COUGARS

FROM PULLMAN -- There's 3,700 gray t-shirts spread over many of the seats in the lower bowl, as you can see (kind of) in the above photo. We have some quick thoughts on today's game, so read on.

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UPDATE: We have a personnel note for you -- Mike Ladd apparently suffered a concussion against Arizona on Thursday and will not play tonight.

Yes, it's a "gray-out" theme in here today, though I'm wondering if there might wind up being more shirts here than people. Thursday's attendance was 3,616 to watch the Cougars play a good game against a good team, and Arizona State doesn't quite fit that bill. Also consider that Monday is a holiday and many WSU students have already cleared out for the weekend, and we could see another small figure on the attendance line again today. We'll see. ... This morning, we asked if Brock Motum is worthy of Pac-12 Player of the Year consideration. So far, 65.6 percent of voters say he should win the award. Of course, Motum carries a strong geographical advantage in these parts. ... The key today? Defend the perimeter. Well, duh, you say. Isn't that always the key? Yes, but the Sun Devils were able to control the first game between these teams because they made a bunch of threes early. If WSU can just take that away, ASU doesn't have many offensive weapons. Regardless, I think this is going to be a grind. ASU got down big against Washington on Thursday, but hung around and made things sort of, kind of, semi-interesting. Or at least prevented the game from being a blowout. Now, there's no reason to think the Cougars should run away with this one, given what happened in the desert three weeks ago. But there's also little reason to think the Cougars won't fare better today on their home floor, coming off a string of pretty quality performances (losses, but still). Also, keep in mind that Brock Motum scored a career-high 34 points against these guys the first time around. Will be interesting to see if ASU tinkers with its zone some to keep Motum from getting the ball, because you know WSU wants to continue pounding it in there with him.

All for now. As usual, we'll be back afterward.

Christian Caple can be reached at christianc@spokesman.com. Twitter: @ChristianCaple

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