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Seattle P-I: Bone mentioned as possible replacement @ OSU

VikThunder1

VikThunder1

Active member
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
Last updated 12:50 p.m. PT

Bone back in Dawg yard
Ex-UW aide on the rise as Big Sky boss
By DAN RALEY
Seattle P-I REPORTER

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/cbasketball/343945_umen18.html

(Editor's Note: This story has been changed. Two-fifths of Portland State's starting lineup is Canadian; the wrong number was given in the original version of this article.)

A guy who helped Lorenzo Romar rebuild the Washington basketball program will attempt to unravel it Tuesday night at Edmundson Pavilion, with Ken Bone and Portland State catching the Huskies at a vulnerable time.

Romar's club (5-4) has been in a personnel shuffle since taking some early lumps, most notably double-digit losses to Texas A&M and Oklahoma State. Ten different UW players have started, with their coach using defensive performance as a lineup reward and willing to wait out more struggles, such as Saturday's hard-pressed 67-63 victory over Portland.

Enter Bone, a former UW assistant coach under Romar and one-time Seattle Pacific coach, who has impressed people south of the Columbia River with his steady work in molding a competitive program. He counts wins over Oregon and Arizona State in his first two seasons at Portland State, and his third group of players is his best yet.

"The talent level has increased," Romar said. "They can make shots. They're a solid team."

Bone, already mentioned as a possible successor should Oregon State dump Jay John after this season, has proven a creative recruiter, filling his roster with seven Division I transfers, though only three are eligible to play against the Huskies. They hail from Portland, Xavier, Rhode Island, Hawaii and even Washington, with forward Phil Nelson leaving the Huskies after last season and now sitting out.

Similar to Romar, Bone isn't afraid to mix it up, starting eight different players to make things work this season. The Vikings (7-4) recently gave Washington State fits before fading late in a 72-60 loss, and dropped a one-pointer to Colorado State.

Against a familiar face, the UW could choose to tone down the disruptions. Romar hinted he might start the same five that opened against Portland: juniors Jon Brockman and Artem Wallace on the front line, and junior Joel Smith and seniors Tim Morris and Ryan Appleby in the backcourt.

Wallace, a native of Russia, has provided needed defense and dusted off inside offensive moves that have been surprising to all but his coaches.

"I thought Artem would be a double-digit scorer about this time," Romar said. "Even in practice and drills, he's pretty good down there. (But) he needs to be a rebounder and enforcer for us."

Bone was the UW assistant coach in charge of Wallace's recruitment. Now he'll try to curtail this player's progress.


WASHINGTON VS. PORTLAND STATE
WHEN/WHERE: Tonight, 7:30, Edmundson Pavilion

TV/RADIO: FSN; KJR-AM/950


PORTLAND STATE (7-4)

Ht. Pts. Reb.
F Tyrell Mara 6-6 7.5 4.0
F Deonte Huff 6-4 11.6 5.3
C Scott Morrison 6-11 11.1 6.1
G Dupree Lucas 6-1 7.7 2.3
G Mickey Polis 5-8 3.8 1.0



WASHINGTON (5-4)

Ht. Pts. Reb.
F Jon Brockman 6-7 18.1 10.9
F Joel Smith 6-4 6.8 2.8
C Artem Wallace 6-8 2.3 1.3
G Tim Morris 6-4 7.3 3.2
G Ryan Appleby 5-11 18.0 1.0



WHAT TO KNOW: The Huskies lead the series 6-0, with each game played in Seattle. ... Vikings coach Ken Bone, a former UW assistant coach, has beaten Pac-10 rivals Oregon and Arizona State with his Big Sky team in recent years. ... Two-fifths of Portland State's starting lineup is Canadian, with Morrison from Vancouver and Mara hailing from White Rock, B.C. ... With a season-low five rebounds against Portland, Brockman dropped from fifth in the nation to 17th. ... The UW is shooting a miserable 59 percent (115 of 195) from the foul line.

PLAYER TO WATCH: Wallace. The junior center, making his second start of the season, is gaining confidence and playing hard. Will he keep progressing?

-- Dan Raley



P-I reporter Dan Raley can be reached at 206-448-8008 or [email protected].
 
