WSU Men’s Basketball: Same Painful Melody in Another Nightmare Roadtrip for Cougs

Feb 5, 2014; Boulder, CO, USA; Colorado Buffaloes guard Jaron Hopkins (23) attempts against the Washington State Cougars in the second half at the Coors Events Center. The Buffaloes defeated the Cougars 68-63. Mandatory Credit: Ron Chenoy-USA TODAY Sports

We have become used to watching a machine. Not the way you would generally think of a machine mind you, in the ‘well-oiled’ sense, but more like some sort of broken music box. At some point during any given basketball game, the gears stop shifting for several minutes, before ultimately it is rewound and then grinds out the remainder of a painful melody. Or perhaps a more accurate description is a symphony in its warm-up, everyone trying to fine-tune their instrument while the conductor searches for his magic baton to lead the group.

Either way, it’s the Washington State basketball team.

It was evident again this week, as Ken Bone’s Cougars just repeated the normalcy of the process after any big win lately, which is to come out flat in back-to-back games. Of course the Cougs would come out and stick Washington’s NCAA hopes with a jaded spork, only to return to their brutal form against a Colorado team they should have beat the first time around and then get just pounded by Utah, a team which they actually held to 46 points in their only other Pac-12 win on the season. Unfortunately, there’s little to no reason to expect things to be different when they take on Cal and Stanford this upcoming weekend.

Hey, DaVonte Lacy shined pretty brightly once again with 34 and 22 points on the week and more good news that D.J. Shelton has really hit his stride pulling in his seventh double-double on the season on Saturday. It’s a start, but it only means so much when you’re heart is being ripped from you while getting repeatedly stomped on with highlight-reel dunks, as was the case in Utah.

I simply cannot figure out how the team can look so competitive against the Dawgs and then look they don’t even belong on the same court as Utah a week later. It’s a complete mystery and it’s disappointing because I think we all want so badly to believe they could ever turn it around under Bone. If there was any week remaining where that was going to happen, we just witnessed it. Actually, most of us probably didn’t…

Eight games and counting.

Go Cougs!