Cougars chances lowered
Not too many people would have picked the Cougars a week ago to pull an upset tonight in Seattle against the archrival Huskies. Not when Washington State is 0-52 all-time on the road against Top 10 teams, and not with Washington riding the nation’s longest home winning streak.
Well, one of those streaks is done – Arizona won at Edmundson Pavilion in double overtime – but the other is still very much alive.
But it’s another reason – the loss of WSU point guard Derrick Low to a broken foot – that has even fewer thinking the Cougars (8-3, 1-1 Pac-10) will defeat their cross-state foe.
“We’ve got to find some alternate ways of handling the ball; some committee work,” head coach Dick Bennett said. “I’m trying to adjust the offense because he really was our most consistent outside shooter.”
Low, who leads WSU with 10.5 points a game, will be out at least six weeks. And even though WSU plans to allow the sophomore to rest without surgery, Bennett said he isn’t counting on his point guard’s return.
“I suspect it’ll be more (than six weeks),” Bennett said. “I don’t know how much time there is in the season, but if we got him back before the end of the season I would be very happy.”
In Low’s place, senior Randy Green should see the primary point guard duties, and in an interesting twist, his first game this year in that role will come near his hometown of Renton. Sophomores Kyle Weaver and Josh Akognon figure to see time there as well.
Even if Low were on the floor, the challenges posed by Washington are plentiful. No conference team dominated the Cougars so thoroughly last season, and even though the Huskies (12-1, 1-1) have graduated a number of contributors from that team, they’re right on track to challenge for a Pac-10 title this season with a restocked roster.
Head coach Lorenzo Romar’s run-and-gun style will make every possession a battle to control the pace, with WSU hoping to keep things from getting out of hand and Washington wanting to go for the jugular on offense and defense.
Furthermore, the Huskies student section figures to be in a frenzy as Bennett famously flipped it an inappropriate gesture during last year’s game, an action for which he quickly apologized. Even if it doesn’t have that great an effect on tonight’s game, the Cougars can’t expect to have too many friends in the building.
Back on the court, however, Bennett is planning to give Antonio Chavers, little-used to this point, much more time and perhaps a start. The junior college transfer isn’t a great offensive threat but provides a defensive presence and quickness, which Bennett hopes will combat UW’s superior speed.
“Against a team like that, you don’t want to leave yourself too unathletic,” Bennett said. “If anything, we needed another athletic player in there and Antonio’s probably our most athletic player. So he will be going in there, but actually I was leaning in that direction anyhow.”
But not for Derrick, a reporter countered.
“No,” he said, laughing at the thought. “Not for Derrick.”