I hope Coach Bone stays. I think the only way he leaves is the OSU job or if the UW job opens up. And I dont have any idea if he is a serious candidate for the OSU job and I doubt the UW job opens up anytime soon.
 
Oregon State would be wise to hire away the coach at Southern Illinois University. Their last great coach was Ralph Miller, hired away from Wichita State. Both institutions are in the Missouri Valley Conference.

Get wise, OSU, to what you did to give you the best coach you've had in decades.
 
I hope OSU keeps John or hires a John clone. I love knowing that PSU could at least finish 9th in the Pac-10 as long as he's around.
 
Yeah, I think Bone is a decent coach, but I don't think he's done enough to earn a Pac-10 job. OSU can probably do a little bit better.
 
Jay John is gone.

OSU really needs a good hire. Their basketball program is a mess. I think everything is summed up when they only had four guys on the floor the other night. ;-)
 
martymoose said:
Jay John is gone.

OSU really needs a good hire. Their basketball program is a mess. I think everything is summed up when they only had four guys on the floor the other night. ;-)
Click to expand...

OSU will go after a DI Major or upper mid-major program coach with NCAA playoff experience. The fall back will be the St. Mary's (CA) coach.
 
I think it is time for stability in the program. I believe our policy should be to match whatever offer OSU would make to Ken Bone. Two incentive points are that he would be much closer to his native Washington and he can remain and continue build the program he is building, realize the new 4,000-5,000 seat arena and be in the same athletic department as our legendary football coaches and new athletic director.

The solution to Oregon State's problem is not to pull Ken Bone away from Portland State the way Oregon pulled away Tara Erickson from us. They would ratber do themselves a favor by going to the Missouri Valley Conference and offer a talented coach from Creighton or Southern Illinois the way they offered Ralph "Old Whiskey Sour" Miller from Wichita State. That's the kind of mojo that works well in Corvallis. That's what'll likely bring back the Ralph Miller glory days to OSU.
 
Despite all their problems, I think OSU can and will attract a better (read: higher profile) coach than Bone. However, I do think there is a chance that Bone would be attractive to other programs positioned somewhere between PSU and OSU. One thing going for PSU is that we're poised to string together a few tournament appearances with this season's team and the recruits coming in for next season. This should help keep Bone or attract a good candidate to replace him if need be.

Should Bone leave, I'd be really interested in interviewing Cameron Dollar, the former UCLA player currently an assistant at UW. Supposedly, he is great recruiter with ties to the NW and SoCal, and PSU has already had decent luck hiring UW assistants (Bone and McKay). Dollar would be a young hire who could generate some real buzz. I think he'd be one of the youngest coaches in D-I. Just an idea for somebody to consider.
 
Ha ha. /users/31/07/37/smiles/880372.gif Either way you slice it, we still have two fine assistant coaches with him or without him.

I like the Cameron Dollar back-up idea very much and especially the notion of reinforcing our pipeline to the UW assistant coaches. This is a win-win situation for UW and PSU. The UW assistant coaches can take over and develop the PSU program incrementally and as an intermediate step in their own personal development to greater heights as a head coach. In this way, PSU becomes a very real protectorate of UW (like a farm team for their prize assistant coaches to direct), and this relationship works very well in our favor in countering political offenses from either UO or OSU. Very healthy situation for PSU. Very wise maneuvering. /users/31/07/37/smiles/594399.gif

When you look at things from the Washington perspective (really the Seattle-centric perspective) of UW, if you head north, the end-of-the-line is Vancouver, BC, Canada and Alaska beyond. If you head south, the end-of-the-line is Portland, Oregon and the "Oregon schools" beyond. That makes us part of their sphere of influence whereas UO and OSU are foreign to it.
drunken_smilie.png


BTW, since our program is situated between the "Oregon schools" and the "major Washington school" AND because we are in the second-largest metropolitan area of the Northwest, I recommend that we rather distance ourselves from our "purely Oregon" identity (as it is already taken) and think of ourselves as representing the entire Pacific Northwest being uniquely situated close to one of the mightiest symbols of this national region, the 1240-mile Columbia River. /users/31/07/37/smiles/784240.gif
 
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