WSU: Road Warriors

PULLMAN — After a delay caused by a minor Pac-10 scheduling shuffle, Washington State has released its 2004-05 men’s basketball slate.

The Cougars are taking to the road once again in head coach Dick Bennett’s second season, playing just 10 of their 28 games in Pullman. Sixteen games are on the road, and the remaining two are home games against Stanford and California that will be played in Spokane.

“Unfortunately, in the position we are in, we must pay our dues on the road first,” Bennett said in a statement. “The upside is all but one of the schools we are playing on the road in non-conference will come back to us the following season.”

The most intriguing game on the WSU schedule is a Dec. 4 trip to Stillwater, Okla., to play Oklahoma State, a Final Four team last season and the defending Big 12 champions. The Cougars also play Gonzaga at home and BYU in Salt Lake City as part of an effort to bulk up the quality of its nonconference schedule.

WSU has three three-game road trips on the schedule. The first ends with the Oklahoma State game, the second with a game at Wyoming on Dec. 22 and the last one comes in the Pac-10 season with a game at Washington and then the team’s swing to Arizona and Arizona State in late January.

WSU hosts Montana State in its opener on Nov. 19.