Wrong Way Tip vs Oregon State Explains It All: Washington State’s Basketball Season Getting Mutombo’d

Jan. 26, 2013; Corvallis, OR, USA; Oregon State Beavers forward Devon Collier (44) blocks Washington State Cougars D.J. Shelton (23) in the second half at Gill Coliseum. Cougars defeated the Beavers 71-68. Mandatory Credit: Jaime Valdez-USA TODAY Sports

It was an “innocent play” in the words of Washington State basketball voice Bud Namec, who has been broadcasting WSU games since 1992. Unfortunately for the Cougs the innocence was lost on big man Brock Motum, who “innocently” scored for the wrong team on a flubbed rebound, after an innocent missed free throw by Oregon State.

Also unfortunate, we have no magical youtube moment, as the Cougs don’t get enough attention to find a gem like this, especially in the cellar bowl. Thus the reason for this post in the first place.

But that wasn’t even the kicker. On that “same” free throw attempt, the Beavers missed and the Cougs rebounded cleanly before being called for a lane violation on other Cougar big man D.J. Shelton. So the guy from OSU misses the same attempt twice and without touching the ball, Oregon State scores two points. How much bad luck is that?!

The Beavers would eventually go up 15 before a 3 point barrage by WSU cut the lead to just 1 a couple of times before coming up one point short 67-66. Oh by the way Washington State was without arguably their most important player in Mike Ladd, who was limping and not dressed for the game.  The Cougs dropped to 11-14 (2-10) on the season with the loss and it’s been like this all year long. 

It began with the dismissal of WSU’s best guard, Reggie Moore. Then it continued with the heartbreaking OT loss to Pepperdine in which they blew a late lead, then a loss at the buzzer to Texas A&M. Then WSU tied the game against Gonzaga with seconds remaining in a terrific ball game, only to have GU drive the length and win it. It continued after 4 straight nobody wins with a spirited effort, but late loss to Washington and since then 4 losses by 7 points or less.

It even gets worse if you’re part of Cougar Nation, as there is a growing anger and pressing need to #FireKenBone and get a coach that can bring in excitement for the program. But imagine for a second that the Coug fans are the girl in this picture on the right, and that fate is Mutombo.

There are some very difficult financial and contractual issues to navigate around in the final 3 years of Bone’s contract, that have Cougar prognosticators saying that realistically he isn’t an option to let go of, at least not this year. CougCenter put up this post by Jeff Nusser, outlining the issues with the situation, followed subsequently by this podcast by Michael Preston explaining it further.

Simply put, nothing is going right and everything we try to throw into our proverbial ocean is getting straight up swatted, except when we try and score for the other team. The whole season just kinda reminds me of this Dikembe Mutombo Super Bowl commercial:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=C_0fyUYB3cA