Bennett, Bottle Rockets and the biggest Bruin
January 29th, 2008, 4:36 pm · Post a Comment · posted by Mark Heller
GroinGate, the round-the-clock vigil dedicated to the status of James Harden’s pulled groin has pretty much ended (on Tuesday coach Herb Sendek said Harden looked as good in Monday’s practice as he has in a couple weeks).
So, to pick up the slack, a few slack-jawed yokels posing as ASU fans decided to chuck bottles toward the court following Saturday night’s loss to Washington State. A fine way to protest the officiating.
After the game, Cougars coach Tony Bennett said he was told by his assistants that the bottles hit a couple of his players.
When the game ended, Cougars’ forward Kyle Weaver was hunched over with his hands on his face, but later clarified to a Washington-area reporter he wasn’t hit by a bottle.
Bennett stuck by his team’s assertion during Tuesday’s Pac-10 conference call with reporters and fielded more questions about the incident, and said he wasn’t aware of anyone from ASU calling WSU administration.
It’s pretty much a dead issue at this point, especially since it’s widely understood the bleacher dimwits were aiming their vitriol at the referees and not the Cougars.
Still, on Tuesday night Wazzou received the apology from ASU it deserved, if nothing else to hear the athletic department denounce the behavior, even though it was only one hand’s worth of rejects.
Cougars’ sharpshooter Derrick Low burned ASU with four 3-pointers in Saturday’s second half, then more than one person saw him toss one of the bottles back into the Wells Fargo Arena stands from whence it classlessly came.
Onward to No. 5 UCLA and USC this week in Los Angeles, where the Bruins are looking more and more unbeatable when the Pac-10 season is all said and done.
There’s a 6-foot-10, 260-pound reason for that: Kevin Love.
The freshman was the conference player of the week again this week, has already set freshman scoring and rebounding records and averages a double-double.
He also took a verbal beating last week in his home state of Oregon by the Ducks’ students section, since Love chose UCLA over Oregon (where his father played). Their antics drew the wrath of Bruins coach Ben Howland and Ducks coach Ernie Kent.
Love played at Lake Oswego HS. Had Sun Devils freshman Jamelle McMillan moved from Seattle to Portland when his father, Nate, became the Trail Blazers coach two years ago, he and Love would have played on the same high school team, which makes it hard to imagine they would have lost a game in their junior or senior seasons.
As it happens, McMillan stayed in Seattle won three state championships, and also played against Love in AAU circuits. McMillan said he talked to Love a couple weeks ago.
Sized and skilled, once Kevin Love gets his hand on the rebound, the Bruins’ big boy heaves it downcourt with the best of them.
Both McMillan and Jeff Pendergraph were asked about what’s been so impressive about Love’s 17 points, 11.3 rebounds and 59 percent shooting as a freshman.
Pendergraph: “Their outlet passing game is ridiculous.”
McMillan: “He can make outlet passes from here to Florida.”
That’s a tough thing to have to worry about going against a 6-foot-10 double-double machine.
