Piecing together the puzzle

PULLMAN – Ask Ron Sanchez if he likes jigsaw puzzles and he answers, “Not really.”

That’s kind of surprising, considering the guy spends all year putting one together.

The puzzle Sanchez works on daily is Washington State’s non-conference basketball schedule, one of his duties as assistant coach.

Now that the non-conference part of WSU’s 2007-08 schedule is done (the No. 4 Cougars cut through the 12 games without a loss), Sanchez is busy trying to fit pieces together for next season and beyond.

“Your schedule is not based on this year,” said Sanchez, who has been on WSU’s staff for five years. “It’s not, ‘Oh, we’re a good team, so we’re going to play teams of such-and-such caliber.’ Us playing at Boise this year, that was set two years ago.”

WSU will have a home non-conference schedule next season that will include Baylor (10-1 this season, with the Big 12’s Bears only loss at home, 67-64, to the Cougars) and Gonzaga (9-4 this season, including a 51-47 loss to WSU at home).

But filling out the rest of the schedule? That’s still unmatched pieces, though the picture WSU is trying to build is clear.

“We don’t mind taking those young kids on the road to play against good team,” said Sanchez, looking toward a season in which WSU will probably rely on contributions from key freshmen. “You want those young kids to get challenged early, so you can depend on them late.”

Late, as in the Pac-10 season. It’s the conference schedule that frames the rest of WSU’s season.

The non-conference schedule the Cougars just finished ranks 215 among the 341 Division I schools, according to Jerry Palm’s RPI rating, despite only four games in Pullman and road wins against the above-mentioned schools plus Boise State (8-3).

However, the Cougars’ Pac-10 schedule will include eight games against teams currently in the Top 25 and 14 against teams in Palm’s RPI top 100.

With so many tough, NCAA-impressing games in conference, the Cougars look for fewer tough non-conference matchups than, say, their neighbor to the north.

“It wouldn’t benefit us to play Gonzaga’s schedule,” Sanchez said, “because we have 18 of those games coming up anyway.”

Putting together an attractive preconference schedule is tougher than it looks, thanks in large part to the first three rules of real estate: location, location, location.

”(Coach) Tony (Bennett) and I talk about it,” said Sanchez of the challenge of getting high-caliber games in the Palouse. “I’m trying to get people to come into Pullman. If we play someone at their place, they want the return to be in Seattle or Spokane. That’s not giving our fans what they deserve. And it’s tough. To go to Seattle for us, it’s not an easy trip. … I’m trying, per Tony’s instructions, to get a BCS school to do a home-and-home, even if we have to travel to their place first, then get them back to Pullman. If that’s going to happen, I don’t know.”

To illustrate the point, Sanchez points to his search for a tough road game next season during Thanksgiving week, when WSU’s students are away from campus. If the Cougars were willing to accept a return game in Seattle or Spokane, the match for next year would have already been made.

So he’s still searching. Trying to fit games into a puzzle.