Cougars play at Arena today

Washington State plays its lone Spokane home game of the season today with a 1 p.m. contest against Boise State at the Arena.

With a win, the Cougars (5-0) would be off to their best start since the 1993-94 season, also the last time they went to the NCAA tournament. That season, the Cougars started 7-0 under coach Kelvin Sampson before losing at Indiana, where Sampson is now coaching.

At 5-0, Tony Bennett is already off to the best start for a first-year coach in school history and he has a chance to extend that mark as well.

Boise State is 1-2 on the season after losing by 17 points to Colorado State earlier this week. The Broncos’ lone win came at home against Southern Utah.

In nine of the last 11 seasons, WSU has played at least two home games in Spokane, traveling up Highway 195 for both conference and non-conference games. But this season, after getting fairly small crowds in years past, WSU is playing just this one game in the Arena. WSU will play another home game in Seattle next month, as it did last year in front of a larger crowd.