Washington State's performance against Mississippi State needs to be taken in context

Washington State is legit.

I feel comfortable saying that after the second half whooping they put on Mississippi State yesterday afternoon.

Wazzu went into the break down 40-39 and, with both Klay Thompson and Faisal Aden getting hot, went on a 36-9 run to open the second half.

There are not many one-two scoring punches in the country as potent as Thompson and Aden. Thompson came into this season with the reputation of being a shooter, but he's slowly developing into more of a scorer. What I mean is that he's much better attacking the rim off the dribble, reading screens, and using his ball fake to get into the lane. He's also defending, rebounding, and passing as well as he ever has.

When you throw Aden, a sharp-shooting JuCo transfer that averages 16.9 ppg off the bench, and Reggie Moore out there as well, Wazzu may just have the best perimeter attack on the West Coast. DeAngelo Casto and Marcus Capers anchor what is an underrated front line.

So like I said, this team is legit.

But I also believed this team was going to compete with Washington for the Pac-10 title prior to yesterday.

Because I do not think that Mississippi State is any good.

Look, a large part of their problem right now has to be due to exhaustion. They played five games in five days starting Dec. 11th. Four days after that stretch was finished, they went to the Bahamas to get clobbered by Virginia Tech. Now, they are in Hawaii getting clobbered by Washington State. And to top it off, the guy that this hectic schedule was put together for -- Renardo Sidney, who is finally eligible to play -- showed how thankful he was by getting himself suspended just one game for arguing and fighting with teammates.

Sidney's already proven that, until he gets himself into shape, he is not the answer that Rick Stansbury is looking far.

Dee Bost will provide reinforcements when he becomes eligible to play before the SEC season starts.

But right now, Bost's addition will be like using a band-aid on a sliced artery.