Cougs look to state their state case
PULLMAN – With a win over Gonzaga already in its back pocket, Washington State is the best team in the state if it beats Washington today, right?
Kyle Weaver laughed.
“Arguably,” he said. “Arguably.”
The 15-3 Cougars will surely have their fans making that boast, though, if they do manage to defend Friel Court and defeat the Huskies.
Never – or at least, not for some time – has doing so sounded so reasonable. WSU is 4-2 in the Pac-10, having already defeated Arizona at home in the conference season. Washington, at 11-6 overall but 1-5 in the conference, hasn’t won a road game all year.
The Cougars, meanwhile, haven’t lost in seven games this season in their home building, and today’s crowd should be the biggest at WSU in more than a decade with all tickets gone for nearly a week.
“We’re playing some good ball now, but it seems like ever since we got here there’s always been an, I don’t know, a shadow of the other schools here,” said Weaver, the junior who had a triple-double for the Cougars in their last outing. “Beating the Huskies would be good for us. It’s a big game for them, too.”
Both teams have had the full week to prepare with no other Pac-10 game on the schedule, but both are nursing some injuries.
For the Huskies, freshman forward Quincy Pondexter has practiced on his sprained ankle and freshman guard Adrian Oliver has also worked in some time with his thigh bruise. For the Cougars, guard Chris Matthews may be more unlikely to play after spraining his ankle in practice Thursday. Matthews did some limited individual drills Friday and will test it again before the game today.
But if there is a bright side for the Cougars, it is that they have responded exceedingly well in big games all season long. Although head coach Tony Bennett can’t be sure how his team will fare today, the experiences from the first 18 games would seem to be encouraging.
“They’ve got some maturity in the locker room,” Bennett said. “They’ve played in games like this before. I expect them to be ready. I expect them to come out and play. But you never can predict when you’re going to be really on your game and what the other team’s situation is.”
Of course, given the in-state rivalry and the potential to put Washington in an even bigger hole in the standings, this game may test WSU more than any other all year.
“This is quite possibly the biggest game of the year,” Cougars forward Daven Harmeling said. “A win over Washington would really say a lot, help our status in terms of postseason play, and keep us in the top half of the Pac-10. It’s really important.”
Harmeling has been one of the most clutch players on the floor for WSU this season, scoring 20 against Gonzaga and 28 against Arizona, both times setting career highs. Although Harmeling may be hard-pressed to do one better today, he and the Cougars know that a 16th win would go a long way in making this ongoing surprise of a season into something truly special.
“Two and three years ago if you had said Washington State can compete with anybody, they’d just laugh at you,” Harmeling said, catching himself. “Two or three months ago. Sorry, yeah.”