Bench marks sought

PULLMAN – Every college basketball coach starts a season with a checklist filled with concerns. It’s the nature of the profession.

Goals are set, questions raised, worries abound. Then the season starts.

Washington State head basketball coach Tony Bennett is no different. Despite returning four starters from last year’s NCAA team, he had goals he wanted to reach, questions he needed answered and worries, too.

After a 6-0 start and halfway through the non-conference schedule, the worries have changed, the goals are being reached and one big question remains.

“Some of the things I think are a concern,” Bennett said this week, “are we haven’t started ballgames very well and have dug some holes. We have to try to get off to good starts.

“We have to continue to address trying to be right, right from the get-go.”

Despite the slow starts in tough games, the Cougars have already addressed a couple of concerns carried over from last year’s 26-8 season. Their goals – getting to the free-throw line more and rebounding better than last year – are being met.

The Cougars have made more free throws (113) than their opponents have shot (71). They are winning the rebounding battle by almost six a game.

But this being big-time college basketball, nothing is perfect, not even when you are the sixth-ranked team in the nation.

One question still lingers and demands an answer. Besides the top six or seven, which players will emerge as contributors off the bench? Last season’s remarkable success was built on a durable starting lineup buttressed by bench contributions from some surprising sources.

Those unexpected bench contributions have yet to surface this year, although everyone feels they will.

“We have six, seven guys, maybe even eight are capable of doing that,” said junior guard Taylor Rochestie, one of the guys who emerged from the bench early last season. “We’re a team that, as the season goes on, different players are going to have to step up and makes some big plays and have some big games for us.”

Daven Harmeling, who is usually first off the bench, knows there is talent next to him at tipoff. Those talented players are just waiting for their chance.

“I’m not going to tell you it’s going to be this person, because you never really know,” he said, “but, in a close game … I could name several guys (who are going to step up).

“We definitely have trust in the guys on the bench. I guess I say that,” he added, laughing, “because I’m one of them. I hope the starters have confidence in us bench guys – let me rephrase that.”

Nikola Koprivica, still recovery from last year’s ACL tear, is the first wing off the bench, averaging 12.7 minutes and 2.3 points per game. The 6-foot-8 Caleb Forrest has earned the role of the backup big man, averaging almost 12 minutes a game, though he didn’t play against Air Force. Stephen Sauls did, for a minute, and has scored 17 points in four games, with 12 of those coming against Mississippi Valley State. Thomas Abercrombie and Jeremy Cross have also been given a look.

But when the Cougars are in tough, the top six, barring foul trouble, will play most of the 40 minutes.

“Of course, I want to try and get, whether it’s a Stephen Sauls or Jeremy Cross, a few minutes,” Bennett said. “I think about that, but, when you get in a game, it comes down to doing what you can to win the game. We’ll just deal with the rest as it comes.”

The starting guards have rarely sat during the three contested games (at Boise State, Montana and Air Force), with Rochestie averaging 37.7 minutes, Weaver 36.7 and Low, despite foul trouble that cost him at least 10 minutes against Air Force, 33.7. Last season, Low led the Cougars, averaging 34.4 minutes in their 34 games.

“You have to play the guys you think can help you win,” Bennett said. “I think if you get too mindful of looking down the road, you might hurt your chances to be as good as you can in the game in front of you.

“This ballclub, this team, it’s game to game. We’ve got to just rally and get together and just fight like crazy to be ready for each game.”

The Cougars are in good physical shape – a tough preseason conditioning schedule, incorporating outdoor running and workouts in the WSU pool, made certain of that – but the mental drain of playing extended minutes can take its toll.

“It’s definitely physically and mentally challenging, especially when you are in a game against Air Force, who, if you’re not mentally prepared for the game, they are going to tear you apart,” said Rochestie, who played all 40 minutes in the 71-62 win. “That was the first game I felt fully mentally drained after a game, where I felt my brain had just been on overload for the last two hours.

“As far as the minutes we’re playing, I think it’s good for us early to kind of see what we are made of. We have to be tough and bring it every day.”

Almost every team the Cougars have played has tried to make the games as physical as possible. Against the Falcons, there were at least a half-dozen times when players hit the floor from contact, including Weaver, who is still having trouble talking after taking a shoulder to the throat.

“You can say what you want about the teams we’ve played,” Rochestie said, “but they’ve played us physical and they’ve been tough. That’s just what we are going to face in the Pac-10.”

Bennett, for his part, sees a positive in all the tests – and the minutes – the Cougars have had to endure.

“Our kids just played on,” he said. “That’s what they exhibited in large stretches last year. They just play and don’t get too shook regardless of the circumstance or where it is in the game.”