Washington State Basketball: By The Numbers
By Josh Davis
8, 11 & 20
Eight is the number of losses in a row for the hapless Cougars, eleven is the total wins on the season. Coincidentally that number also represents the amount of losses in a row the Cougs could accumulate by the end of the regular season in two weeks. It would lead to a 20 loss season for the first time in a decade and the number eleven could easily become 12 in the first round of the Pac-12 Men’s Basketball Tournament the following Wednesday. It’s really bad when you end on a losing streak larger than your win total and doesn’t generally bode well for coaches on the hot seat, no matter how guaranteed their contract is.
3 for 2.5
Speaking of guarantees, three is the number of years remaining on coach Ken Bone’s 7 year contract. In the next three seasons, the Cougs owe Bone $2.5 million (850K per year). The only way out would be to let him go because of wrongdoing within the program and that’s not happening, at all. You may have known that already, but it’s worth repeating when trying to consider where the program’s going to end up in the near future. It almost looks like there’s no way Washington State can afford to let Bone go, as crazy as that sounds.
The flip side is that we know Bone is going to have himself half a new team next season and with an influx in guard talent and other teams almost assuredly losing some young talent to the NBA, it could be a much different story for Bone in the 2013 season. Anybody who has watched Herb Sendek and the Sun Devils this season knows how much difference one year can make.
17.9
Points per game scored by our very own Brock Motum. Another stellar season, although maybe not quite what some expected. He is 3rd in the conference in the scoring category behind sensational freshman forward Shabazz Muhammad of UCLA (18.5) and the electrifying junior guard Allen Crabbe from Cal (19.0). My thought is that Motum would be a 21 point per night guy if he just had a PG that’s used to running an offense and distributing the ball.
500
Total points by Brock Motum in 2012/2013. The next closest Cougars are Royce Woolridge with 277 and Mike Ladd with 273 and he’s currently hurt and out of the lineup. Production from any other source has been suspect, at best, but Woolridge and DaVonte Lacy have been coming on of late.
3 to 1
Turnovers per game compared to steals per game. That ratio says a whole lot about why the Cougars are on this bad streak.