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Cougs face stern test

Kyle Weaver, right, and the Cougars square off against their toughest foe since beating David Pendergraft, left, and Gonzaga. (Associated Press / The Spokesman-Review)
By Glenn Kasses glennk@spokesman.com
Kyle Weaver, right, and the Cougars square off against their toughest foe since beating David Pendergraft, left, and Gonzaga. (Associated Press / The Spokesman-Review)

SEATTLE – No one knows just how good this Washington State team is, even after a 10-1 start that has its fans abuzz with excitement under first-year head coach Tony Bennett.

A week from now, a road trip to No. 1 UCLA will probably offer an excellent indication of the Cougars’ true nature. But for now, tonight’s game against San Diego State – to be played in Seattle’s KeyArena – might just do the trick.

In the Aztecs (10-2), WSU is facing one of its best opponents of the season, and today’s 7:30 p.m. game figures to be as good a warm-up for the Pac-10 play to come as any.

“It’s a team that is Pac-10 caliber,” Bennett said of his team’s final non-conference foe this season. “They beat Cal … it’s going to be a great game to prepare us and see where we’re at and see what we need to work on for the start of the Pac-10 season.”

The Aztecs look much like a Pac-10 team. The Mountain West Conference champion from last year, they have a coach in Steve Fisher who has won a national championship and a player in guard Brandon Heath who is an NBA prospect. They’ve split two games against Pac-10 competition, beating the Golden Bears 86-79 and losing to Arizona 69-48.

For the Cougars, tonight offers one more chance to prove how far they have come from last year’s last-place finish before entering the conference slate.

“The more wins you can pile up at the beginning of the season, the better, because you know how hard it gets in the Pac and how competitive all the teams in the Pac are going to be,” junior forward Robbie Cowgill said. “Every win you can get toward the postseason, which is our ultimate goal here, is very important. Eleven-and-one definitely looks very good for this program. That’d be great.”

Tonight’s contest also offers WSU a chance to prove itself in front of the other side of the state. For a second season, the Cougars are playing kind of a home game in the usual home of the Sonics. Last year, WSU dominated Utah in front of more than 5,000 fans, and there’s nothing it would love more than a repeat on both fronts.

“It did treat us pretty good last year,” guard Kyle Weaver said of the Seattle trip. “I’m sure that’s a big part of it, the atmosphere of being in a big-time gym like KeyArena. That helps, especially having a home crowd there, too.”

WSU has received votes in both polls for the last two weeks, and a win against San Diego State would only serve to propel it up the ladder. But more than anything, it would give the Cougars something to smile about heading into what looks to be a brutally difficult conference slate this season – and yet another reason to believe that this fall’s success has been anything but a fluke.

“Besides Gonzaga, they’re probably the best team that we’ve faced so far,” Cowgill said. “It’s going to be a good challenge, a good test, and it’ll be a good stepping stone heading into conference.”