College basketball 2014-2015

PULLMAN – The fact Ernie Kent is even at Washington State means that he has a tall task ahead of him to make the Cougars a competitive team. If the team hadn’t sunk to a level where it barely reached double-digit wins, then his old friend, athletic director Bill Moos, would never have come calling, and Kent would still be watching WSU games as an analyst for the Pac-12 networks. But the losses piled up, Beasley Coliseum started to look like Beasley Mausoleum and Moos went out in search of a rainmaker, who could bring wins eventually and excitement and fans right now. Enter Kent, a coach whose top priority is to simply inject some confidence into a program that hasn’t finished higher than eighth in the conference since the 2010-2011 season.

1 Keep Lacy healthy. A burst appendix, broken ribs and two separate knee injuries have kept Washington State’s best player off the court the past two seasons. Lacy led the Cougars with 19.4 points per game – which would have ranked second in the league if only injuries hadn’t prevented him from reaching the minimum number of games played. He drew most if not all of the opposing defense’s attention, so if new coach Ernie Kent is going to be able to improve an offense that ranked dead-last in the conference in points per game he’s going to need Lacy on the floor, not at the trainer’s table.