whoops
Aron Baynes must play well for Cougars to succeed
DENVER ? His 270-pound frame splayed out on a folding chair in a locker room here at the Pepsi Center, Aron Baynes wasn't afraid to be as hard on himself as some others are.
The big Australian was asked what kind of grade he would assign to his junior season at Washington State.
"Huhhh," he huffed. "A borderline C."
It's not too late to rescue something better, however. Some big tests could await Baynes in the NCAA tournament. And in fact, whether that's singular or plural may depend significantly on Baynes as the fourth-seeded Cougars open today against No. 13 seed Winthrop.
Winthrop will oppose Baynes with some springy 6-foot-7 forwards. If he and his teammates can deal with that, and favored Notre Dame handles George Mason, Baynes will find himself matched against the Irish's Big East player of the year, 6-8, 250-pound Luke Harangody.
Baynes isn't completely off-base when he says, "I don't really feel I had a good season." This, after all, is a brute who averaged only 7.5 points in his last 10 games after opening the Pac-10 season with 16 at Washington and 18 at USC.
He had shown promise like that before, as when he went for 25 in a 10-for-10 performance in WSU's 2007 home finale against USC, and when he went 9 for 9 against Portland State in December.
Then something happened. Maybe it was the Pac-10, where forces like Kevin Love and Brook Lopez lurk. It was Lopez who scored 30 last week in the Pac-10 tournament on the Cougars, while Baynes had two.
Asked what he feels he has learned from those players, Baynes said, "You just have to keep playing. Every possession is going to be a battle. They want to score on every possession, and they're more than capable of scoring every possession.
"Hopefully my defensive game has been helped."
Early in the conference season when Baynes maneuvered in the post and saw a second defender menacing, it seemed to rattle him.
"A couple of teams started double-teaming me, and after that, it kind of cut my production down," says Baynes. "Since then, I haven't been getting it done. I don't know whether it's mental or physical, but I've got to get right in the head."
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Others around him aren't as hard on the big guy as he is on himself.
Says forward Robbie Cowgill, "In the first half of the season, I thought he was our most valuable player. I feel he's probably the most irreplaceable piece on our team. To be that big and kind of dominating down low is something people have to prepare for."
WSU assistant coach Ron Sanchez calls Baynes "a big, big part of our success," and says many of Lopez's points last week actually sprang from mistakes on the perimeter as the Cougars defended Stanford's ball screens.
But then there are the butterfingers moments Baynes has had occasionally inside. Hardly anything caused as much angst this season at Friel Court as a wraparound pass from somebody like Kyle Weaver, mishandled by Baynes.
"He doesn't have great hands," said Sanchez, who coaches WSU's big men. "But he doesn't have bad hands."
