WSU, California enter matchup in similar situation

PULLMAN – Neither California nor Washington State is in position for one game to matter much in the final conference standings.

There is no Pac-12 tournament bye on the line, and few NCAA tournament selection committee members are giving up sleep to catch tonight’s nightcap.

But both teams are led by first-year coaches who could each use a win to get the process of building up their programs back on track.

Cal’s six-game slide extends to the last time the two teams played. WSU (9-10, 3-4 Pac-12) won that game 69-66 and dominated the post thanks to a career-high 17 points from senior Jordan Railey.

If the Cougars can replicate that performance at home, they will end a three-game losing streak and remain .500 in conference play just one game short of the halfway point.

“For any new coach, it’s the idea that what we’re doing is the right thing and it’s working,” said Pac-12 Networks men’s basketball analyst Mike Montgomery. “And kids are just kids, they don’t know. Where I could look at that and say both Cuonzo (Martin) and Ernie (Kent) are doing a great job, they need some positive reinforcement and the best way to get positive reinforcement is to win games.”

Montgomery knows a bit about the Bay Area schools having once coached Stanford to a No. 1 NCAA tournament seed and taken Cal to March Madness four times in six years before retiring from coaching after last season.

He will have the call on Saturday when WSU hosts a Stanford team that appears to be solidifying itself as the conference’s third-best team.

Martin and Kent’s teams were close in their last matchup and now the coaches face the additional challenge of preparing for a team they’ve already faced once. For WSU, that doesn’t mean any schematic changes. Rather, Kent will focus on making sure his team is mentally prepared to face a motivated team that badly needs a split with the Cougars.

“I would say Cal is a team that’s desperately needing a win, and you need to make sure you guard against any type of a letdown in terms of not being ready to play a team like that,” Kent said.

The Cougars will probably again use a lot of low-post action against the Golden Bears, who don’t have the size to keep big guys out of the paint.

“Anytime you’re a 7-foot guy one foot from the rim, chances are pretty good that shot’s going in,” Cal coach Cuonzo Martin said.

The Golden Bears were without talented sophomore guard Jabari Bird in that game, but he’s expected to play against the Cougars on Thursday. At the time it was just the second loss of the season to an unranked team for Cal (11-9, 1-6).

Cal followed that game with a surprising loss to USC and hasn’t won since. Martin said the stacking losses are causing his team to play tight, compounding the problem.

“It’s human nature,” Martin said. “I did it as a ballplayer. You’ve just got to calm down, continue to play and let it sort itself out.”

WSU will get a second shot at Stanford on Saturday. The Cougars lost to the Cardinal in their first matchup. WSU jumped out to a 14-4 lead but could not sustain its level of play in the 71-56 loss.

“We felt like we didn’t stick with the game plan at times against Stanford and we let them go,” WSU guard Ike Iroegbu said. “This time, we’ve got to stay with the game plan and for the whole 40 minutes of the game.”

Hawkinson cools off

Early in WSU’s basketball season, the Cougars had a unique offensive weapon that made Kent’s up-tempo offense significantly more potent.

Sophomore forward Josh Hawkinson was a deadly 3-point shooter, someone who could space the floor in the half-court offense and trail the fast break to unleash a dagger in the transition game.

But the Cougars haven’t had that dimension in Pac-12 games and WSU’s offense has suffered. Hawkinson shot 44 percent from behind the arc in WSU’s nonconference games but has yet to make a 3-pointer against a Pac-12 opponent, missing all 12 of his attempts.

Kent attributes the decline in Hawkinson’s outside shooting to the pounding his body has taken while leading the conference with 10.7 rebounds per game.

“What you’re seeing, if you look at his shots they’re all short,” Kent said. “That’s fatigue. And again I would say with the minutes he’s having to log it’s very important we continue to hit the refresh button on him because he’s good in the games.”