After a short and very public search process, it’s official — Bill Moos is coming back home.
A source confirmed Tuesday that the WSU alum and former Oregon athletic director has accepted WSU’s offer to become the AD at the Pullman school — not suprising since Moos was offered the job last Thursday by school president Elson Floyd and was the only known candidate for the position.
WSU has announced a press conference for 2 p.m. today at the Compton Union Building to announce the hiring of a new athletic director, who was not named in the press release. The Spokesman-Review reported that Moos is expected to start on May 1.
Moos was a first-team All-Pacific 8 Conference football player for the Cougars back in 1972 and directed athletic development at WSU for more than five years, starting in 1982. He was also associate athletic director for almost two years in Pullman, and was the athletic director at Montana before holding that position at Oregon from 1995 to 2007 — a time of growth and success for the UO program.

PULLMAN – It was far from an offensive masterpiece.

As a matter of fact, the Washington State Cougars scored the same measly 51 points that they put up in Thursday’s apathetic 71-51 defeat to UCLA.

But that 51 suddenly became acceptable on Saturday against USC, since the Cougars held the Trojans to a mere 47 points with a much better defensive effort to claim a victory that could be crucial to any potential postseason berth.

The 51-47 score (and 23-19 halftime tally) might have taken some of the Friel Court spectators back to the Bennett era, but after three straight losses the Cougars (16-11, 6-9) had no right to be picky. In reality they had to be feeling a little fortunate, since point guard Reggie Moore banked in a crucial 3-pointer in the final minute and USC missed a tying 3-pointer after WSU couldn’t convert crucial free throws.

“I think we just refocused. We had some good discussions in the last couple days, and encouraged the guys that they’ve done it before,” WSU coach Ken Bone said.

“They’ve played very, very good basketball. … If we’re going to bring it, we’ve got a chance. If we’re not, then we’re not giving ourselves a chance to compete. And that’s not what any of us want.”

After not bringing anything on Thursday in a rollover loss to the Bruins, the energy was clearly back against a Trojans team that had won four in a row.

“I think we got a little more pride. We saw how it hurts to lose on our home court by 20,” senior Nik Koprivica said. “So I think we kind of got together and talked a lot and we just said, ‘We’ve got to come out firing.’”

But the reappearance of that intensity didn’t keep the game from turning into a grueling half-court grind. The slower pace of the Trojans, combined with some less-than-stellar shooting, resulted in a cringingly comical 10-10 score with less than eight minutes left in the first half.

Dwight Lewis has been USC’s most consistent threat on offense, but the Trojans have also just missed a lot of shots. Some turnovers for both squads, but not necessarily a sloppy game — just lots of clanks.

*Although, after looking at the stat sheet, WSU is shooting 40.9% — not terrible. USC is at 36.4 percent.

PULLMAN – Washington State’s problem on its road trip last week was an inability to put two halves together, as it lost double-digit leads to both Stanford and Cal in the final 20 minutes.

Well, the Cougars certainly put two halves together on Thursday night at Beasley Coliseum. Two pretty ugly ones, that is.

Unable to stop to slow down UCLA’s offensive efficiency and stymied again by the Bruins’ extended zone defense, WSU (15-11, 5-9) continued its freefall down the Pac-10 ladder with a 71-51 loss that is likely the low point of the season thus far.

“Very poor performance,” WSU coach Ken Bone said after staying in the locker room to talk with his team for an extended period after the game.

“Just a whole lack of energy, which really, really surprised me because we just came off of a game where I thought we played with very good energy on the road against a high-caliber team.”

The problems against the zone weren’t anything new for the Cougars against UCLA. WSU struggled against it down in Los Angeles earlier this season, and Thursday was merely a discouraging repeat for a team that has now lost six of its last seven games.

There was nothing tricky about the Bruins’ 2-3 setup. They extended out past the perimeter and held WSU to 3 for 19 shooting beyond the arc, but were still tight enough to keep the Cougars out of the paint and turn them over when they tried to get there.

“I thought that our zone was really active today,” UCLA coach Ben Howland said. “We did a good job again matching up wherever (Klay) Thompson was in particular.”

WSU never found any sort of offensive rhythm and ended up shooting 36 percent for the game, with Thompson going 2 for 9 for just eight points (only two in the second half).

