Six crucial games left

The ladder sits near the half-court line of Washington State’s practice gym. Its bottom three rungs are empty. The fourth and highest rung is host to a picture of the NIT logo.

Near it is a poster, resting on a chair, with six media guide covers attached. And if the Cougars should win tonight at Oregon State, that school’s media guide will make the short trip from the poster to the lowest rung. After that, five media guide covers would be left with two rungs to fill.

The message is clear. Six regular-season games left. Three wins, and WSU can start thinking postseason possibilities.

At 11-10, those three wins would give WSU 14 on the season and guarantee at least a .500 record, the baseline for postseason eligibility. And while the NIT is usually looked down upon as a tournament for the also-rans, the Cougars view it as an opportunity to prove just how far the program has come in three years under Dick Bennett.

“I just think it would be one of the really wonderful things that could happen to this program at this point,” Bennett said. “And I never thought I’d say that about an NIT, but I really feel that way. I feel almost as strongly about that as I have when I’ve had teams make the NCAA.”

Thus, the appearance of the ladder and the poster at practice this week, a not-so-subtle reminder about just how possible it will be for WSU to play beyond the conference tournament.

Fourteen wins wouldn’t make WSU a lock for the NIT, but it would give it a decent shot. Bought out by the NCAA in the last year, the NIT will feature a selection committee that is charged with picking the best 40 teams in the country that didn’t make the NCAA Tournament.

And with an RPI in the top 100, the Cougars might just make that cut.

“Sometimes at this time of year, you’re just playing just to stay safe,” senior guard Randy Green said. “But we’re playing now with a shot at postseason play.

“It’s important for all of us. It’s something we haven’t done. And for me especially, it puts it in perspective. I only have six games left.”

While a postseason appearance would be a nice bonus at the end of Green’s career, it would be more significant as a mark that the Cougars have a solid foundation in place. Outside of Green, no one on the WSU roster has more than a year of major college experience. And it’s fair to say that a team composed largely of freshmen and sophomores should improve with age.

“If we can show good things on the court,” sophomore Kyle Weaver said, “I think it’d be real important in the long run.”

Bennett usually shies away from speaking so openly with his team about these things, but the veteran coach thought the carrot in front of them might inspire improved play down the stretch. Four of the final six games are on the road, and tonight the Cougars open the Oregon road trip, where they haven’t won a single game since 1998.

“It’s good for them to know. At the beginning of the year everything is so vague,” Bennett said. “Now it’s short enough. The end is in sight. It should promote some alertness and certainly togetherness, a renewed energy perhaps.”

And if nothing else, the coach who is on the cusp of retirement hopes that selection committee might take one additional factor into consideration.

“They might,” he joked, “have pity on an old guy if it got close.”