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| Ken Bone |
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Cougar Chats presented by:
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| Moderator: Good evening Cougar fans and thank you for visiting WSUCougars.com and today's chat with WSU Men's Basketball Head Coach Ken Bone. Before we begin, I want to bring to your attention the 2009 Ticket Information link at the top of this page. Click on that link to purchase season and single-game tickets, as well as tickets to the Dec. 19 Tri-Cities Cougar Classic in Kennewick, and the Dec. 22 Cougar Hardwood Classic against LSU at Seattle's KeyArena. Coach, thank you for joining us this evening. |
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Ken Bone: Thank you for having me. I look forward to answering your questions this evening. |
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| Moderator: Okay, let's get to some questions. |
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| Ruth: Hi Coach and welcome home!
Could you elaborate on your relationship with the women's basketball program, namely Coaches June and Mike? Have they been instrumental in your and your family's adjustment to the Palouse?
Good luck! |
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Ken Bone: Ruth, I have great relationships with both June and Mike Daugherty that started during my time as an assistant coach at the University of Washington and they were both on staff in Seattle at the same time. They both have been extremely helpful with on-the-job tasks; they have been flexible with practice times, game schedules, everything that men's and women's basketball coaches need to work out. It's been great working with June and Mike. Also, they have been helpful with our family in the ins-and-outs of Pullman, and understanding Pullman's public schools. With their positive attitude it's made it an easy transition for our family to move to Pullman. |
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| 7ICoug: Can you briefly explain two of your basic offensive sets? |
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Ken Bone: Going against man-to-man defense we will run a lot of motion offense. That involves a lot of screening, ball movement, body movement and spacing. We like to get the ball from one side of the floor to the other and also in and out of the post. Spacing is probably the most important aspect of the whole motion offense. Secondly, we will run a 1-3-1 with a high post and a low post with as much passing and as little dribbling as possible. Again, some of the principles of the offense are spacing, ball movement and screening. |
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| Michael (Castle Rock, CO.): Coach Bone,
In looking back at your coaching career, it appears you've done your best work with a Michael Kirk (Coach Kirk) on your staff. I noticed he is not currently with the program and wanted to know if you had plan to bring him aboard. |
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Ken Bone: Mike was a very good coach during his time at Seattle Pacific University and had a great contribution to the success of our program at Seattle Pacific. Who knows what the future holds. It would be great to have a guy like Michael on staff someday. |
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| Layne, Seattle: Coach Bone,
With the departure of Aron Baynes, how will the coaching staff get a player like Charlie Enquist ready for playing the center position in the Pac 10? |
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Ken Bone: Layne, Charlie is a great young man and we are working with him daily on his basketball skills to better prepare him for Pac-10 basketball. One of the big differences with Aron Baynes and Charlie Enquist is size and strength to be able to compete in the Pac-10. Charlie is going on his third year here at WSU and I'm hoping that his body will soon develop into what we need for a post player at this level. He is an intelligent player with a great attitude so I do believe his time will come. |
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| Mary (Spokane): How do you like Pullman? |
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Ken Bone: Mary, I'm enjoying the slow pace of a small town. It is a new experience for me but one that my family and I are excited about. One of the special things about this town is the intimacy and how everybody seems to be a Coug. There is no doubt that Pullman is all about Washington State University and the support for our program, myself, and my family has been outstanding. |
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| Ali (Santa Monica, CA): Coach, now that you have gotten to know your staff, who is the best dressed? |
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Ken Bone: Cutis Allen, hands down. The rest of us really don't have a clue on dress. Maybe it's his youth and feel for what's in style, but he is our GQ guy and proud of it! |
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| John D. (Touchet, WA): Hello Ken, I'm excited to see you guys start the season this Monday. My question concerns facility updates. I know the athletic department is VERY focused on Martin Stadium right now and its Phase additions. However, I know there are some things the basketball program would like to see get some attention as well. As donors right now we are being hit with so much Martin Stadium literature that its hard to remember that basketball is still in need.What do you think are some of the most important things to be done for the basketball facilities right now? |
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Ken Bone: John, men's and women's basketball would really like to see improvements to our practice facility and also to Beasley Coliseum. I do believe we have the support of our President and Athletic Administration to better our facility needs. We need a facelift in both areas and I do believe that we are making strides in that area. |
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| gil: outside of Klay, who do you expect to knock down the most 3's this year? |
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Ken Bone: Gil, I would go with Abe Lodwick, Michael Harthun, Reggie Moore, and John Allen. |
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| Scott (pullman): Hey coach, what do you see the starting lineup look like starting the year? |
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Ken Bone: Scott, at this moment I don't know who will start other than DeAngelo Casto and Klay Thompson. All the other positions are up for grabs. |
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| Kenny Short (Kennewick): Why do plan on stressing offense and a fast style when the past two years, defense and a slow game worked so well for the Cougs? |
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Ken Bone: Kenny, I've had decent success over the years of coaching a certain style and it was not a slow-paced offense or a packed-in defense. I think most kids would prefer to play an up-tempo style and I believe it is also more entertaining for the fans. To be able to recruit in the Northwest I believe we are going to need to be able to sell our style of play, and playing slow has not been beneficial to recruiting Northwest kids. That's not to take anything away from the way the Cougars have played because obviously the Bennetts had success with their style, but my recruiting contacts are in the Northwest and we need to be able to sell a faster style of play. |
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| GoCougs! (Tri-Cities): Coach Bone, first I want to wish you luck this season! We are so happy to have you as our Coach!! Can you talk a little bit about your assistant coaches and their role? Of course we know Coach Johnson is awesome! |
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Ken Bone: Thank you for your comments and you're right, Coach Johnson is awesome and I'm so glad he stayed on with our staff. Coach Hironaka brings a wealth of experience as a head coach and an assistant coach over the past quarter century, and will work closely with me on the offense. Curtis Allen will be working with Ben Johnson on the defensive end and also will work primarily with the guards as Coach Johnson works with the post players. I will just try to stay out of their way. |
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| Moderator: Time for one more question. |
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| Randy (Spokane): I'm old enough to remember when we had success being more up-tempo...and I saw your fine teams at SPU when in Seattle. Can we expect a high, pressing defense? |
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Ken Bone: Randy, at some point down the road I hope we can play at a fast speed and one that fits the depth of our program. Right now, I'm not sure that we have the depth, quickness, or speed to play at a high-tempo consistently for 40 minutes, but in time I hope we do. |
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| Moderator: Okay that's all the time we have. Coach, thank you for joining us once again. |
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Ken Bone: Thank you for having me. I look forward to seeing all of you at Beasley, Spokane, Tri-Cities and Seattle this season. Go Cougs! |
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| Moderator: Thank you to everyone for your questions. Throughout the 2009-10 season read Crimson ZZU (the WSU men's basketball blog) for exclusive information that you can only find at WSUCougars.com about the men's basketball team. You can read Crimson ZZU by clicking HERE. To get all the information about WSU Athletics, go no further than WSUCougars.com, the official website of Cougar Athletics. |
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