Tonight at 8 p.m. Washington State will face ninth-ranked Gonzaga at Spokane Arena.

The game will broadcast on ESPNU.

The Cougars are decidedly underdogs heading into this game. The oddsmakers have installed GU as a 24-point favorite and KenPom anticipates an 81-60 victory for the Bulldogs and gives GU a 97 percent chance of victory.

But WSU is focused on the other 3 percent: those times when they beat the Bulldogs in their own city, throw off all those projection algorithms and likely get on ESPN SportsCenter for the second consecutive week.

"It'll be fine, man, it's a challenge," said forward Junior Longrus. "As a competitor, you love to go out and beat the odds."

Jim Meehan advanced the game in the paper today but we'll take a look at the WSU perspective after the jump. We'll also have some Pac-12 links toward the bottom of the post. Don't miss Thomas Clouse's story from the WSU women's comeback win at Gonzaga yesterday.

And we've also got a special programming note. Like every week, I'll hold a live WSU chat here on SportsLink. But because of some work obligations that take precedence, we'll be moving the chat to 1 p.m. this afternoon. I apologize for the inconvenience.

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The Cougars (4-4) are coming off a 91-71 win over Texas-San Antonio, in which everything just seemed to work for the team better than it has all season. At best, that reflects a team that is starting to gel and figure out what new coach Ernie Kent wants while getting more comfortable in his system.

Kent said the Cougars have been buoyant since Wednesday's win and that Monday's practice – generally somewhat lethargic following the usual off day on Sunday – was their best of the season.

The Cougars may be starting to figure some things out but they face an opponent today that figured everything out a long time ago (except how to get past the NCAA tournament's second round! OK, I'm done.) and has less of an early-season maturation process than most teams.

"The next step for us now is we're getting ready to step up on a platform that is going to force us to grow, and that's a good thing," Kent said. "You're not going to go into that environment and play against a team of that caliber and not be on your A-game – you will get blown out. So, for us to be in a situation to have an opportunity in this game you're going to have to play at a higher level, and that's a good thing for this team right now."

Kent seems to be taking a can't-lose approach to this game. Since his arrival last Spring he has talked about "The Process" of building his program and the Zags seem to represent a natural example of the product at the process' end.

Every member of GU's starting five averages at least 8.5 points per game and freshman Domantas Sabonis (son of Arvydas) is the team's second-leading scorer, contributing 11.8 points per game off the bench.

The game will be played at a neutral site but will likely have a decidedly pro-Gonzaga atmosphere because of the respective perceptions of the two teams.

So, at worst the game will be a learning experience for Kent's budding program. At best it could be a seminal win that speeds The Process up.

"To play that type of talent, that type of size, to play in that type of environment with that type of energy in the building, all of this is good," Kent said. "There's nothing negative about going up there and playing a game, nothing at all."

 

OK, here are the links I promised:

-- Former WSU safety Hamza Abdullah took to Twitter yesterday to give his thoughts on the football program.

-- Arizona played Utah Valley. A monumental upset was not in the stars.

-- Some photographs from ASU's Sun Bowl win over Iowa.

-- John Canzano says Oregon State should give Pat Hill a call.

-- UCLA's Eric Kendricks won the Butkus Award.

-- USC's Leonard Williams might return for another year of terrorizing Pac-12 quarterbacks.

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