Good Super Afternoon Coug Nation! 

Sutra asked me spill the beans on my experience at the Night with the Cougars in good ole Tri Cities.  So here is my story, and I'll be stickin to it, right after you click on the mighty Hanford Jump..

"And then if they switch to a zone...errr....ummmm...pass?"

For the kajillionth consecutive time in approximately eleventy billion years, UCLA waltzed into Pullman and beat the Cougs at basketball, defying all theories about teams from warm weather locales being able to play in the cold. Actually, I'm told the game was played inside and there is no such theory. At any rate, Washington State probably played well enough at times to win this game, but as we've become accustomed, they played more than poorly enough to come up on the short end of a 63-60 defeat . In the first half and early in the second when things were actually going reasonably well, the Cougs continually shot themselves in the foot with lazy passes leading to turnovers and oftentimes easy run-out baskets. For the most part, the mistakes weren't enough to be fatal until about midway through the second half. At that point, UCLA had switched to a zone defense and any semblance of offense the Cougs had going was ground to a halt. Possession after possession, the ball would move slowly around the perimeter or not move at all in the hands of Reggie Moore. A lengthy drought ultimately became too much to overcome, even with Josh Smith fouling out after something like 12 fouls, as Abe Lodwick shooting us back into the game in the final minute proved ineffective.

Other notes:

There was a Patrick Simon sighting again tonight. He missed two WIDE open threes in the first half, but did finally hit a jumper in the second that was the only basket during the lengthy drought. He also looked confused on defense and has a cool "goatee".

DaVonte Lacy hobbled off the court late in the game after rolling an ankle so there may be tryouts for a scoring guard on campus this week.

It was once again proven that the best way to bury the Cougs is to actually miss free throws down the stretch and get your own rebound.

Nice work by Keith Calabro and Kenny Wilkens on the commentary (hey, if they can just use the first close name that pops in their head, I can too).

Josh Smith ate several members of the Cougar dance team before finally being lulled into a giant cage with a platter of chicken strips from Roto.

I started writing this post with four minutes left in the game and had to change nothing about the first paragraph except to add the score. Let's just say this team leaves me no reason to believe that a comeback is in the works once things start looking like they did for that grotesque ten minute stretch in the second half.

The floor is yours, folks...

Go Cougs.

Happy Friday to you, followers. Hope you had a great “Signing Day” week.

Today, I provide my quasi-wrap up of the 2012 recruiting cycle by offering a counter-punch to Longball’s Tebow awards from a few week’s back.  So, if you want to check out who wins this year’s coveted Zenger award, then click on the old Jumperoo...

Back to not respecting fax machines until Signing Day 2013

Good morning and Happy Hump DayGroundhog Day, Cougs! I'm sure you were all devastated to have to go through a Hump Day without a post from your boy, but you may have noticed there was some other big news going on with that whole National Signing Day thing. Huge props to my main man Sutra for holding it down on This Here Blog yesterday. We've got a little business to take care of with the Bridgeport Pumped O Meter and I want to relive the WSU Recruiting Class of 2012 before we can all move on and worry about people actually playing football. So click on the jumpfjdasklf;a;lkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk......sorry about that I'm on cold medicine and was face down on my keyboard there for a second. Anyway, let's get it...

Hello Followers.  

Today, we honor the age-long American tradition of stopping productivity in favor of obsessing over the decisions of handful of 17-20 year old men.

So, as we enter signing day of 2012, you can almost cut the tension with a knife:

Will Taylor Taliulu decide to go back to Hawaii after deciding last night to go to WSU after deciding to go to Hawaii?  Will Destiny escape us? Will Leach find himself to be "On the Marks" during this abbreviated recruiting cycle?

With questions like these in play like never before, how can you not click on the jump throughout the day?

(And yes, we'll be updating the list of Cougar committs as they come into the WSUFB headquarters throughout the day...)