Cougars season one for the books
PULLMAN – It took George Raveling more than three seasons to win 26 games as head coach at Washington State, proof that even for the best and most beloved of Cougars coaches winning on the Palouse isn’t easy.
The 2006-07 men’s basketball team’s 26-8 record, capped off with a second-round loss in the NCAA tournament, is but one part of its legacy, though certainly an important one.
It doesn’t take a drawn-out reading of the history books to see just how rare this season was for the Cougars. Only twice before had WSU won 25 games or more in a season; in both years the United States entered a World War.
And regardless of what happens with head coach Tony Bennett in the coming weeks, it’ll be hard for Cougars fans not to look at the era kicked off with his father’s hiring as one of the brightest in the school’s annals.
WSU won virtually every game it “should have” on the court in Bennett’s first season in charge, sweeping six different Pac-10 teams in the regular season. It defeated Gonzaga once in December and then archrival Washington for a third time in the conference tournament, finishing off a shift in the balance of power – at least for the time being – of in-state basketball.
The Cougars also proved to be a threat to some of the nation’s better teams, losing narrowly on two occasions to UCLA. Bennett was fond of saying throughout the season that his team was capable of playing with any team when it played well, and little that took place on the court served to discredit the statement.
His team did have weaknesses that were inevitably exposed during the course of a 34-game season. Defending the 3-pointer wasn’t always easy, and prolonged stretches of offensive blight were not uncommon.
But what it occasionally lacked in style points it often made up for with grit and determination, two values pounded into its psyche by the losing seasons that came before this one. WSU finished the year a remarkable 10-2 when down at halftime, and not once did it lose consecutive games.
Plus, whatever distaste is left for the Cougars from the 78-74 double-overtime loss to Vanderbilt on Saturday is at least tempered by the knowledge that almost the entire roster is expected back. Ivory Clark was the only senior on scholarship, and although his contributions were important they should not be impossible for the Cougars to fill in come 2007-08.
With the entire backcourt returning, including All-Pac-10 starters Derrick Low and Kyle Weaver, WSU should be at worst a top-20 preseason pick, and depending on what happens around it the preseason ranking could threaten the top 10. Similarly, a place in the top three of the conference’s preseason poll seems likely, a far cry from the last-place pick in 2006 that helped define the season gone by.
Still, barring a run deep into the NCAA tournament it seems impossible that anything these Cougars can accomplish next season and in the years beyond will be quite as stunning as what took place the last five months.
The turnaround year is over, but the impression it left should stand the test of time.