Washington State Cougars

Previewing WSU/Washington

Posted on 29 January 2010 by Jesse Baumgartner

Who thought rivalry week Round 1 would come with the young Cougars at 4-4 and the Huskies, a Pac-10 favorite entering the season, at 3-5? Right, right, I’m sure you all had it down on paper.

It’s an interesting matchup though, and fans on both sides should be treated to an up-and-down game at Hec Edmundson Pavilon tomorrow at 12:30 p.m. — available for viewing on FSN. For the Huskies, this is really a must-win game to avoid falling further behind in the Pac-10 race and losing out on any type of NCAA-at large bid.

Anywayyyy, here are some things to look for.

The play of Reggie Moore: Moore has been in fine form lately, especially when it comes to putting the ball in the basket. He averaged 22.5 ppg during the LA trip last week, pushing him to 14.4 ppg this season. The interesting aspect in this game will be how he handles the crowd/being back home (check tomorrow’s paper for more on this). Moore was recruited by UW, but the signing of freshman PG Abdul Gaddy basically shut down that option for him. He’ll be going up all night against the aggressive defense of the Husky guards — especially Mr. Energy, Venoy Overton. How Moore handles that pressure and gets WSU into its offense will be a big part of this game. UW is No. 1 in the Pac-10 at forcing turnovers.

Shooting the 3: WSU still leads the Pac-10 in 3-point percentage at 37.9%, but they’re only shooting 32.1% behind the arc during Pac-10 play. A large part of that is Klay Thompson, who is just 14-for-56 from downtown (25 percent) in eight conference games. “He’s a better shooter than that,” Ken Bone said this week. We’ll see if Thompson starts heating up on Saturday.

Scoring the ball: Klay Thompson (22.3 ppg) and Quincy Pondexter (19.9 ppg) are Nos. 1 (tie) and 2 in the Pac-10 scoring race. They can fill it up on any given night, so watch who heats up early. Pondexter can also be a menace on the glass — No. 3 in the conference at 8 boards a game and No. 2 in offensive rebounds.

Down low: Neither team has an established low-post scorer, so keep an eye out to see if anyone steps up early here. The likely candidates are DeAngelo Casto for WSU and Matthew Bryan-Amaning for UW.