Coug success has brought out the fans

PULLMAN – It’s Dad’s Weekend at Washington State, and having a home basketball game was just the ticket – the hot ticket. It was fitting, as well, because at moments like these Tony Bennett’s thoughts don’t stray too far from Dad.

When Bennett and the Cougars came down the back stairs at Friel Court on Friday night, a sellout audience – the released count was 10,215 – was there to embrace them. There will be louder and wilder groups, sure, but all will be appreciated equally.

Appreciation, after all, is a bedrock value for Wazzu basketball.

Indeed, Bennett was reminded that last year’s opener drew 4,755 and remembered, “We were excited by that, too.”

And they truly were. Because Bennett also recalled his first Friel opener, as an assistant to father Dick, when the Cougars roughed up the Indiana-Purdue Fort Wayne Mastodons in front of 1,515 people.

That wasn’t the Pliocene Epoch. That was four seasons ago – the end of a five-year nightmare during which Cougars home openers drew a total of 8,987 witnesses and hope was a myth.

It is no bulletin that Bennett and the Cougars have turned things upside down, but it’s always cause for reflection – really about the only thing from Friday’s 68-41 dicing of Eastern Washington that was.

“I’m not going to make too much of it,” is how Bennett sized it up, mostly in deference to EWU’s undermanned state.

The Eagles have a new coach, five new players among their eight available and only two who stand taller than 6-foot-5. That’s not a recipe for happy nights in the Big Sky Conference, much less against the 10th-ranked team in the country in a house full of hostiles – not that coach Kirk Earlywine held any illusions about who caused the most problems.

“Nobody from the crowd came down and guarded us,” Earlywine said, “and nobody came down from the crowd and got a rebound. It was a whole lot more the guys wearing the white shirts than it was the atmosphere.”

The Cougars, other than a few stagnant stretches, were very much who they are – studied, veteran, efficient, stingy. Not considerably different from who they were last season, when Tony Bennett appreciated every one of their 26 victories and always took pains to point out that the Cougars were “vulnerable when we’re not playing just right.”

And he’s not budging now that he’s in the Top 10.

The Cougars’ constituency will not be so restrained, probably. They will think of their heroes as more invulnerable in this lofty station, with all that experience back. They will believe the margin for error has ballooned. They will, in fact, love assessments like the one Earlywine issued.

“I think there are only 15 – well, less than 20 – teams in the country that can realistically look at San Antonio and the Final Four as a goal,” he said. “And they’re one of them.”

And yet …

“I still think if we lose sight of who we are, we’re vulnerable,” Bennett insisted. “We’re not an all-airport team. We won’t wow you. Why they play well is because they’re a heady group and play together and I think they believe that – and if we don’t, there will be some difficult nights, especially in a league like the Pac-10 this year.”

The Cougars are a little different – they are without the athletic gifts of Ivory Clark, but now have their own mastodon, Aron Baynes, in one piece from the beginning. But of course, the biggest change is in the air.

“Pullman,” noted senior Kyle Weaver, “has a whole new buzz about it.”

True enough, though it must be said that while Friday’s game was a sellout, it was not a fill-in – that is to say, many seats went unoccupied. Those were mostly in the student-only sections and not a total surprise, given the opponent, the dads, the football eve and the competition for the entertainment buck – $4 pitchers of Blue Moon at Denny’s, for instance.

Still, Wazzu has sold all the season tickets – 4,237 – it has allotted itself, not quite double the tally from a year ago.

“Before the game, I told the guys that we’ve been together a long time and been through some hard times – and some wonderful times,” Bennett said. “Now there’s so much excitement. I said, ‘Don’t let it scare you, don’t let it make you overconfident. Just be who you are – be who you were to get to this spot and be thankful.’ Because you do have to embrace it.

“I think they’re very thankful for it and appreciate it. And I really believe they don’t want to just do it for one year. They want to leave the program with something lasting.”

Like echoes. The fuller the arena, the longer they last.