Kyle Weaver saw good things for his Washington State team in the past and in the future Saturday after the Cougars’ 61-41 victory over Notre Dame advanced them to the East Regional semifinals of the NCAA Tournament.
“If we play like that every night, we’ll have a great chance to beat about anybody,” Weaver said at the Pepsi Center. “When you can force a team to shoot below 25 percent from the floor and half their average points, your chance of winning goes up big time. If we can do that who-ever we play next, I have a lot of confidence in my team.”
The Cougars will play North Carolina or Arkansas in Charlotte, N.C. But for one night, they could relish giving the Irish a basketball lesson.
“Being out there felt like we won just about all aspects of the game,” Weaver said. “Just seeing them take tough shots, being able to get steals and turnovers, just seeing that on the defensive end made us want to try and do it again. It got us into a flow.”
Weaver was part of a three-guard set that gave the Irish some tough matchups against the quicker Cougars. Fellow guard Derrick Low led the Cougars with 18 points, including four straight after the Irish cut their deficit to seven points midway through the second half. Weaver finished with 15 points and guard Taylor Rochestie contributed half of Washington State’s 14 assists. The Cougars compiled a 14-7 lead in assists and an 8-3 advantage in steals. They committed only seven turnovers. Notre Dame had 13.
“When I got the ball at the top, I could see over the defense a little bit,” the 6-foot-6 Weaver said of his team’s offensive alignment that featured him with the ball at the top of the key. “It helped us penetrate and I could see guys get open so they could knock down the shot.”
“It all starts with defense,” Low said. “We try to grind teams down on defense. We try to get as many easy baskets as possible while giving them tough contested shots. We like to share the ball. It seemed like they were kind of just trying to rush into the post and just kind of throwing up some shots. I thought that was a sign of frustration on their part.”
Irv Moss: 303 954-1296 or imoss@denverpost.com
