Washington's Petersen thinks stats are for losers

Chris Petersen doesn't have time for any statistical mumbo-jumbo.

Washington's head coach was very blunt Thursday in his assessment of statistical values heading into the Huskies' upcoming matchup against Oregon State - a team allowing an average of 47.5 points per game this season and ranking 127th in scoring defense.

Petersen may know that, but if he does, he doesn't seem to care all that much.

“I mean this with no disrespect, but we always say this: Stats are for losers,” Petersen told Adam Jude of The Seattle Times. “We don’t pay attention to the stats. We look at the film, we study what a team does good, what’s going to give us problems, how a team is playing at their best - and that’s what we pay our attention to.

“You can make stats work however you want. We talk about the turnover battle ad nauseum around here. But that’s still game by game: ‘Oh, we’re leading the country in turnovers.’ We did that a lot last year. We ended up being No. 1. (But) the games we lost we lost the turnover battle. So that’s why they are a slight indication of things, but we don’t get hung up on that."

In short, Petersen isn't going to let a slow start by the Beavers cause him to underestimate his opponent.

“I think Oregon State plays really hard; I think that they’re well-coached. I know they’re frustrated, which is a problem for us,” Petersen said.