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Cougars grateful for third seed, site, and just to have name called

Guard Kyle Weaver and Washington State face 14th-seed Oral Roberts in their opener. (Associated Press / The Spokesman-Review)
By Glenn Kasses glennk@spokesman.com
Guard Kyle Weaver and Washington State face 14th-seed Oral Roberts in their opener. (Associated Press / The Spokesman-Review)

PULLMAN – Some stood and cheered, some remained seated and clapped.

But the roaring mass of fans behind the Washington State Cougars coaches and players made it perfectly clear for a national TV audience: They’re back in the tournament, and thrilled to be there.

“The work is now upon us, but for this moment I’m real proud of these guys,” head coach Tony Bennett told a joyous crowd of about 500 gathered in Bohler Gym.

The Cougars, who hadn’t been celebrating on Selection Sunday since 1994, are a No. 3 seed in the East region of the NCAA tournament, playing 14-seed Oral Roberts of the Mid-Continent Conference in the first round at 11:40 a.m. Thursday.

For WSU, it was just about the best-possible scenario. Placed in a Sacramento, Calif., pod, the Cougars will play as close to home as was allowable this season, and they picked up a No. 3-seed when many thought they might slip to a four or even a five.

Watching on two big screens with the crowd behind them, some of the Cougars thought that Oregon getting a third seed in the Midwest region might bode poorly for them.

But when the third region was revealed, there was WSU, and the celebration began in earnest.

“It was pretty special to see our name called,” Bennett said. “We knew we were in it, but it still makes your heart race a little bit.

Said All-Pac-10 guard Derrick Low: “To finally do something special like get invited to the NCAA tournament, that’s just an amazing feeling.”

WSU wasn’t the only Pac-10 team feeling good on Sunday. The league got six teams in, and although UCLA missed out on getting a No. 1 seed, the other five teams had reason to be thrilled. In addition to WSU and Oregon, USC was given a fifth seed and Stanford, thought to be on the bubble, got in as an 11-seed.

“The selection committee respected the conference a lot, so hopefully all the teams in the Pac-10 can represent the conference well in the tournament,” sophomore Daven Harmeling said.

When they take the floor on Thursday, the Cougars will be the much higher seed but the less-experienced team in tournament play. Oral Roberts lost to top-seed Memphis in the first round last season, and played in the NIT the year before.

The Golden Eagles won their league this season on the backs of two senior stars, power forward Caleb Green and shooting guard Ken Tutt. But the Cougars, at least immediately after learning who their opponent would be, knew very little about the team they’ll face in the school’s biggest game in more than a decade. (WSU and Oral Roberts played have no common opponents this season.)

“I’m going to go home and look on the Internet, look at their leading scorers and try to get my hands on some film,” Harmeling said.

Well after learning about his team’s fate, Bennett was asked what he thought about his region as a whole. Looking over a printed copy of the field of 65, he shrugged.

“It just looks good to see Washington State on it, that’s all I can say,” the coach said, grinning.

Notes

WSU and Oral Roberts have met once before, with the Cougars winning 98-50 in a game played at a neutral-site tournament in 1993. … UCLA will also play in Sacramento, and with Gonzaga there as well Bennett said he hoped there would be plenty of people rooting for the Cougars in Arco Arena.