Top national ranking matched

PULLMAN – Something has to be amiss when Dick Vitale has Washington State ranked ahead of Duke.

Vitale, the ESPN analyst known for cranking up the volume and often derided for being too fond of the Blue Devils, had the Cougars 13th on his Associated Press poll ballot this week and Duke 14th.

And the funny thing is, Vitale wasn’t alone.

WSU checked in at No. 14 in both the AP poll and the coaches poll, matching the highest ranking in school history, previously attained Jan. 25, 1949. Duke, the ACC and national powerhouse in most seasons, is 16th.

“To hear and see that you are ranked 14, it’s a special feeling to be a part of something like this,” WSU junior Kyle Weaver said. “It’s great for the guys, and we just want to make it better.”

This magical season for the Cougars, 19-4 and just a game behind UCLA for the Pac-10 lead at 8-3, continues to draw accolades from the around the West Coast and beyond.

Redshirt sophomore Daven Harmeling earned his second Pac-10 player of the week honor Monday, becoming just the second Cougar in history to earn the award twice in the same season.

“I was really mad when I heard it because I’m not deserving,” said Harmeling, who had 28 points in WSU’s two wins in Arizona last week. “Give it to any other guy in the starting five but me.”

And an ESPN crew was on campus Monday, readying a story on Derrick Low’s length-of-the-leg tattoo for this Saturday’s College Gameday show.

All in all, it’s clear this team has made its name known, even with a few weeks still to play before what’s increasingly looking like an inevitable NCAA tournament bid.

But as has been the case since they first cracked the polls last month, the Cougars are trying to publicly remind themselves that the rankings can be as dangerous as they are rewarding.

“If we look at that and start to feel good about ourselves it’s going to be our downfall,” Harmeling said. “We always check it when it comes out on Monday and it’s cool if we move up, but if we start to let that go to our heads, we’ll fall apart in a heartbeat.”

But as the polls would indicate, it’s nearly impossible to underestimate how far the Cougars have come since the start of the season.

Where last year a win like Saturday’s 48-47 edging of Arizona State would have been cause for celebration, this year it has sent the Cougars into a bout of self-examination, trying to figure out what went wrong against the last-place Sun Devils.

The Cougars scored 12 points in the second half, winning only when an Arizona State 3-pointer at the buzzer skipped off the rim.

“We sort of just stood and got a little stagnant,” head coach Tony Bennett said. “The ball just moved, and again, some shots didn’t go down.”

And as for the coach’s thoughts on being No. 14 in the nation?

“Are we? I didn’t even see that,” he said. “I’m glad we’re in that spot. I’m not going to turn it down.”