Cougs play today for their postseason lives
Even with all the possibilities and permutations floating around his team this week, Washington State head coach Dick Bennett knows the task ahead is very simple.
“We’re playing for our basketball lives every time we step on the floor,” he said. “For some that starts earlier than the end of the season and we happen to be one of those. If you’re a lock (for postseason play), these are times when you’re adjusting or looking to expand your bench. But when you’re playing for your basketball lives, you’re just focusing on being tough and ready.”
The Cougars have just two games left in the regular season – both on the road, and the first at 7 p.m. tonight against Stanford – and they’ll almost certainly need to find a way to beat either the Cardinal tonight or California on Saturday to make sure that the regular season doesn’t equal the end of the season.
At 6-10 in the conference, WSU is all alone in seventh place right now. But with just the top eight Pac-10 teams qualifying for the conference tournament, the Cougars can’t relax as the schedule winds down. Two losses this week would mean almost certain doom because they come up short in a number of tiebreaker scenarios.
It’s been more than two months since the Cougars have seen either of this week’s opponents. WSU opened conference play on Dec. 31 with a nine-point win over Stanford, then played poorly in a double-digit loss to Cal two days later. Since then, the Bay Area schools have gone in opposite directions, with Stanford alone in third place and the Golden Bears also fighting for their lives in an eighth-place tie.
But even though Stanford has been the better team, WSU knows it can’t bank on defeating Cal. Tonight’s opportunity could be their best chance left for a win.
“The motivation and the home court will be there for Stanford,” Bennett said, referring to the fact that the 16-9 Cardinal could still make the NCAA Tournament. “(But we have) an enthusiasm that I think is always a good sign late in the season. Besides being a good sign, it shows that it’s a good group.”
Bennett’s group nearly took a hit this week, however, when senior Chris Schlatter went down with an elbow injury in Monday’s practice with what the forward described as “a little snap, crackle, pop.” Schlatter hit the game-winning shot with less than 10 seconds left in WSU’s last game and has been a linchpin of the team’s strong interior defense this year.
Fortunately for the Cougars, X-rays showed no damage and the forward is expected to play his regular number of minutes with a brace to help protect the hyperextension.
“You kind of could see the look on everyone’s face drop,” point guard Derrick Low said of the moment the injury happened. “Chris did a lot of good for us in he win against Arizona State and he’s definitely a key factor for us in all the games.”
Stanford is without one of its best players in Dan Grunfeld, who went down for the year with a knee injury four weeks ago. Grunfeld was the team’s top scorer, and in his absence point guard Chris Hernandez has had to pick up more of the scoring slack.
“They’ll go inside more, and, of course, Chris Hernandez has become much more of an offensive force,” Bennett said. “It’s an important time of the year not to become distracted, when there’s something on the line.”