The big picture

DENVER – Tony Bennett isn’t above a psychological ploy. A motivational tool. An edge. In fact, he looks for them. Saturday, he found one from an unexpected source: his wife, Laurel.

“She had a picture,” Bennett said. “It was actually a picture of the scoreboard before we played Vanderbilt (in last year’s second round). It said 20 minutes on the clock, 0-0, Washington State versus Vanderbilt. Picture that big picture.

“I told her, ‘I love that, I think I can use that.’ She said you might want to use this because she showed it to me. I said, ‘That’s perfect.’ “

It was. At least to Caleb Forrest.

“He said, ‘Let’s try to change history, change what we did in the past and learn from mistakes and get it right now,’ ” Forrest said. “It worked tonight.”

Bennett wanted his team to remember how they felt after losing to Vanderbilt 78-74 in double overtime, then take that memory onto the court against Notre Dame.

He said he asked them, “What can you do better to get us one step further? What have you learned from this experience?”

“Against Vanderbilt, we played well for the most part, but I didn’t think defensively we were as tough as we needed to be,” Bennett said.

The Cougars showed their defensive toughness against the Irish, holding Notre Dame to nearly half its usual offensive average in the 61-41 win.

In the postgame madness of the locker room, Bennett gave the Cougars their reward. He ripped the glossy print belonging to Laurel to shreds.

“Yeah, I didn’t think of that,” Bennett said. “My wife will probably be mad.”

Forrest provides spark

Forrest was one of only two subs the Cougars used. The 6-foot-8, 228-pound forward from Colorado put in 15 minutes in relief of Aron Baynes and Robbie Cowgill, doing his best to help contain Notre Dame’s 6-8, 250-pound Luke Harangody.

“Caleb gave us a great lift early,” Bennett said. “He gives you all effort. You know, he had five rebounds, too, in 15 minutes. They were important minutes with Aron picking up fouls and (battling) the fatigue factor of trying to run the floor with Luke.

“I thought (Forrest’s) minutes were very valuable.”

Forrest finished with four points, two of them coming late in the first half after he had blocked a Harangody shot on the defensive end.

Bennett gambles with Baynes

Speaking of Baynes, Bennett took a calculated gamble playing him most of the second half despite foul trouble. Baynes picked up his third foul early in the half, sat about 5 minutes, then returned with 13:47 left and Notre Dame as close as it would get at 38-31.

“We felt we needed him on the glass,” Bennett said, mentioning Baynes’ team-high 11 rebounds. “There came a point we couldn’t withstand it. When he picked up his third, there’s a point in the game where we said we have to be able to control the boards.

“He can do that better than most of our guys, rebound in traffic. I thought that was another big part of his game that helped us.”

The Cougars only outrebounded Notre Dame 38-37, an area the Irish were plus-six coming in.

Baynes picked up his fourth foul with 5 minutes left but didn’t leave the court until Bennett called time with 1:06 remaining for a mass substitution.

The Cougar crowd gave the starters a standing ovation.

“We felt it tonight, we felt it on Thursday, felt like we had home-court advantage basically,” Forrest said. “It’s crazy how many people came from Pullman or Spokane to watch. I would have never thought so many people would have come down from up there.”

Tickets available for Charlotte

There will be tickets available for the Charlotte regional, but the 1,500 Washington State has will be first offered to WSU’s ticket priority system members at www.wsucougars.com.

Orders for the $151 full-regional package tickets will go on sale today at 5 p.m., with TPS members with numbers of 1 to 250 the first hour, 251 to 500 from 6 to 7, 501 to 1,000 from 7 to 8 and 1,001 and above after 8.

If any seats remain, they will go on sale Monday at 8 a.m., also on the Web site.

McAlarney impressed

The Cougars have one fan in South Bend: Kyle McAlarney. The Notre Dame shooting guard was impressed.

“They could go all the way,” he said. “The way they played us tonight just shows. We were one of the best offensive teams in the country coming into this tournament. We believe that. I think they knew that.

“So the way they played us tonight, it just shows the rest of the country how good they really are. I feel like they can go all the way. I know we’ll be rooting for them.”

Souvenirs sell out

When Cougar fans went looking for souvenirs during Thursday’s last first-round game, they were disappointed.

It seems by then all the WSU-themed T-shirts and other memorabilia from the sub-regional site had sold out early. Michigan State, Pitt, even Winthrop stuff was available, but not Washington State.

The vendor assured the prospective shoppers more was on the way and would be available Saturday.

He was right.

Bailey keeps practicing

Cougar practice player Ryan Bailey from Marysville made the trip with the team. Bailey suits up for each practice, bangs around the inside players and runs all the same drills. This is the second consecutive year Bailey has filled the role.