Another giant chance
PULLMAN – Potential? Sure, this day has lots of it for Washington State.
“It’s huge. It’s bigger than a basketball game,” senior forward Ivory Clark said. “It goes back to bringing respect back to this program. If we win, we have a chance to crack the Top 25. This is a huge opportunity for us, and we’ve got to go out and make the most of it.”
And pitfalls? You bet, with No. 7 Arizona coming into Beasley Coliseum for a 7 p.m. tip today. The Wildcats are riding high on a 12-game winning streak and looking as good as any team the Cougars have played.
“I think they’re even more offensively inclined than UCLA,” Clark said. “Man, pick your first-round draft choice. I mean, everybody’s going to have their hands full.”
Arizona showed off its ability in Thursday night’s 96-87 victory over Washington, and now it’ll be the Cougars’ turn to try and slow down that vaunted offensive attack.
If they do – much like the stakes when the Cougars nearly pulled off a road upset against the No. 1 Bruins – they could become the darlings of West Coast basketball for a day, and could crack the polls for the first time since 1983.
“We went to UCLA and played solid, didn’t come out with one,” Cougars coach Tony Bennett said. “Now we have a chance to go against the other best team in our league, perhaps, and see how we stack up. What a tremendous measuring stick.”
WSU has reached 13-2 overall and 2-1 in the conference this season by relying on its defense in tough spots, and Arizona (12-1, 3-0) is likely to put the home team in a tough spot for the full 40 minutes. Against Washington, four starters scored 21 points or more, and the Wildcats shot better than 65 percent from the field.
If there is a team in the Pac-10 that can limit that balanced and powerful offense, though, WSU has reason to believe it is that squad. Eight of WSU’s last nine opponents have failed to score 60 points, and in Pac-10 play the Cougars have been stout inside, forcing opponents to take contested shots on the perimeter more often than not.
They’ve fared decently against Arizona of late, losing a close game in Tucson last year and another in Pullman two years ago while defeating the Wildcats on the road that same season.
“They’re just big and they’re fast and they’re athletic. All of them,” WSU junior guard Derrick Low said. “We had trouble with that in the past, like UW from our freshman year.
“Now I think we have enough experience and we’re veterans. We have a senior. We’ve just been around the game long enough to learn how to deal with that and learn how to overcome that.”
Most likely, WSU will have to play this game without center Aron Baynes, whose ankle sprain will probably hold him out for a second contest. Baynes said he’ll attempt to work in the team’s shootaround today, but he didn’t practice Friday. The team’s other true center, Chris Henry, is also out with back soreness.
That means the Cougars may have to use a smaller lineup as they did against Arizona State in a 75-55 victory Thursday. But this opponent will surely test that front far better than did the Sun Devils, and WSU is aware of what that means.
“We know we’ve got to play one of our best games because they’re really talented,” Low said. “We have the ability to play with them and we know we can do it. We just have to execute our system.”