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Washington State changing defensive approach

Ken Bone

Washington States’ head coach Ken Bone, left, talks with an official during a break in the game against Arizona during the second half of an NCAA college basketball game at McKale Center in Tucson, Ariz., Thursday, Jan. 26, 2012. Arizona won 85-61. (AP Photo/John Miller)

AP

It’s been a busy month for the Washington State Cougars. On September 4th they lost assistant coach Ben Johnson and on September 7th, they unveiled some cool new uniforms.

Since then, Ben Johnson has been replaced by former Virginia assistant and Boise State head coach -- and defensive specialist -- Rod Jensen after Johnson moved to Australia and the change to Jensen is leading to a different approach in defensive philosophy from head coach Ken Bone.

The Cougars will up the defensive pressure this season by defending the length of the floor, according to an interview with Bone from Barry Bolton of Scout.com’s Washington State site, Cougfan.com.

“We want to get points out of it ... This year (on defense) is going to be very, very different,” Bone told Cougfan.com.

Bone went on to say that this is a defense that the program hasn’t seen in some time.

“We’re going to get after people,” Bone said. “We are going to get after people at the guards spots, and we are going to get out and pressure and deny.

“And we’re going to do it more than Cougar fans have seen in a long time.”

That also means an uptempo game and more tired legs, and Washington State’s rotation is likely going to expand to 9-to-11 guys.

Bone gave more insight to Bolton revealing details about the rotation.

“You figure 8, 9, 10 guys in rotation but in time that might change -- we haven’t introduced a lot of stuff to them yet (in the limited practicing allowed this time of year),” said Bone. “You’ve got guys that have played a lot for us in D.J. Shelton, Will DiIorio, Royce Woolridge, Dexter Kernich-Drew, (Junior Longrus) and DaVonté Lacy.

“And then you add in Que Demarquise Johnson and Jordan Railey, who were with us last year but didn’t play. And then you have Danny Lawhorn and the two freshmen, Ike Ikenna Iroegbu and Josh Hawkinson. That’s already 10-11 guys. And you might have one or two who might not be ready to fulfill that 10-15 minute role. And you’ve got Brett Boese, who is coming on and could slip into that kind of role. So there are some things that are yet to unfold.”

The new-look Washington State defense will be interesting and even though they lost arguably their two best players from last season in forward Brock Motum and guard Mike Ladd, they clearly needed to change something up from a disappointing 2012-13 record of 13-19 and 4-14 in the Pac-12.

If some of the new guys or former role players can step up, Washington State should improve from last season.

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