Informed instincts

A shooter’s judgment has to be quick.

The shooter can’t often take the time to measure things carefully. Catch the ball. Shoot the ball. Trust your instincts.

So when Tony Bennett and Ben Johnson, assistant coaches at Washington State, walked into Josh Akognon’s house in Petaluma, Calif., one summer day in 2004, Akognon did what a shooter has to do.

Receive. And fire away.

After listening for 10 minutes, Akognon asked to step out with his father for a moment.

“Ben and I were like, ‘OK, we’re either going to get kicked out or I don’t know what,’ ” Bennett recalled. “He came back into the room and said, ‘You don’t have to say any more. If you want me, if the scholarship’s still there, I’d like to come.’ “

So it was that the shooter landed in Pullman. A year-and-a-half later, it’s that same quick judgment that has made Akognon the Pac-10’s player of the week. The Cougars played but one game last week, but Akognon’s 27 points in 26 minutes off the bench gave them a 78-71 upset win at Washington.

How did Akognon finish off his career night? How else? After receiving a pass in the left corner from Robbie Cowgill, Akognon ignored his teammate, who was screaming for him to hold the ball with 18 seconds left in a tie game. Akognon caught the pass and fired away. Shooters don’t waste time, and in this case, the shooter didn’t miss.

“I was kind of like, ‘Oh my God, he better make it,’ ” Bennett said. “It probably would have been good if he backed it out. … But that’s Josh.”

Said Akognon of the pregame warmup that evening: “The first couple of shots went down and I smiled. I kind of knew. I looked at Kyle (Weaver) and told him it was going to be a good day.”

Tonight, Akognon will almost certainly be in the starting lineup, and it’ll be another Pac-10 giant the diminutive guard will look to bring to its knees, this time in Pauley Pavilion at 7:30. UCLA (13-2, 3-1 Pac-10) may just be the best team in the conference, and another big night from Akognon would go a long way if WSU (9-3, 2-1) is to pull a second consecutive upset.

Just one week ago, the idea of Akognon being a central figure in the Cougars’ hopes for victory would have seemed laughable. For his first year-plus at WSU, Akognon has been at his best a streak shooter capable of getting hot and at worst a skittish, unreliable player.

As a freshman last season, Akognon failed to find his range more often than not, shooting 29.2 percent from the floor while averaging 11.5 minutes a night. A missed free throw on the front end of a one-and-one against Oregon – in a one-point game with 24 seconds on the clock – did little to help the freshman’s confidence.

“I didn’t think I was that big of a role on the team,” Akognon said of his first year, “so I said when I get in I have to do something for myself. It was always individual.”

As head coach Dick Bennett would be quick to say, that’s the first thing that will lead to a seat on the bench. Even this year, Akognon opened the season in the starting lineup but quickly found his way back to a reserve role and as few as 8 minutes in two separate non-conference games.

Defense does not come naturally to Akognon, and even he admits that playing full-time point guard doesn’t suit him well.

But when Derrick Low went down with a broken foot five day before the Washington game, it was Akognon who became the object of the head coach’s ire more than anyone else on the team. After one practice, when he had been particularly harsh on the sophomore, Bennett sat down with Akognon for a post-practice chat.

Bennett looks at Akognon and sees more than an occasional breakout star for a night. He sees a consistent threat all over the floor.

“I think he should be. I think he can be,” the head coach said. “I think he’s got to get into a mind-set that he’s going to be a regular contributor and not just a guy we bring in to shoot the ball. I believe that when he lets the game come a little bit, he tends to get into that rhythm that lasts as opposed to coming in and trying to bury a 3 right away and think that, ‘Boy, if I don’t make this first 3, I’m probably not going to play.’ Or, ‘I’m going to have a bad night.’ He has to start thinking more like a big-minutes player.”

Akognon had scored 22 points in the season opener, only to follow that up with a 2-of-8 performance from the field in the next game – not coincidentally, a loss to BYU. But the sophomore knows that he can’t continue to play like he has in the past. One missed shot early won’t change what WSU needs from Akognon.

Stay confident. And keep shooting.

“He told me I needed to succeed more,” Akognon said of his conversation with Bennett last week. “He pretty much told me that, and that gave me a lot of confidence that a guy of that stature gave me that much responsibility.

“This year I understand that my shooting’s going to help the team, and hopefully not hurt it.”