The Cougars are 5-0 with wins over Southern, Idaho, Portland, at Fresno State and over Sacramento State. The Cougars return all 5 starters from last season (a squad that posted a 16-15 overall record, including a 6-12 mark in Pac 10 play). The Cougars are projected to finish 5th in the conference this season.
The Cougars are lead by G's Klay Thompson, Faisal Aden and F Brock Motum. Thompson is averaging 22 points/game (leads the team), 5 rebounds/game and 5 assists/game (leads the team). Last season, Thompson started on a record-setting pace. He scored 37 points in the third game, against IPFW, and broke former Purdue All-American Glen Robinson's 16-year-old Great Alaska Shootout scoring record by tallying 43 points while the Cougars crushed San Diego by 37 for the championship. His 28.3-point average through November led the nation, and he was making 56.8 percent of his three-point attempts.
Aden is averaging 21 points/game, 4 rebounds/game and 2 assists/game. Aden, who moved from Somalia at age eight, ranked seventh among the nation's top junior college scorers.
Motum is averaging 10 points/game and 4 rebounds/game. At 6'9" the Australian provides the team with size but he did average just 6.7 minutes/game last season.
G Marcus Capers averages 7 rebounds/game (leads the team). Capers is an outstanding rebounder for a point guard who is only 6'4" and 172 pounds.
The Cougars were a team last season that if the breaks had gone their way they would have had a much different season. There was a controversial loss at Oregon, where a game the Cougars appeared to have won turned on a technical foul on the bench for coming onto the court. There were blown leads of 18 points at Stanford and 11 points at California. They also came back from 12 down against Oregon to force overtime in the opening round of the Pac-10 Tournament, only to lose. This is a team that has a chance to be the Pac 10's most improved team.
