) Brent to have a good game since he sat out last years game but scored team high 17 points in Griz win @ Grizville in 2001.

So what do you think!!!

 

[TrueGriz]

I think this may be the Griz's easiest game in a while, and that isn't saying the game is going to be easy. PAC 10 teams are always tough.

But I do think Griz will have a decent chance at winning at home here. Looking at WSU's schedule, doesn't look as tough as Griz's schedule.

Maybe like last year, Griz could get a way with a win due to poor free throw shooting by the Cougars. I believe that Moore guy missed a few key free throws last year.

 

[grizgirl317]

Brent should have a good game tomorrow if Kennedy will keep him in. Early in the season he was playing over 30 min a game...the last 2 games he's played less than 20.

He probably knows the Wazzu players better than anyone considering when he's home in the summers he usually plays one on one with some of them as part of his conditioning...however he didn't play any basketball two summers ago and last summer he stayed in Missoula to focus on rehab.

 

[Grizbeer]

Brent should have a good game tomorrow if Kennedy will keep him in. Early in the season he was playing over 30 min a game...the last 2 games he's played less than 20.

He probably knows the Wazzu players better than anyone considering when he's home in the summers he usually plays one on one with some of them as part of his conditioning...however he didn't play any basketball two summers ago and last summer he stayed in Missoula to focus on rehab.

Does Brent feel like he is 100% yet? In one post game interview (I think after SEMU) Kennedy said that he had 3 - 4 players that he could count on to give everythign they had, and he knew how they would respond every game, and Brent was one of the 4 mentioned. It seems like he has struggled with shooting this year, but that might just be my impression. Also seems like he is getting beat more on defense, but again that might not be true (sometimes I watch or listen to games and get an impression of what happened, then look at the stats and wonder what game I watched).

 

[grizgirl317]

He's getting pretty close. At the beginning of the season he said he was 70-80% of where he was before his injury and they hope he'll be 100% by Christmas. He's not in any pain which is good but I don't think he fully trusts his body yet. He went through a long period of time in which he was having nerve problems and the signals from his brain weren't getting to the rest of his body. He was still having some problems with that after his back was pretty much better again so I think he's just a little tentative on the court.

He's actually playing pretty well all things considered. He was cleared to start training for basketball in August. Most of the team has been training since the beginning of April or at least the beginning of the summer. Brent's statistics actually aren't that far off from his averages at the end of his junior season. He's scoring 9.1 ppg now compared to 10.1 then. Rebounding is about the smae and his field goal percentage is actually better (.489 then, .491 now). He's kiinda tentative on threes though which I'm sure he'll improve on. He's not really big on padding his own stats though. He's more concerned with whether the team wins. And I think Kennedy needs to keep him on the floor more if we want to win. In the 3 wins, Brent played nearly 30 min a game, plus 34 min against Northridge when he had 14 points. In the other 3 losses he's played less than 20. Even if he's not scoring points he's a good leader on the floor and they guys really need that when things are starting to get down because he helps keep them focused.

 

[grizgirl317]

I'm disappointed that Kennedy has said he's going to start Steve in place of Brent tonight. Maybe he's thinking Brent will be a better spark off the bench. But I know this is one of the games Brent looks forward to the most every year. He usually doesn't care too much whether he starts or comes off the bench (or so he says) but I think he probably really wanted to start against WSU. He always wants to beat WSU and hated sitting on the bench last year in Pullman (he got to go with the team even though eh was redshirting).

BTW...its kinda funny when the papers say that Pullman is where Brent "grew up" because he really didn't grow up there. His family moved to Pullman when he was like 15. He really only went to high school there.