Tag: Washington State basketball

USC-Washington State is a Pac-12 bubble game — not an elimination game, probably more of a “winner looks really good” game. Both teams are going to have chances to accumulate more high-quality wins over the next five weeks. Therefore, both teams should feel relatively optimistic about being able to play their way into the NCAA Tournament. Obviously, though, winning in head-to-head matchups will improve leverage and overall odds in the pursuit of a Big Dance invitation.

We talked to Washington State expert Jeff Nusser about the main keys to this game:

“1. Charlisse Leger-Walker and Destiny Littleton will get the bulk of the attention, but I’m going to turn my attention to the bigs,” Nusser told us. “The Cougs thrive off getting into the paint and finishing around the basket; that’s obviously USC’s greatest strength defensively. To that end, the matchup between Bella Murekatete and Rayah Marshall will be huge.

“2. That said, Leger-Walker and Littleton will have plenty to say. I haven’t watched much of Littleton, but her stats profile similarly to Leger-Walker. The winning team probably gets the better performance from their star, particularly if Leger-Walker is on point from deep and finding open teammates around the arc.

“3. The turnovers – USC generates a lot of them. WSU is going to have a hard enough time scoring points that they can’t afford lots of empty possessions.”

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Washington State is next for USC on Friday night. It’s the first game for the Trojans since their huge upset of mighty Stanford this past Sunday. This game is a bubble game, and it’s a leverage game between two teams which have a very good chance of making the NCAA Tournament. If both teams make the NCAAs, the Pac-12 will put eight teams in the Big Dance.

We wanted to get some detailed insights on Washington State heading into this game. Jeff Nusser follows WSU closely. He gave us a look at the Cougars’ key players and a few team tendencies:

“Everything starts with Charlisse Leger-Walker,” Nusser told us. “The New Zealander is one of the very best players in the Pac-12, and while she’s always been a potent scorer and tremendous on-ball defender, her all-around game has taken a big step forward this year: 20.7 points, 5.4 rebounds, 4.7 assists. She’s running things from the point – taking over those reins from her now-graduated sister – and controlling games on the offensive end.

“That said, the biggest reason why the Cougs probably are better than either of the last two years is the development of Bella Murekatete. She’s 6-foot-3, athletic, and a problem for teams on both ends of the floor … when she’s not in foul trouble, which has been less of an issue this year than in her first couple of seasons. She would definitely be someone I would consider an x-factor. Her finishing around the basket has improved greatly (averaged 10.2 points last season to 14.2 this season), and she changes opponents’ shots with her length (about 1.5 blocks per game). If she plays 30 minutes, that’s great news for WSU.

“I’d identify two weaknesses (with WSU). First off, the Cougs can sometimes get kinda turnover crazy – it’s what nearly did them in against Oregon. Second, WSU isn’t a real deep team. They basically run a seven-player rotation, with six players getting the bulk of the minutes. It hasn’t been much of a problem this year, but I suppose the potential is there if they run into foul trouble.”

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