No. 121 Bradley 64 (5-4), No. 168 WSU 60 (3-6)

In A Minute

• Full recap from our friend (and friend of the pod) Jamey Vinnick at Cougfan

• Stats

• Line o’ the night: ACE GLASS with 15 points, 4 rebounds, 2 assists … and 4 turnovers.

• One stat to tell the tale: WSU was 13 of 33 on 2s. Awful tough to win when you shoot 39% inside the arc.

Highlights

There isn’t a full package, but if you’re desperate, you can watch ESPN’s handful of clips here.

Three Thoughts

1. Not a ‘bad’ loss, but …

The first thought for most folks is THEY LOST TO WHO???, but Bradley is a solid team that was ranked ahead of us in kenpom. (I know, that raises other questions, but just bear with me.) The return trip of a home-and-home started last season, this was always going to be a tricky road game. But at this point, losses are losses, and they are mounting swiftly for David Riley — with not a lot of relief in sight, given that the next two foes are No. 98 Nevada (at home) and No. 26 USC (on the road).

More troubling (at least to me) is the manner in which they lost, which is a bit reminiscent of how they lost to ASU: The Cougs led for most of the night, then everything just kind of fell apart down the stretch. Riley made some, uh, curious personnel choices in an attempt to go offense/defense in the final minute, and they backfired. Rihards Vavers — nobody’s idea of a defensive specialist — was on the floor while Ace Glass sat on the bench as Bradley scored the go-ahead bucket on an easy dish-and-dunk with 20 seconds left. Then, with a timeout in his pocket, Riley didn’t use it to get Glass back on the floor with the potential to tie, and Vavers put up a wild 2-pointer with the clock running down that never really had a chance.

Their coach did a lot more to help his team win down the stretch than ours did, and that’s incredibly frustrating in a game that was there for the taking.

2. However, if you’re inclined to be optimistic …

This was the third time in the last four Division 1 games¹ in which WSU’s Game Score was 66 or 67, a weird bout of consistency that — maybe — portends better things to come? In essence, WSU played like a top 100ish team in those games, and that will win them a pretty fair number of games the rest of this year … provided that’s who they really are.

As a comparison point, Bradley is about as good as Davidson, and we got run out of the gym in that one. I think it’s pretty undeniable the team is better than it was, even as it continues to underperform its projections. It sure would be great if they could break through in one of these next two games.

3. 2-point troubles

Riley’s offenses are predicated on one thing above all else: Paint touches that turn into easy 2s. This team doesn’t do that, and last night was the low point: 13-of-33 for 39%. This, from kenpom.com, tells a story:

The offense is still pretty good at making 2s, but that’s on the heels of three seasons of being absolutely elite. And I don’t think it’s coincidental that assist percentage (A%, proportion of buckets that come from assists) has gone from being one of the highest in the country for three years to one of the lowest while they’re also playing at the slowest tempo of Riley’s career (APL is average possession length, in seconds).

At its best, Riley’s offense is a free-flowing work of art that leads to easy entry passes that are converted into easy layups. But right now, the 2s are not coming easy at all, being fueled by iso drives and midrange jumpers from Glass and post-ups by ND Okafor. This team does not score the way Riley’s teams have pretty much always scored.

I’m certain Riley didn’t forget how to coach his offense, so I guess there are two options here: Either the team just needs more time to gel (Riley’s system relies on a lot of reads and quick decisions) or the personnel just doesn’t match Riley’s system and this is how it’s going to be. Time will tell, I guess.

Up Next: No. 98 Nevada

The Wolf Pack are maybe not quite as good as they’ve been the last few years, but they’re still more highly rated than we are. Probably the best thing we have going for us is that the game is at home, and it will be only the second true road game of the year for Nevada.

Tipoff on Sunday is at 2 p.m. PT and you can watch the game on ESPN+.

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1  Chaminade wasn’t given a Game Score because they’re Division 2. If there was one, it would certainly be much lower than 66 or 67, so make of that what you will. I’m trying to be at least a little positive here!