Four Corners: WSU fighting free-throw demons

Coming up: Thursday at USC, 7:30 p.m. (Pac-12); Saturday at UCLA, 4 p.m. (Pac-12)

Outlook: The Cougars will not actually be halfway through their Pac-12 schedule until after this weekend’s games, but Washington State is already starting to see familiar faces. WSU came away with a split when it hosted UCLA and USC last month, and will need to at least repeat that to get out of last place in the conference standings. Free throw struggles and scoring droughts have contributed to WSU’s residing at the bottom of the conference standings, but if the Cougars can fix those issues they might be able to make a run at a more favorable Pac-12 tournament seed.

Izundu back: Valentine Izundu was cleared to practice on Tuesday after missing WSU’s last five games with a foot injury. The occasional starting center averages 4.3 points and 2.8 points per game, but makes his biggest impact on the defensive end of the floor. The 6-foot-10 Izundu has long arms and a high vertical leap, enabling him to block 16 percent of two-point attempts when he is on the floor according to KenPom.com, a number that would lead the country if he had played enough minutes to qualify.

WSU leaders

Scoring: Josh Hawkinson 16.4 ppg

Rebounding: Josh Hawkinson 10.9 rbg

Assists: Ike Iroegbu 3.8 apg

@JacobThorpeSR