Program can take another step by reaching Sweet 16

DENVER – And now it’s time.

College basketball has produced no more compelling fable these last couple of years than the rise of Washington State, which you could define as a painstaking overnight sensation.

It’s certainly been a resurrection plotted in precise steps. The hiring of a proven program builder and his every-bit-as-capable son. The foundation of their first recruiting class. The hard lessons of on-the-job training. The severing of several chains of failure – losing streaks ended, long-time nemeses beaten. The return to the NCAA tournament and another, unprecedented back-to-back appearances.

Now it’s time for the next step, just as precise.

And don’t think the Cougars don’t know it.

“This year, it would be a disappointment to everybody – our fans and even ourselves – if we didn’t win this next game,” said junior forward Caleb Forrest. “It’s not something we need to be pressured by. We just need to come out and play. But it’s a needed step for this program.”

Today the Cougars meet Notre Dame, the noted basketball school with a lower seed but a higher national ranking than Wazzu, for the reward of going to the Sweet 16 – which has come to be seen as a different tournament altogether.

The 65-team bracket is the whole family – from stodgy patriarchs to crazy uncles to shirt-tail cousins. It’s a party with loud music and dancing, and chip dip getting spilled on the rug.

The Sweet 16 is the sit-down dinner for the grown-ups, with the odd Cinderella at the end of the table.

“There’s just a prestige around it,” said WSU senior Robbie Cowgill. “There is with every step in the tournament, but the Sweet 16 is like a new tournament. It has its own name. It’s set apart.”

And the Cougars, in their evolution into a program that matters, need to be a part of it.

Look, it’s not as if the program needs to be abandoned if the Cougars don’t beat Notre Dame. It won’t undo all the work that’s been done or the successes already achieved. Coach Tony Bennett won’t be more vulnerable to the enticements of other employers because the Cougars have bumped their heads on the ceiling.

Basketball will go on at Wazzu, regardless.

But the operative term here is “window of opportunity.” The Cougars may well have the makings of more tournament teams, and possibly sooner instead of later, but there are three seniors in the program who give Wazzu its best chance of tournament advancement now. And tournament advancement puts the program in an even better light than the one already shining.

There are some parallels to other power-conference programs that have recently pulled themselves out of the mire. Pittsburgh didn’t have an NCAA appearance between 1993 and 2001, then made consecutive Sweet 16s. Texas A&M was absent from the bracket for 19 years prior to 2006, then made the 16 a year ago and is now working on three straight appearances. Vanderbilt – which subdued the Cougars in double overtime last year to deny them a place in the second weekend – has made a similar jump, despite Friday’s surprising loss to Siena.

The most striking example, however, is even more familiar – since its revival was also a Dick and Tony Bennett production.

Wisconsin had made exactly one tournament trip between 1947 and 1997, when the elder Bennett finally steered the Badgers back. In 2000, they reached the Sweet 16 – and beyond, all the way to the Final Four. Two head coaches later, they haven’t been out of the bracket since.

They’ve become a perennial. Established. Pencil them in every March.

The Cougars would love to follow that model. Yes, this is a program devoted to the value of humility and married to the role of the underdog. That does not have to be incompatible with ambition.

“This is something that could turn us into a team that is recognized,” said Forrest. “Right now, we’re not even recognized. Last year, when they were showing coach’s award, they put UW’s emblem up on TV. This is national TV – how do you not get that right? It’s because nobody knows Washington State. I didn’t know it before Coach Tony called me to recruit me.”

For immediate motivation, of course, the Cougars have the memory of the Vanderbilt loss, a victory that got away – “unfinished business,” as Bennett told his players. For Cowgill, there was an extra sting in that one “because I want us to be a team that overachieves.

“We’ve always been picked as underdogs and surprised people, but last year we were a 3 seed and lost to the 6, and so you can say we underachieved. I want us to be a group of guys that because of our unity and the way we play together can achieve more.”

The Cougars will play for their own instant gratification today: the chance to play another day. But they’re also playing for the future.

“That’s probably the most important thing besides actually winning the game,” said senior Kyle Weaver. “Taking this thing as far as we can, not only for the seniors but for the new crew coming after us. Giving them some stars to shoot for. Realizing that the guys before them took it somewhere and they can, too. That’s pretty important for the program.”

And the time is now.