Calling on their reserves
PULLMAN – It made almost no sense at the time. Jeremy Cross, a walk-on, strode on the Mac Court floor in Eugene to guard Aaron Brooks, a leading candidate for Pac-10 player of the year honors.
Yet, in this season of change on the Palouse, the move made perfect sense.
If there is one intriguing subtext to the Cougars’ surprising run through the 2006-07 season, it is the contributions from players so unexpected that they have even surprised some members of the Cougars staff.
Cross didn’t score in that game, but he did guard Brooks for a few minutes. But Mac Hopson scored seven points in that same game last week after having sat for much of the season. Two days later, Aron Baynes scored 14 points, all in the second half, to spur a comeback win. He hadn’t scored in double figures all season.
A few weeks before that, Antonio Chavers played significant minutes against Washington and drilled a key 3-pointer, even though he hadn’t played all year, save for one garbage-time appearance. That same game, Taylor Rochestie led WSU with 16 points, stunning the Husky defense on its home floor.
It all begs the question: Where are these guys coming from?
“I do put a lot of weight into how they practice. I really do,” WSU coach Tony Bennett said. “We need all those guys, and you never know who else could be called on.”
After Hopson’s play last week – he also sunk a key bucket against Oregon State in the final minute – it appears Bennett has settled on an eight-man rotation with Rochestie, Baynes and Hopson coming off the bench.
But since Nikola Koprivica went down with a season-ending knee injury in January, Bennett has been willing to call on anyone and – it seems – everyone off his bench.
“In his mind, he’s got a plan, but it’s in his own mind,” assistant coach Matt Woodley said. “He knows what he wants to do. And the biggest thing with him is, he’s made them earn it, the fringe guys.”
Still, the thought of playing Hopson and Cross at the same time was a surprise even to Bennett’s own assistant.
“On Tuesday or Monday when he brought it to us, we were like, ‘OK … that’s fine,’ ” he laughed. “You may disagree with him, but he’s pushed the right buttons all year with the personnel. It’s hard to argue.”
Part of the rationale, Bennett said, is there isn’t that much separation between the starters and some of the bench players who have seen little time.
While that explanation doesn’t necessarily explain why so many players at the end of WSU’s bench have come up big when called upon, it would at least explain why they’re capable of it.
“It’s that red team who guards us and plays defense on us the whole practice time,” guard Derrick Low said, referring to the backups. “They make us better, but at the same time they’re getting their work in too. They’re getting real good on defense. It’s almost getting to the point where they’re harder to score on than the opponents we’re preparing for. They’ve definitely earned it. They’ve honestly earned it. They’ve busted tail in practices since the first practice.”
Getting the right matchup has something to do with it as well, as in the case of Baynes on Saturday, when he defended Oregon State’s Sasa Cuic well while also taking advantage of the extra room the Beavers were allowing underneath the basket.
But Bennett has rolled the dice this season, and it will be no surprise if he does so again today, against the second-ranked team in the nation. Really, it may just be a matter of who it’s going to be.
“The best motivator is what they observe and what they see,” Bennett said. “I just think it’s what they see. ‘Wow, he will throw me in.’ Or, ‘I will be used. This team can need me. So I want to stay as ready as I can.’ “