WSU Basketball: Cougs vs Huskies Was Nothing, If Not Predictable

Mar 3, 2013, Seattle, WA, USA; Washington State Cougars guard Royce Woolridge (22) drives to the basket agaisnt the Washington Huskies during the first half at Alaska Airlines Arena. Mandatory Credit: Joe Nicholson-USA TODAY Sports

You had it pegged, didn’t you? It was a 43-35 Cougar lead with around 18 minutes left when I looked at my phone for another score update. Of course I wasn’t able to watch yesterday because I was officiating an AAU basketball tournament, but I kept up on the game as best I could on timeouts and such.

I was impressed by the score at the time, but it’s not something I didn’t expect. After all it was a similar game in Pullman, when Washington State ended up falling to the Huskies, 68-63. Matter of fact, it seems like much of the Pac-12 season has been that way. Oregon twice, ASU in Pullman, USC, Cal, etc. So I didn’t get too excited, just thinking there was plenty of time for WSU to go cold and Washington to make the patented run. As predicted, next thing I saw it was tied, and then Washington had gone on top and finally finished it off.

It’s frustrating, knowing what’s going to happen before it actually does and knowing that it’s not a good outcome, but that’s our basketball team this year. Still I was hoping against hope that we could beat the Huskies on their home floor. Nothing takes away the sting of a terrible season quite like taking down the Dawgs.

We still could get one more shot in the Pac-12 tourney, as Washington is in 7th place, 1/2 game up on Stanford with one weekend remaining. Should Stanford overtake UW in the final weekend, it would be an Apple Cup first round on the following Wednesday.

If that happens, the Cougs should be at full strength with Mike Ladd back in the lineup. Unfortunately, I’m not sure if a healthy Mike Ladd will change the outcome of what has transpired in 2012; a story of “close but no cigar”.