So Much For The Transition Game Cougars’ Quarterfinal At Canisius Proves Nit Bracket Is No Vacation

Washington State’s men’s basketball team, after disposing of Illinois State 83-80 in Monday’s second round of the National Invitation Tournament, spent most of Tuesday scrambling to get to its quarterfinal-round matchup here against Canisius.

The Cougars (18-11) practiced Tuesday morning at ISU’s Redbird Arena in Normal, Ill., and then bused to Moline, Ill. From there, they flew to Lafayette, Ind., Detroit and on to Buffalo, where they will face the Golden Griffins (20-12) Thursday afternoon at 4:30 PST in the 16,000-seat Buffalo Memorial Auditorium - the home of the National Hockey League’s Buffalo Sabres.

The game will not be televised, but it will be carried live on KXLY radio (920-AM) in Spokane and the rest of the Cougar Sports Network, with Bud Nameck doing play-by-play. The radio pregame show begins at 4.

With all the last-minute travel plans involved in taking the school’s unprecedented third step in the NIT, Cougars coach Kevin Eastman had little time Tuesday to study video tapes of Canisius, a small Jesuit school with an enrollment of 4,000.

But he admitted that the Griffins, whose nickname comes from a mythological monster that was half-lion and half-eagle, have his full attention after having defeated six NCAA Tournament teams including Cincinnati - on the road during the regular season.

In addition, Canisius has knocked off Seton Hall and Bradley in the NIT.

Eastman said he was particularly concerned with stopping Micheal Meeks and Craig Wise, the Griffins’ two catalysts in their drive to a second-place finish in the Metro Atlantic Conference.

Wise, a 6-foot-4 senior guard, led the team in scoring during the regular season with an average of 16.5 points per game. He was also the Griffins’ leading rebounder with an average of 7.4.

Meeks, a 6-8 junior center, averaged 16.3 points and seven rebounds, and 6-5 junior forward Darrell Barley averaged just more than 15 points and five rebounds.

The Griffins, who lost to Gonzaga 74-63 earlier in the year in Spokane, had not won a game in a non-conference postseason tournament in 32 years before this year.

They defeated Bradley on the road 55-53 Monday night on Wise’s putback at the buzzer.

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with story: Cougars at Canisius Thursday, 4:30 p.m. PST KXLY (920-AM); no TV