Washington State @ San Francisco, CBI First Round

Tomorrow at 7pm the Cougars of Washington State (15-16) will try and prove that a sub .500 Pac-12 team does in fact deserve to have a post season. San Francisco (20-13) will look improve upon their first 20 win season since 1981-82. The Dons have been battle tested down the stretch, particularly at home on the hilltop. Their last three regular season games were against BYU, a one point loss at the buzzer; Gonzaga, a one point win at the buzzer; and Saint Mary's, a back and forth game until the last minutes when the Gaels pulled ahead for a seven point win. They then ran thru the WCC tournament beating Portland by 21, Loyola Marymount by 7 before losing to Saint Mary's by five despite leading for the majority of the game.

The Cougars haven't won a game against a team with a better record since California went to Pullman back on January 21st. Since that game they have only won 4 times. They are a decent home team but only 4-8 on the road including a 1-5 mark in California. Their only win in the state came against the worst team in the Pac-12, USC. They put up only 43 points in that win, which was enough as USC only managed 38.

For the Dons to win this game they will need to slow down Brock Motum, the Cougars best player, a 6'10'', 260lbs junior forward averaging 18.1ppg.
In the Cougars early season loss at Gonzaga Motum had 17 points and 8 rebounds despite having to fight with the strong Zag front court. Neither Angelo Caloiaro nor Perris Blackwell can match up physically with Motum in the paint. However Caloiaro is a much more mobile big than Motum, and both have good outside game, so Caloiaro could use his perimeter mobility to shake Motum.

The Cougars' back court is quite weak. Faisal Aden was their only real scoring threat besides Motum, and he tore his ACL back in January. Aden was named Pac 12 player of the week after scoring 33 and 24 points in the games just before he had his season ending injury. With Cody Doolin's surging scoring ability the Dons should have no problem with the Cougars' guards. Reggie Moore averages 9.1ppg on 36% shooting from the field and 34% from 3, DaVonte Lacy puts up 8.6ppg with a slightly better 38% from the field.

Assists are about the only decent stat the Coug guards have going, mostly because of Brock Motum's scoring ability, where they rank 84th in the nation with 13.8 a game, the same as San Francisco. That said I expect an easy home win for the Dons. The CBI should be, other than this game, a much more compelling tournament than the NIT this year. A win tomorrow and the Dons will face the winner of North Dakota State at Wyoming on the 19th of March.

Tuesday, March 13, 7pm PDT
TV: HDNet
Online: www.usfdons.com