October 17, 2004 in Sports

Bennett’s Cougs ahead of the game

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PULLMAN — Washington’s State football team didn’t have the on-campus market cornered on Saturday.

It was also the first day of practice for both basketball teams, and though they eschewed a Midnight Madness event, both had taken the court well before noon to kick off the 2004-05 season.

“I’m glad to get rolling and the kids seem to have a lot of enthusiasm,” said Dick Bennett, entering his second year at the helm of the men’s program. “We actually got some things done (in the first session), which is unusual. That’s why I didn’t want to practice at midnight, because it screws up the weekend.”

Bennett has an intriguing roster this season with five seniors and six freshmen on the roster.

Just one player, freshman Chris Henry, was unable to participate in the first practice. Henry, a 6-foot-9 forward from Santa Ana, Calif., rolled an ankle Wednesday and will have further tests done Monday to ensure that there is no further damage.

But the presence of those seniors has made life a little easier coming into this season for Bennett, especially with so many new faces in practice.

“Compared to last year, we looked a lot smoother,” Bennett said. “Last year we had 14 guys going in different directions. This time, we only had six of them. But I’ve split everything up so there are older kids with younger kids on red and white so there’s always somebody to help.”

With Marcus Moore graduating from the program at the end of last season, much of the scoring may have to come from senior Thomas Kelati, who averaged 11.1 per game last season thanks to a 44.4 percent mark from 3-point range.

Kelati is the team’s leading returning scorer, but fellow seniors Jeff Varem, Shami Gill and Chris Schlatter are also expected to factor heavily in the team’s point production this year as well.

The Cougars spent almost the entire first practice on Saturday – the team also had an afternoon session – working on defense.

As Bennett is more comfortable this season since he has lots of returning starters, so too are the starters since they have a returning coach.

“Last year we weren’t ready to go until about December,” Kelati said. “This year we started in the summer, helping guys out and started running some offense early in pickup games just to get guys used to it. That’s helped tremendously. Now we’re moving on so fast. We’re so much further than where we were last year.”

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