“They have great length, and it’s hard to sometimes create good shots,” said Bone, whose team posted its second-lowest point total of the year. “Especially when you have smaller guys looking for shots.”

The Bruin zone has been an extended 2-3 that is overplaying the perimeter. WSU has had a tough time getting anything inside and has often turned the ball over when it tries to. Reggie Moore picked up his third foul of the first half on a charge on the baseline.

KEN BONE

On early subs…...”It was like I just said. We were trying to make more of an effort to keep guys accountable for doing the right things. So we were quicker to sub some kids out, and the guys that go in, like I’ve mentioned before, there’s some guys on our team that do a good job every day in practice, but we’ve been going with a certain group, and those kids today got an opportunity to play, and they did a nice job.”

On whether concentration/focus has been drifting lately……“I think there has. I think it’s been more we don’t value every possession. And that’s not easy, we understand that. But it can’t be – it’s gotta be better than it’s been. And especially on the defensive end where we are locked in mentally and concentrating on what we’re trying to do to prepare ourselves for the game, depending on what play they’re running, or personnel, who you’re guarding, whatever it is. And tonight did an outstanding job in that area.”

On the win…….”I’m just really really excited the fact that we won in a way that, it was good, solid basketball – the way we’ve been showing at times during games. We’ve had moments where we’ve played really good on both ends of the court, but we haven’t put together 40 minutes or 35 minutes lately, and tonight I thought our kids did a great job defensively and offensively, playing as a team. And it’s nice to see them play so well when they’re trying to play as a group.”

KLAY THOMPSON

On Brock Motum…..“Brock’s, he’s good at cutting, and he’s a big target at 6-9. So he can really do well in this system if he just stays aggressive on his cuts and looks for those opportunities.”

DEANGELO CASTO

On how different WSU is when he gets the low-post touches….“Well I think it’s just all the way across the board, on any team. If you go inside-out, and you have an inside presence, and then an outside presence, any team’s tough to stop.”

After struggling with his normally consistent shooting stroke, the Cougars’ star sophomore would stumble upon an epiphany with his wrist flick to snap WSU out of its three-game losing streak.

But though the Cougars did indeed get a crucial 78-60 win over the Wildcats at Beasley Coliseum, Thompson was not the story.

He was a part of it, no doubt, with 14 points, a moderate 11 shot attempts and a couple of important jumpers in the second half to help the Cougars (15-8, 5-6) separate themselves. But the theme of the night was more about WSU’s balanced effort, which featured effective inside scoring, unexpected contributions off the bench and an energized defensive effort.

“As far as teamwork and as far as being together, I think we played one of our best games of the season,” forward DeAngelo Casto said.

Casto was one of the most important parts of that performance, starting from the opening tip when he scored WSU’s first four points. He entered the game averaging just eight points in Pac-10 play, but proceeded to put up 10 in the first half with a variety of post moves. That was coupled with six rebounds, as he thoroughly outplayed UA standout freshman Derrick Williams during the first 20 minutes (Williams ended with 16 points and seven boards).

“Part of it has to do with us just doing a better job of getting DeAngelo the ball inside,” WSU coach Ken Bone said. “And I think that helped with his confidence, especially when he converts baskets early in the game.”

Even with that early production from Casto, though, WSU fell behind 12-4 in the first five minutes. And with Abe Lodwick out sick, Nik Koprivica on the bench with foul trouble and some lapses on defense, Bone subbed in a lineup that included little-used subs Brock Motum and Steven Bjornstead.

The mere novelty of the move seemed to pick WSU up initially, but Motum’s early appearance gradually became more important as the Australian freshman hammered home a dunk late in the first half and even knocked down a jumper in the second half on his way to 10 points in 17 minutes – both career-highs.

Thompson just can’t find the range from deep. He was 2-for-8, and both baskets came on drives to the hoop — 0 for 2 from behind the arc. WSU actually seemed hesitant to pull the trigger from outside in general and was just 1 for 7 from behind the arc. The major difference from Thursday, though, has been forward DeAngelo Casto. With 10 points and six rebounds, he’s giving WSU a legitimate post presence on offense who is scoring from the block. He’s definitely outplayed Williams so far. Entertaining half, and it will be interesting to see what lineups WSU puts out on the floor now. Hard to believe we won’t see Motum a little more before the evening is finished.